depended too much upon his outward presence Touch mee not saith the Text for I am not yet ascended thou shalt enjoy my presence before I part with thee but as yet be not so earnest so it is expressed 1 Cor. 7.1 This is a lively expression of that love and joy which many poore soules are possessed withall after they have waited long for mercie and God is pleased to refresh them therewith many times they begin to lose their sleepe and meat and begin to be lightened by it because they are ever holding of it till they almost overthrow themselves with it Simile As it is with parties that have lived long together in one house whose affections are linked together in the way of marriage they will ever desire to be talking together and ever to be drawing on to the marriage So it is with the soule that loves the Lord Jesus hath this holy affection kindled and his spirit enlarged therein when the Lord hath let in some glimpse of his love he thinks the houre sweet when hee prayeth to the Lord Christ and hath a great deale of sweet conference with his Saviour he thinks that Lords day marvellous sweet wherein God revealeth by the power of his holy ordinance any of that rich grace and mercy of his It is admirable to see how the heart will be delighted to reckon the time and place and meanes when and where the Lord did reveale it and the soule saith Oh this is good oh that I might ever be thus cheared and refreshed it cannot have enough of this if it might have what it would but as David Ps 84.2 3. saith My soul longeth yea even fainteth for the Courts of the Lord my heart and my flesh cryeth out for the living God Yea the sparrow hath found an house and the swallow a nest for her selfe where she may lay her young even thine Altars O Lord of Hosts my King and my God as if hee had said Goe you blessed birds you may build your nests by the Altar of my God and come into his house Lord am not I as good as birds His heart was marvellously inflamed with the want of that which he loved Nay in Luke 2.29 good old Simeon had his heart so enlarged to Christ that hee could have been content to depart this life so hee might have his fill of Christ The spouse that is contracted thinkes every day a yeare till she enjoy her beloved Oh sayth she would that day were come that I might injoy him and take full satisfaction to my soule in him so it is with a loving soul that hath been truly humbled and enlightned is now contracted to Jesus Christ how it longs after him Oh when will that day be saith it that I shall ever bee with him who is best of all it takes hold of every word it heares every promise that reveales any thing of Christ but oh when will that day bee that I shall ever bee with Christ This is the highest pitch of Saint Pauls speech Phil. 1.23 For I am in a straight betweene two having a desire to depart and to bee with Christ which is best of all as if hee had said that I may ever be with that mercy and grace and spirit that is in Christ and be filled with his fulnesse for ever and ever This is the frame of the soule that is in love with Christ yea this is the strong and glewing nature of love that it will make a man desire to be with the thing loved though hee must undergoe never so great misery to obtaine it as Gen. 37.35 when Jacobs sonnes brought the party-coloured coat to their father he sayd It is my sonnes coat an evill beast hath devoured him and he rent his cloaths and put sack-cloth upon his loines and mourned for his sonne many dayes And all his sonns and all his daughters rose up to comfort him but he refused to be comforted and he said For I will goe downe into the grave unto my sonne mourning he had rather be in the grave than not to be with his son Joseph If a womans husband be in prison it is her wonderfull griefe that it is so but most of all that she may not be with him there Thus also is it with the soule that entirely loves Christ it is content to goe to the prison with him and saith Let mee bee with Christ though hee bee persecuted It is his griefe that Christ is persecuted but it is a greater griefe that hee may not bee with him in persecution As the Spouse Cantic 2.16 My beloved is mine and I am his and as the wife saith Husband let the world doe and say what they will thou art mine and I am thine So the soule saith mercy is mine and Christ is mine if I may have that I have enough but without it I cannot be quieted Secondly there is an holy impatience and restlessenesse of spirit when it cannot come to close with Christ Oh it is good to expresse the earnest desire of the soule to Christ though he seeme to hide his face away and to forbid the banes of asking Thus it appeares what it is to love the Lord Jesus Use 3. Now the pill is sugered Reproofe of them that love not Christ in truth it will go downe the better therefore now let us come to the use of reproofe and this is as a swift witnesse to accuse as a Judge to condemne many in the world this is sufficient to shake the heart and to make the hearts of most that live in the bosome of the Church to sinke at the very sight of their wofull condition in whose heart this blessed grace of God was never yet received I meane that never loved the Lord Jesus woe to their soules yea this is the greatest part of their woe that though they doe not love Christ yet they doe not thinke so nay they will not be perswaded to it This is the cunning that the Divell useth to deceive poore soules withall because these affections are secret and inward neither discover themselves evidently to the heart further than practise goes therefore they think others know them not and here they rest they lean upon a cōpany of sottish delusions which will faile them thus they and their hopes perish for ever Wicked men cannot but confesse their owne vilenesse that their communications are vaine and their fall scandalous but this is that which salves all they say their lives are so indeed but they love the Lord Jesus with all their hearts When these wretches have sworne by their Saviour and have torne his sacred body in sunder with their oathes and blasphemies yet they love Christ with their souls poore deluded sinfull men Now for the better convincing of these men first let me make it good that most men have not this love of Christ and so lay the inditement Secondly let me plead the inditement and shew who they are that have it not
office Why should the want of temporalls disturbe our joy in this God of salvation Reteine comfort in God whatever thou wantest Jam. 1.9 Use 1. Of exhortation To reteine our comfort as the Prophet here doth As all true-hearted Christians should stirre up themselves to rejoyce in God and the sure mercies of David while the meanes of grace and of worldly comfort do continue so especially the brother of low degree should rejoyce because he is exalted in spirituall things as high as any and hath equall share in the God of salvation In deepe povertie in falling from a great estate in deare yeares in desolation by warre if it should come in all troubles and afflictions still we have a ground of joy while God is in heaven and can have recourse to the Christian heart at pleasure Hold thine owne remember thy evidences make use of thy provisions now is a time and occasion to say as the Prophet Although the Fig-tree blossome not Psal 46.1 5. c. and as the Psalmist God is our refuge and strength a very present helpe in trouble therefore will we not feare though the earth bee removed c. Although the stone cut my reines my spleene paine me or other diseases torment me although I be put beside my meanes turned out to the wide world my wife and children set to begging my selfe shut up in prison and wait for the day of execution although I meet with a peevish and pestilent adversary at the law be defamed know not how presently to cleare mine innocencie but goe for an evill doer c. Yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation None of all this can drive away the great Comforter from me but rather he will solace me the more for these discomforts in the world Christ is left still and the love of God and the kingdome of heaven to receive me out of the most miserable shipwracke And the same God that now admits me a guest at his table to eate of his sweet and fat things will one day make me sit downe with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the kingdome of heaven O my brethren were not we our owne foes and stood in our owne light what comfortable lives should we lead even in the midst of the valley of the shadow of death Were it not for passion Psal 23.4 impatience covetousnesse doting on the fine things of the world love of credit and reputation among worldlings living too much the life of sense formalitie in holy duties securitie in putting away the evill day and other corruption certainly we should joy in our God all the day long whatever the yeare be or can bring forth we might doe what we are commanded Phil. 4.4 Rejoyce in the Lord alwaies and againe I say Rejoyce No dearth or other evill should take us unprovided It is our owne fault that we totter or stagger at any time Faith hope patience contentment and other graces with the comforts of Gods holy Spirit will set us as unmoveable as a rock in the sea amidst the greatest waves and stormes whatsoever Reproofe to them that grow uncomfortable for crosses Use 2. Of Reprehension It is utterly a fault in Christians if they bee melancholy and dejected because of crosse yeares bad harvest losse in that or any other kinde casualties calamities or other evils that come by the hand of God or man as if you had no hope in God but onely in this present life or in the things of this life or as if God were not sufficient for your comfort and blessednesse without these temporalls or had tied himselfe to meanes as you are tied to the use of them or as if you must needs gaine so much at least save your selves harmlesse otherwise God and you will bee friends no longer I know that in arguing you will not stand to these inferences as truths and will deny the adoption of Gods children to depend on outward comforts But he that whines pines sighes is cast downe by the want of them perhaps because he is something abridged of his former plenty what doth hee but say in effect that outward prosperitie is one signe of the childe of God Consider and beware It is a diabolicall straine to call our adoption into question for present want of comforts for the body If thou be the Sonne of God Matth. 4.3 command that these stones be made bread We dishonour God torment our own hearts teare our owne flesh shorten our daies hazzard our part in heaven or at least make our way thither more unpleasant than we need to doe Use 3. Of Instruction Wee see by this doctrine Make this sure God is the God of my salvaâ—ion what is the maine thing which we had most need to doe even in our greatest peace and prosperitie namely to doe the same as the Prophet here had done make this sure to our hearts that the Lord is the God of our salvation and every particular Christian to his owne heart in particular he is the God of my salvation therefore I will rejoyce in him although these and these evils should come strange grievous tedious yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation Quest This were worth the having but how should I get it I would doe any thing for it Answ Tracke the foot-steps of this Prophet throughout this prophesie It is not for every profane or sensuall liver to say he will rejoyce in God c. Such are sent to weepe and howle for the misery that shall come upon them and woe unto you that laugh now yee shall weepe and Jam. 5.1 Luke 6.25 Amos 6.1 woe to them that are at ease in Sion onely the righteous are called to rejoyce in the Lord and they that are upright in heart to shout for joy and bee glad Psal 32.11 Therefore First look to the main and be sure your peace be made with God Meanes to rejoyce in evill times None but beleevers can rejoyce in God when great trials come none else are righteous none else have a faith to live by Hab. 2.4 The just shall live by his faith He that deceives himselfe in his faith deceives himself also in his joy Fancie presumption and self-love will leave a man in the suds when he hath most need of comfort well it may uphold him while the fig-tree blossomes c. but in the defect of these it faileth too and makes him as pensive as before he was jocund Secondly after the sorrowes of conversion at the beginning be sure also to be duely affected with feare and sorrow when God is shewing his terrible workes in the land such as pestilence dearth drought divisions of Reuben c. The wise of heart will consider and lay it to heart and by renewing his repentance take off the controversie so farre as it concerns himselfe if it cannot be done for others So did this Prophet
a great way for you and have had a very hard journey I have suffered many crosses and afflictions many mockes and scoffes many buffets yea even death it selfe for you will you now suffer the Lord Iesus wearied and perplexed to stand knocking and calling and weeping and saying as he said to Ierusalem Luke 19.42 Oh that thou hadst knowne even thou at least in this thy day the things belonging to thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes Will you suffer Christ in this plight thus saying unto you as hee did to Ierusalem to stand knocking at the doore of your hearts and your soules Take heed of this Christ knocketh this day at your hearts if you now give him his last answer and shut the doore against him it may prove to bee the last knocking you may hap never to see him more The Church in the place before named Cant. 5. ver 3. shifted off Christ and would not let him in when she heard him knocke I have put off my coate how shall I put it on I have washed my feet how shall I defile them But after shee rose to open to her beloved and her hands dropped myrrhe and her fingers sweet smelling myrrhe upon the handles of the locke ver 5. And then she opened to her beloved but he had withdrawne himselfe and was gone and then shee sought him with many troubles and knockes before she found him The watchmen found her and wounded her the keepers of the walls tooke her vaile from her If you put of Christ and give him delayes when he knocks at the doores of your hearts then perhaps hee may never knocke more and then you may seeke him and desire him earnestly and perhaps never find him more or receive comfort from him and salvation by him Oh therefore take heed how you drive away your crucified Saviour but even now make all preparations for his entertainment and for receiving of him that you may receive everlasting life and salvation from him In Ier. 2.12 the Prophet saith Be astonished O yee heavens be yee horribly afraid be yee desolate saith the Lord. What is the reason of this It is in the 11. and 13. verses The Heathen have not changed their gods which are no gods but my people have forsaken me the fountain of living waters hewen out to themselves cisternes even broken cisterns that can hold no water they have changed their glory for that which profiteth not Be astonished at this O yee heavens Turkes have their gods and Infidels have their gods and what care have they to obey them when as yet their gods are no gods And shall a Christian have a Saviour to save him and to redeeme him and shew mercy upon him and then shut him out in this kind Remember what the Prophet David saith Psal 132.4 5. I will give no sleepe to mine eyes nor slumber to mine eye-lids untill I have prepared a place an habitation for the God of Iacob and if hee had said I have houses and I have palaces and Gods honour lieth in the dust no more sleepe no more rest no more content untill I have prepared an habitation for the God of Iacob What David did that doe you There is no materiall Temple to bee prepared but we are the Temple and the Church of God prepare therefore an habitation an heart for the Lord Iesus Christ And every soule that hath heretofore cast out the Lord Iesus Christ and given him no entertainment let him now resolve to doe it and let every one say to their husbands and friends We have this and wee have that this blessing that benefit but the Lord hath come often and asked a roome for himselfe O let us not sleepe nor give rest unto our hearts nor contentation to our soules untill wee have prepared an habitation untill wee have prepared an heart fit for the entertainment of the mighty God of Iacob If thou dost not now prepare for him as a Saviour to save thee hereafter thou must receive him as a Iudge to condemne thee and therefore delay no longer but every night and every morning call upon one another to prepare for the Lord Iesus Obiect And now what can hinder but Christ may bee prepared for of us Why alas many friends must away wee must turne out many profits and pleasures before we can prepare for the entertainment of Christ Iesus all these must be abandoned Answ Why imagine these earthly things were gone the time will come that all these must goe and then God will make them base and vile in the sight of men and Angels at the day of judgement when the last trumpe shall blow Nay goe but to the time of death what shall your honours doe then What shall your profits doe then what wil they then doe for you And then after death when you that for love of your profits and pleasures could not nor would not prepare for Christ come into hell What profit then will those things doe you Rom 9.21 whereof you are now ashamed What will you now sweare and profane Gods name Oh then you shall see the basenesse and vilenesse of those things then the drunkard will wish hee had never taken cup in his hand then the swearer will wish he had never swore oath nor ever tooke Gods name in vaine then the covetous wretch will wish he had never beene so greedy of his gaine and in the mean while neglected his salvation Consider this that God one day will make those things seeme vile in our eyes one day it shall come to passe that we would give a world for a Saviour one day Christ will be welcome unto us if he would come When you come to the last period of your lives then in your last wills and testaments you commit your bodie to the ground and your soule into the hands of God Yea but it is a question whether Christ will then take it therfore prepare to entertaine and receive him now that hee may receiue you then at that day Hath he prepared heaven for thee and wilt thou not prepare a heart to receive him Therfore remoue renounce abandon all profits all pleasures sins lusts corruptions that you may be fitted to entertain welcom the Lord Iesus that Christ may dwell in your soules and give you the consolation of his spirit But you will say Quest How may we prepare for Christ that there may bee an hopefull expectation of his comming This is a hard taske How then may we prepare for him by what meanes may our hearts bee fitted and disposed to receiue Christ Iesus Answ I answer that a powerfull ministery is the onely ordinary meanes which GOD hath appointed soundly to prepare the heart of a poore sinner for the receiving of the Lord Iesus Doct. The Ministery a speciall meanes to prepare us for Christ which is the second doctrine which ariseth out of the Text and it is a point worth the while Object But you
hearts before we goe And this is the first use of the point to discover unto us what is the reason that the Ministers of God doe so little good in their places it is because this power is wanting in them Vse 2 Fearefull is their estate whom a powerfull Ministery workes not upon The second use discovereth unto us the fearefull estate and miserable condition of those that have lived a long time under a powerfull ministery and yet have not found their soules fitted and prepard for the Lord by the same it is a fearefull suspicion that God will never conferre any good to that soule he that hath lived under a powerfull ministery many yeeres and yet is not wrought upon and framed to the truth oâ— God it cannot be certainly concluded but it is greatly to be suspected that the meanes will never profit that man Looke as it is with the Master Carpenter Simile when he hath turned every peece of timber and taken what he will for his turne hee tells them that bee under him Let this be hewed and this be framed and made fit for the building afterward he finds one piece broken and another crackt and another knottie Why what saith he here is no squaring of it these peices are fit for nothing but for the burning they are fit for no place in the building Oh take heed when Gods ministers have been cutting and hewing now exhorting now perswading now cutting the heart with reproofes and yet finde here a crackt heart and there a stubborne soule that will not be squared to the Word least then the Lord should say These will never be fitted and prepared for me they are fit for nothing but for the fire Oh take heed of it he that will not be fitted for grace shall be made a fire brand in hel for ever and therefore goe home you that haue lived under a powerful ministerie and are not yet prepared go home I say and reason with your own souls plead with your own hearts and say Lord why am not I yet humbled and prepared shall I stand at this hacking and hewing and never be framed Such a man and such a man that was stubborne was wrought upon the Lord hath brought him upon his knees there was another drunkard so wicked and so profane that all the world gave him for lost many dayes a gone and yet the Lord hath brought him home and hee is become a broken hearted Christian Nay if the Devill himselfe had had those meanes that I have had and any hope of mercy he would have beene bettered by it those reproofes those instructions those admonitions which I have had would have done the Devill himselfe good But what shall I think that am not fitted and prepared for Christ by this great means Alas thou maist justly suspect that God never intends good to thy soule it is no absolute conclusion but it is a great suspition that those which have lived under a powerfull ministery halfe a dozen yeers or longer and have got no good nor profited under the same it is a shrewd suspicion I say that God will send them downe to hell therefore suspect thy owne soule and say Lord will exhortations ever prevaile will instructions doe me any good will terrours and reproofes ever strike my heart Why I have heard Sermons that would have shaken the very stones I trode upon that would have moved the very seat I sate upon the very fire of hell hath flashed in my face I have seen even the plagues of hell and if terrors can doe me good why not then those exhortations instructions admonitions and reproofs that I have often had I have had as powerfull meanes as may bee which yet never did me any good The Lord be mercifull to such a poore soule The Lord turne the heart of such a poore sinner that he may lay hold of mercy in due time Vse 3 Let the word be powerfull to prepare thy heart for Christ The third use is a use of exhortation Is it so that a powerfull ministery is able to prepare the soule of a poore sinner for the Lord Iesus Why then when you heare the word of God powerfully preached labour that the word may be so to you as it is in it selfe it is a preparing word labour you that it may prepare your hearts to receive Christ You that be hearers every one labour to saue the soule of another let the father speake concerning his children and the husband concerning his wife and his family and the wise concerning her husband Oh when will it once be when will the time come that my child may be fitted for the Lord when will it bee that my poore family my poore wife my poore husband shall bee prepared for the Lord the Lord grant that he may be prepared if not this sunday yet on another if not at this Sermon then at the next Lord humble your hearts and giue way to the word of God and suffer your soules to be wrought upon by it for the word of God is powerfull to prepare you for the Lord but the Minister must hew your hearts and hack them he must frame and fashion your soules before they can be prepared Give up your soules therefore to the word and come unto it with holy dispositions let the Ministers of God cut and hew you let them doe any thing that may do you good let the word of God fall upon you and fashion you and frame and prepare you for the Lord Iesus As it is with men when they set Carpenters on worke to build an house then they come every day Simile and aske them How doth the work goe on how doth the building goe forward When you goe home so doe you reason with your selves and aske your owne hearts how the worke of the Lord goeth forward in you Is my heart yet humbled am I yet fitted and prepared for Christ I thanke God I am in some measure fitted and humbled and therfore I hope the building will goe forward Thus try and examine your hearts whether they bee fitted and prepared to receive the Lord Iesus THE SOULES INGRAFTING INTO CHRIST Mal. 3.1 And the Lord whom yee seeke shall suddenly come into his Temple THE last day as you remember I finished the doctrine of humiliation of soule whereby the heart is prepared and the soule is emptied of it self and of all carnall confidence in any outward excellencie and so is contented to bee at the dispose of the Lord Iesus Christ But before I come to that which is to follow give mee leave to preface for my selfe that the order of the worke may bee more better and cleerely conceived and that the weake may be holpen in their condition and have their hearts enlarged to seeke unto God Now in the way of preface let me shew how farre we have gone secondly let mee shew you how I meane to goe on in this worke if God give leaue and
overtaken with some grosse sin this builds up the partition wall that Christ cannot be discerned as it was with David Psal 51.10 where hee saith Create in mee a cleane heart O God and renew a right spirit within me hee was even to begin the world new againe And it is Gods wise dealing with his owne servants for God will not brooke sinne in his owne servants and they must know if they will have him to dwell in them they must not give way to any base sinne if they doe hee will withdraw himselfe from them not that God forsakes finally whom hee loved once but hee will take away the sense and apprehension of his presence that though he is there yet the soule shall not see it And also when they give way to some secret distemper and are at truce with some infirmitie and they will be parlying with it and meddle too much with it it is just with the Lord and ordinary to withdraw the presence of his grace from such a mans soule If a Christian be overtaken somewhat more than ordinary with a peevish spirit or if he be something too eager for the world so that hee grow cold in holy duties and is in danger to lie and dissemble for his gaine it is just with God that this man should scramble for his comfort and welter up and downe without any evidence of Gods love And also though a Christian commit not sinne outwardly yet if hee give leave to any sinne and beat truce with it though they seeme to hate it and yet let their meditations runne upon it and parley with some secret imagination c. it is just with God to hide himselfe from them And others there are that live with men and see their evils and yet will not reprove them I have knowne many of those to have gone out all their dayes without any comfort And it is no marvell though they cannot see Christ because they themselves build up the partition-wall betweene Christ and them the Lord Iesus Christ is not able to brooke it that hee is thus sleighted and neglected and that any sinfull base distemper should bee attended to to keepe company with it rather than with Christ Christ Iesus distastes it infinitely and therefore withdrawes the apprehension of his presence from such a person The second cause why the Lord hides himselfe is when the faithfull servants of God begin to grow carelesse and luskish to holy duties and because God hath made knowne his good will to them therefore they begin to grow carelesse and secure When the Lord seeth this that they doe abuse his favour so that now they begin to grow secure and heartlesse and to slag and to grow sluggish it is just with the Lord to eâ—strange himselfe from that soule and it is just that that soule should find himselfe lost that hee may quicken up himselfe When Christians grow cold in prayer and carelesse in holy duties the Lord taketh away the light of his favour and hee leaves those sluggish hearts to themselves nay God is forced even against his will and mind even for the good of those Christians to take away the comfort of his presence so that now they begin to thinke they never had grace If the Lord did not thus they would never mend their pace nor quicken up themselves to any holy duties And this is the reason why many lie downe in sorrow and thinke they never had any grace at all the Lord seeth it and perceives it that unlesse he should bring them to this extreme hazzard they would never be drawne out from that desperate securitie but by this meanes in the end God makes them find their hearts and tongues againe and makes them consider from whence they are fallen Oh saith the Lord mercy is as good when you have it as when you want it the time was when you filled heaven and earth with your prayers and you could pray earnestly and you could give the Lord no rest you prized opportunities and now you have many opportunities and slight them It is just with God when we begin to be thus tongue-tied and to be secure and to thinke all is wel now the Lord hath humbled our soules and pardoned our sinnes and shewed us his favour for a time to leave those soules of yours though he save you in the end to send you a hell upon earth that so you may strive to receive that mercy and comfort which formerly you had and now have sleighted Thus hee dealt with the Church in Cant. 5.2 3. when Christ knocked at the doore and said Open to mee my sister my love my dove my undefiled for my head is filled with dew and my lockes with the drops of the night she made answer in this manner I have put off my coat how shall I put it on I have washed my feet how shall I defile them Now when Christ withdrew himselfe then shee found her feet againe and followed Christ with much labour from place to place and could not be content till she had found him And so it was with the holy Prophet Psal 30.6 I said in my prosperitie I shal never be removed but when he saw God going away from him see how he bestirres himselfe 2 Sam. 22.7 Oh saith hee I cried to thee O Lord in the time of my trouble Then he could pray and heare againe and recount Gods former goodnesse and performe his former duties Simile I have seene the father deale so with the child when the father is going on in his journey if the child will not go on but stands gaping upon vanitie and when the father calls he comes not the onely way is this the father steps aside behind a bush and then the child runnes and cries and if he gets his father againe hee forsakes all his trifles and walkes on faster and more cheerefully with his father than ever So when the Lord Iesus Christ sometimes makes knowne himselfe to us and would carry us on in a Christian course cheerefully we are playing with trifles and grow carelesse and cold and worldly and remisse in prayer and dead-hearted the onely way to quicken us up is to hide himselfe and to make us give our selves for lost and then they that could scarcely pray once a weeke now will pray three or foure times aday Thirdly and lastly the Lord doth hide himselfe in his infinite wisedome and fatherly care by way of prevention that his servants and children might not fall into some evill Hee will not bestow the sense and sweetnesse of his favour upon them lest they should bee proud thereof and pranke up themselves in regard of their priviledges and bee carried with contempt of the weaknesse of their fellow brethren nay if they had that which they desired there were no living with them therefore the Lord in his care and goodnesse is faine to hold them to hard-meat and to keepe them to a spare diet Hee seeth it
a sinner truly humbled and inlightned love and joy to entertaine and rejoyce in the riches of his mercy so as beseemes the worth of it There are three passages considerable that wee may know the meaning of this Doctrine First this love and joy is no where to be found nor seene but onely in a heart humbled and inlightned For unlesse the heart be humbled it seeth no need of this grace and mercy and therefore despiseth it and is rather carried with a hatred against that grace and mercy that would purge him and troubled with a kind of wearinesse of the power of that grace that would reforme his life and conversation And though hee were humbled yet if he were not enlightned to see this mercy and goodnesse of God he cannot delight in it I know there is wilde love and joy enough in the world as there is wilde Thyme and other herbes but wee would have garden-love and garden-joy of Gods owne planting for such hypocriticall love and joy we will not meddle with here Secondly this love and joy is kindled by the Spirit of the Father for the Father learnes us the lecture and as I told you before of the mind inlightned kindles this holy fire which is rightly compared to the fire of the Sanctuary as in Lev. 9.24 There came a fire from before the Lord and consumed upon the Altar the burnt offering even those sparkes of the pillar of fire which did typifie Christ to them But whether this bee so or no I will not now dispute for as the Lord provided the sacrifice so the Lord caused the fire to come downe from heaven and hence it was that when Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire the Lord consumed them Lev. 10.1 2. so it is in this holy fire of love and joy wee may strike and endevour but our steele and our flint will not worke this indevour nor strike this fire of love and joy It is Iesus Christ from whence all spirituall sparkes of grace doe come and amongst the rest these of love and joy all other love and joy that is not wrought by the Spirit of the Father must be casheered and abandoned it cannot reach to God nor be pleasing unto him It is that which the Apostle inferres in the generall Rom. 8.8 They that are in the flesh cannot please God but it must be joy of the spirit which must please him Now though the soule truely humbled and broken that heretofore hath felt the weight and burden of his sinnes and is now separated from them so that hee dares not meddle with them hee dares as well take a Beare by the tooth and fall quicke into hell as take up those courses againe yet hee hath not power of himselfe to bee enlarged in any love to entertaine Christ or spiritually to joy in him further than the power of the Lord Iesus in the promise shall inable him thereto Suffer me to inlarge my selfe thus The soule is like an empty vessell it stands not at the dispose of sinne or it selfe but it is at the Lords disposition if the Lord will kindle any love and joy so it is for of himselfe hee cannot doe it As it is with some Gentleman in the Countrey Simile he will be content to let the King have the use of his house for a while but he is not able to provide necessaries for him because hee is a meane man therefore the King sends his provision before and then comes himselfe Iust so it is here with a poore humble broken-hearted sinner the poore soule is marvellous well content that the Lord should come and dwell in him and dispose of him but hee is not able to give him any entertainment he hath not any heat of holy affections or love or desire to welcome the Lord as becomes so great a Majestie therefore the Lord is faine to infuse love and joy that by them he may bee welcommed into the soule of the humbled sinner Now when the soule is come to this degree of sanctification then it can worke by it selfe Or thus Simile It is with a broken-hearted sinner as with a burning glasse take such a glasse it will burne any thing by the heat of the Sunne yet it hath no heat in it selfe but receives it from the Sun-beames by vertue whereof it burnes whatsoever is before it Iust so it is with a broken-hearted sinner But all stubborne sinners are like water that will not burne at all I will goe no further than the worke of preparation It is neither sinne nor selfe shall have power over mee sinne shall not and selfe cannot rule me therefore I will wait till the Sunne of righteousnesse will shine forth from heaven from the beavtie of his sanctuary and having received the beames of Gods love and favour effectually upon my soule and being warmed by the Sunne of righteousnesse I shall be able to returne the heat of love to God againe Thus the Spirit of the Father kindles love and joy in a heart humbled and inlightned Thirdly the Doctrine saith that loue and joy are kindled that they may entertaine and rejoyce in the riches of Gods mercy in the worth of it This last clause is added to discover the distinct nature of this love and joy from all the fained love and joy that all carnall and hypocriticall wretches pretend to have to Iesus Christ there is a kind of loving and joying in the hearts of hypocrites as afterward you shall heare So sayes Iudas Haile Master so the Pharisees and the people cut downe branches of the trees to welcome Christ and crid Hosanna Blessed is hee that commeth in the name of the Lord. And in Matth. 8.19 A certaine Scribe came and said unto him Master I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest And so the stony ground Matth. 13.20 did heare the Word with joy and so love and joy goe together But it is not that kind of love which came downe from Heaven nor that which will ever carrie your selves as beseeming the mercie of God in Christ for hee that said Haile Master betrayed his Master with a kisse and Christ might have said Is this thy love and joy wherewith thou welcommest me And the Scribes and Pharisees follow Christ a while and then forsake him and so they that before cried Hosanna Blessed is he that commeth in the name of the Lord within a while after they cry Crucifie crucifie him and the stony ground received the Word with joy and a while after came to nothing This is wild-fire and foolish fire as the Philosopher saith it is bred and hammered out by our owne ends and aimes but they doe not carrie themselves beseeming the riches of Gods free grace in Iesus Christ that is thus An heart thus kindled bestowes the best love and joy upon the Lord Iesus Christ because hee is the best good This is the meaning of that phrase so often intimated Whosoever loveth father or mother more than mee is
ashamed of the former abuse of Gods graces and the many abominations harboured and liked Now marke what God answers in that place Verse 20. Is Ephraim my deare sonne is hee a pleasant child as if the Lord had said Since I spake to him I still remember him all the while that the Lord let in the fiercenesse of his wrath into his soule he earnestly remembred him I saw all his desires and I observed all his teares and my bowels are towards that poore hungry and longing sinner that longs for my goodnes in Iesus Christ and I will shew mercy to him This is the behaviour of the Lord to the soule and of the soule to the Lord again Thus you see the reason of the order of Gods worke love is like the Host that welcomes the guest and delight and joy is like the Chamberlaine that waites upon the guest This is the very guise of the heart Now in the second place I come to the Motiues or that spirituall good Gods promise the ground of our love and how whereby the promise comes to worke this First what is it in the promise Secondly how comes the promise to work this in the hear◠and then we have the whole frame of the worke opened I answer for the opening of the point and the discovery of the truth in hand consider thus much It is when the spirit of God in the promise lets in some intimation of Gods love into the soule The weight lyes upon these two words Le ts in le ts in I say and conveyes some rellish of the loue of God into the heart when the Lord doth expresse any love and favour and goodnesse in that powerfull manner to the heart humbled and longing for his favour so that it doth prevaile with the soule and makes the soule to be affected with that rellish of his favour This is the ground of loue the certainty of a good stirreth up hope and the excellency of that good quickens up desire and the presence of this good kindles love there is a fulnesse that takes up all the whole frame of the work upon all the affections of the soule In Psal 42.8 it is said Psal 42.8 expounded The Lord will command his loving kindnesse in the day time what is that it is a phrase taken from kings and princes and great Commanders in the field whose words of command stand for lawes so the Lord shall send out his loving kindnesse and say Goe out my everlasting love and and kindnesse take a commission from me and goe to that humble thirsty and hunger-bitten sinner and goe and prosper and prevaile and settle my love effectually upon him and fasten my mercy upon him I command my loving kindnesse to doe it The Lord doth put a Commission into the hands of his loving kindnesse that it shall do good to the poore soule yea though he withdraw his soule saying what I mercy will Iesus Christ accept of me No no there is no hope of mcrcy for me Indeed if I could pray thus and heare thus and performe duties with that enlargement and had those parts and abilities then there were some comfort but now there is no hope of mercy for me We demand Is this your case is it thus and thus Yes you are thus humbled and have thus longed for the riches of his mercy in Christ haue you not Yes Then say we grace and mercy is yours I cannot thinke it saith he what such a wretch as I goe to Heaven no no Heaven would rather fall then such a sinner as I should come to be received there Thus he puts off mercy and shuts the door against it and at the last cast when carnall reason builds up forts against mercy and sets up strong holds against comfort consolation and neither Word nor Minister can comfort them then the Lord I say is faine to put a commission into the hands of his loving kindnesse when the poore sinner hath bin sighing and longing and nothing will content him but Christ thē then the Lord gives out the commission and saith Goe home to that poore soule and breake open the doores upon that weary weltering heart and knocke off all those bolts and rend off that veile of ignorance and carnall reason and all base arguments goe I say to that soule and cheare it and warme it and tell him from mee that his sinnes are pardoned and his soule shall be saved and his sighes and his prayers are heard in Heaven and I charge you doe the worke before you come againe Here is the goodnesse of God to expresse himselfe thus mercifully in his Word to the soule if it were in mans power no comfort should ever come to the soule but the Lord blessed be his Name for it he commands his loving kindnesse to breake in upon him As it is with an High Sheriffe when a man will not deliver up quiet possession to the owner he comes with his men and breakes open all before him and will estate the man into his possession so this loving kindnesse is the Lords High Sheriffe and when a company of Rake-shames of carnall reason would keepe out mercy the Lord is faine to send his loving kindnesse with a commission to seaze upon the heart Now take notice of this the ground of a mans love is any good which expresseth his presence to him as a good to come was the ground of hope and the necessitie and excellencie of that good makes the soule to long after it so now when a good is not onely present but expresseth his presence and leaues a kind of remembrance upon the soule that stirres up love continually but this must be done before love will come As it is with the naturall body if that which lyes upon a man carries some weight with it then it is easily felt but if it bee marvellous light it may lye upon us and wee not perceive it as a feather a flye or the like and if there comes any weight that affects the hand either wet or cold or warmth then hee feeles it but if it be light hee perceives it not as a mote may bee on the face and not be felt nor seene so love in the soule is like this touching of the body Now when loving kindnesse is not set on upon the soule and when it leaves no expression in the soule the heart cannot be affected with it nor returne that joy and delight that otherwise it would doe so that there must be a present good and a good expressing it selfe to the heart and affecting the heart therewith and then this love comes to God againe Gods love affecting the heart and setled upon it it breeds a love to God againe that is the ground which S. Iohn speaketh of 1 Ioh. 4 19. Wee love him because he loved us first As I told you in the example of the burning-glasse it must receive the heat of the beames of the Sunne before it can burne any
I have taken up armes against Almightie God If I had but gone to the top of Hell it had beene infinite mercy and if I had been in a dungeon all my dayes and had another world to live and lived it all in miserie it had beene infinite mercie for the Lord to send downe Christ to looke upon me a poore wretch in the dungeon and to speake to me out of the gates of hell and to tell me of this mercie oh it had beene an infinite mercie but to send a Sonne to save me it is incomparable I could not conceive to doe so much evill against him as he hath done good to me oh the breadth of that mercy beyond all limits oh the length of that mercie beyond all time oh the depth of that mercie below a mans miserie oh the height of that mercy above the height of mine understanding If mine hands were all of love that I could worke nothing but love and if mine eyes were able to see nothing but love and my mind thinke of nothing but love and if I had a thousand bodies it were all too little to love that God that hath unmeasurably loved mee a poore sinfull hel-hound Psal 18.1 I will love thee dearely O Lord my strength Oh have I gotten the Lord Iesus Christ to bee my comfort my buckler my shield If I have any good he gives it and if any good bee continued it is he that doth it and if I have any comfort in it it is hee that blesseth it to me therefore I will love thee dearely Oh Lord my strength Thus the point is cleare and stands upon his right bottome Now I come to the Application of it that wee may reape some good and comfort to our owne soules And the use of the point is fourefold for Instruction for Consolation Nature breeds no love to Christ for Reprehension for Exhortation Vse 1. First for Instruction which I desire a little to commend to you because it is seasonable Is it so that the Spirit of the Father kindles this love in the heart truly humbled and enlightned c then conclude this undeniably That there is no power in nature or in a naturall heart I say there is no sufficiencie in the power of nature to bee carried to any love towards Christ we have not this before God gives it nay wee cannot move our selves in love to God before the Lord let in the sparkes of love into our soules True it is we find it by wofull experience it is in our power to love the world and to delight in base lusts and being but naturall men it cannot be but that we should love our selves and the things of this world there is enough of these wilde fires and of this base worldly lust in every naturall soule to expresse it selfe but to love the Lord Iesus Christ and to have a heart inlarged towards him it is a worke of grace that growes not in our hearts I say there is not one sparke of holy love and of this holy fire of love in our hearts at any time neither can we buy or borrow it at the hands of any under heaven further than the Spirit of the Lord is pleased to kindle it and to inflame this grace of love to the Lord Iesus and further than the Lord by the power of his merits is pleased to feed this in our soules It is an unconceiveable misery that any man should bee so farre deluded as to thinke that he can do it by his owne strength and power Saint Paul expresseth it in discovering the vilenesse of himselfe by nature and the freenesse of Gods grace 1 Tim. 1.13 14. I was before a blasphemer and a persecutor but I obtained mercy I wronged Iesus Christ and was malicious against him and opposed against his children Paul could doe this of himselfe so thou canst be malicious against the Lord and against the power of his grace and truth this a naturall man can doe but for him to love the Lord Iesus Christ and to beleeve in him how came Saint Paul by that Why the grace of God was exceeding abundant towards mee with faith and love which is in Iesus Christ As if he had said it was abundant grace that over-powred my unfaithfull heart and made me beleeve and it was abundant grace that over-powred my injurious heart and made me love Christ But how was this it was by the grace of Christ from Christ this faith was wrought and in Christ this love was kindled As if hee had said I thought to cast off the Lord and his grace I was a persecuter and a villaine indeed but that I should beleeve the Lord and love him this was from Christ it was in grace and not in Paul The ball must first fall to the ground before it can rebound backe againe so the Lord Iesus must first dart in his love into the soule before the soule can rebound in love and joy to him againe wee must receive from grace before wee can rebound backe any love to God as 1 Tim. 1.7 God hath not given us the spirit of bondage but of power of love and of a sound minde See what the Lord spake in some case of the Iewes Iohn 5.40 42. speaking home to their hearts hee saith I know you that yee have not the love of God in you Verse 40. he saith Yee will not come to mee and in the 42. verse I know you that yee have not the love of God in you As if hee had said I know it you know it not your selves and though you thinke you have this love to mee yet you are deceived you know not what you are nor what you know but I know and it is as true of every corrupt heart under heaven the love of God cannot bee in the heart of any naturall man whatsoever The reason why I presse this point so much is this it is for these two ends you shall see a double benefit by it Carnall men conceive no difficulty to love Christ First this confutes and overthrowes the conceits of a company of carnal Gospellers that say they fast not nor pray not nor professe not so much as such and such but for the truth of their love to Christ they defie all the world they find no difficulty in the matter and they make no doubt therof and therefore if any Christian man or any faithfull Minister of God shall begin to challenge them with the want of love to Christ and grace they will answer What not loue the Lord Iesus it is pitty that euer that man should live they have loved him and will loue him for ever and all the world shall not perswade them to the contrary Oh poore deluded creatures it is an undoubted argument that thou never hadst the loue of God in thee because thou thinkest it such an easie matter to love him Many men make nothing of it they make it but an holy-day taske and say Who cannot
the soule more ready and fit to receive the evidence of Gods love to be exprest to the soule which thou canst not have so exprest to thee except thou have this godly sorrow 1 Joh. 1.9 If wee confesse our sinnes he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sinnes and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnesse he speaks there of them that now had faith yet shewes that before the Lord would seale to the man that hath faith the assurance of the pardon of his sinnes hee will make him humble and cry and sorrow for them and as to live comfortably so sorrowfully too as 1 King 8.38 2 Chron. 6.36 If the people returne to thee in the land of their captivitie and pray unto thee saying We have sinned we have done amisse and have dealt wickedly then heare thou in heaven c. When the Lord seeth their hearts humbled for their sinnes and sorrowfull for them then hee seales up the pardon of them So then the way to have this assurance is to have this frame of spirit here spoken of Thirdly this godly sorrow ought to bee continually in such as have this love of Christ that so our hearts may be carried with a more deadly hatred of sinne These are the benefits of godly sorrow and if a man sorrow not for sinne he will not sorrow for the wrong and dishonour done to God by other sinfull men as David Psal 119.136 Rivers of waters runne downe mine eyes because they keepe not thy law EZech. 9.4 The Lord sayd to the Angel Goe and set a marke upon the foreheads of all the men that sigh and that cry for all the abhominations that be done in the midst thereof Now how can a man mourn for the abhominations of others when he hath not the heart to mourne for it in his owne soule Ob. But some will say Must we never rejoyce in the Lord Ans I answer Yes I say sorrow daily for thy sinnes and yet daily rejoyce in thy Saviour and the more thy heart is broken for the one the more thou wilt be comforted by the other Thou that makest no matter of being sensible of the body of death that hangs upon thee and hast no care to bee sensible of thy owne failings take heed that the Lord give thee not up for ever to thy owne basenesse to be rushed headlong into some vile scandalous courses and so thou perish for ever as wee finde by experience many by this meanes have growne the most profane creatures that ever lived And this is the damnable heresie of the Familists The fourth sort is the vain-glorious hypocrite and hee is marvellous zealous for God and his truth in outward appearance That God may bee honoured and his Gospel advanced it is admirable what he will do he will hazzard himselfe his life his estate and all nay be content not to live if he may but leave a little vaine breath after him Wee know what vaine-glory doth amongst the Papists who that they may be canonized for Saints will endure any thing and suffer death it selfe this vain-glory is above life and all Simile As some great Courtiers will doe by a man that they meane to make a booty of they make him their onely favorite and expresse a great deale of kindnesse to him that hee may helpe them to more honour and glory So this wretch doth lift up the Gospel that the Gospel may advance him and fill his sailes full of winde therefore he will doe great matters for this end that hee may receive glory from it Even as the Stage-player that sets up a great stage that he may be above the people Another so it is with a vain-glorious wretch prayer is a good stage and fasting and hearing and preaching are very fine stages for him upon which he acts his part that others may see him that glory may come to him and not that the glory and grace of Christ may bee extolled hee would lift up himselfe to heaven and cast downe Christ to hell Such an one was Saul when Samuel gave him the left hand and would not go with him into the Citie 1 Sam. 15.30 He said I have sinned yet honour me I pray thee before the people and turne again with me that I may worship the Lord thy God Walke with me and then the people will say Oh what good friends they bee surely hee is a good man the Prophet goes with him It is a great honour to those that are wise because they are willing to joyne side with those that are holy and gracious so Saul will honour Samuel that Samuel may honour him and that he may stand upon his shoulders as it were that the people may say See how inward they are and what a good man hee is the Prophet goes on with him but the turne and the issue of the hypocrite is this it is meerly for himselfe which will appeare thus If once the winde begin to turne and the gale of honour grow somewhat cold and other men are a little lifted up so that he may not bee in the fore-front or if his profession will not carry him out with honour but his credit is laid in the dust and hee sees hee cannot get honour his heart dies in him and he saith It is as good to leave off all and if he cannot get glory from the Gospel either hee will grow desperately wicked and oppose the Gospell and joyne side with the wicked and helpe them or else he will flagge and die in a base carnall course and come to nothing and that 's the best of him This hath been the bane of many men who when they have missed of the glory that they lookt for from the Gospel they have become persecuters These men deal with Christ as the Inne-keeper doth with his guests If a man will pay the Ordinarie Simile he is welcome but if once his money faile hee turnes him out of doores so if Christ will pay his Ordinary and if hee may have credit and honour so as men may say he hath good parts and that he fasts more than the world knowes I say if the Gospel will give him this Ordinary it is welcome and he is carried on cheerfully but if Christ and the Gospel will not give him that which hee would have hee turnes his backe upon it The Lord Jesus convince your hearts of it I take this to be the state of a great many but a gracious heart is of another straine or temper Happely God hath given a man parts and gifts and credit and yet if the Lord withdraw himselfe a good soule saith as John did Joh. 3.40 Hee must encrease I must decrease so a good heart saith If another man deserve and have more than I yet let this proud heart licke the dust and never lift up it selfe if the Lord Jesus may encrease and have his honour and glory let me be trodden in the dust this is a heart worth gold
chap. 3.16 When I heard my belly trembled my lips quivered at the voyce rottennesse entred into my bones and I trembled my selfe that I might rest in the day of trouble When wee teach joy in God amidst great calamities we teach not an Atheisticall Cyclopicall contempt of the judgements of God God forbid but to take off the edge sharpnesse of afflictions by the exercises of humiliation Even reckoning makes long friends which is true of God and his people If wee would judge our selves 1 Cor. 11.31 we should not be judged Thirdly be much and often in the dutie of prayer the Prophets course in this chapter vers 1. A prayer of Habakkuk the Prophet upon Sigionoth No stream of joy will run in a dry yeare but that which springs up from the mountaine of heaven If wee make our moane to our Father in heaven and get a comfortable answer from him that is comfort that will sticke by us and stay with us when wee have most need of it Joh. 16.24 Aske that your joy may be full Fourthly because Beggars must not be chusers nor may the holy One of Israel be limited therefore resolve to wait the Lords leasure till he have mercy upon you Psal 123.1 2. with Hab. 2.1 I will stand upon my watch and set me upon the tower and will watch to see what he will say unto me and what I shall answer when I am reproved Stay with God in his good wayes at last there will be a vision of comfort Hastinesse of spirit loseth many a comfortable returne of prayer He that beleeveth Isai 28.16 must not make haste Fifthly in seeing iniquity abound which thou canst not helpe and redresse yet be not senselesse but moane thy selfe the evill times before God by fasting and prayer Thus our Prophet made his moane Chap. 1.2 3 4. O Lord how long shall I cry and thou wilt not heare even cry out unto thee of violence and thou wilt not save why doest thou shew mee iniquitie c. They that mourned for the abominations of Jerusalem in the time of peace were marked in the foreheads in the time of trouble and desolation Ezek. 9.4 None shall have the victorie over sinne and the sad effects of it but hee that holds up the quarrell against it though in present he get but little ground both in himselfe and others Lastly in seeing the oppression of men which Solomon said Eccles 7.7 is apt to make a wise man mad look up to God complain to him and referre to him the righting of all iniuries So did our Prophet ch 1.12 Art thou not from everlasting O Lord my God mine holy One we shall not die O Lord thou hast ordained them for judgement and O mightie God thou hast established them for correction They are mighty but God is mightier than they and will pay them one day for all the desolations they have made on earth Downe shall come tumbling one day both the Chaire and Tower of Babylon and the whore that was drunken with the bloud of Saints Rev. 17.6 and of the Martyrs of Jesus Now they lay whole countries waste and desolate to establish their idolatrie and superstition The fig-tree blossomes not neither is fruit in the vines c. yet both these Churches in their miseries have cause to rejoyce in the God of their salvation and we for them If we ply him well in prayer we may yet see them reap in joy after their sowing in teares and as much rejoyce with Sion as ever we mourned for Sion And in the mean time Psal 73.1 at the very worst Truly God is good to Israel even to such as are of a clean heart Ob. All this while you discourse of temporals which it may be easie to want and yet rejoyce still in the Lord but what say you to persecution to the broken heart to the terrors of God in the soule and other spirituall evils how can we now rejoyce in the Lord or joy in the God of our salvation Answ None of these may banish all ioy from the heart of a poore beleever Prov. 15.33 Before honour saith Solomon goeth humility and before consolation humiliation They that sow in teares shall reape in joy Psal 120.5 We will open this Text something largely and therein satisfie the objection the more fully It is to be understood 1. Of the Church in generall The common estate of Gods Church in this world is to bee under the Crosse and the end of that is the Crowne of ioy and glory A good issue there is of all the Saints trials So in this Psalme the Jewish Church had been seventy yeares in the hard captivitie of Babylon They hanged up their harpes at the willowes Psal 137.1 2 3. they wept at the remembrance of Sion their enemies flouted them and required songs in their heavinesse too grievous to last alwayes their God raiseth up a Cyrus for them who shall send them home to their own countrey and not send them empty but with great riches and encouragements and sooner or later the Church shall be rid of all tyrants and persecuters Antichrist Gog and Magog and every enemy 2. Of the particular members of the Church Each childe of God which is now under hatches and often forc'd to water his plants shall one day receive of the Lord double for all his sorrow and perplexitie as in instances First in the act of conversion unto God there is much fear sorrow both by the law condemning and especially by the Gospel aggravating sin to the height of heynousnesse The Christian is wearie heavie laden Mat. 5.3 4 11 28. poore in spirit mournfull ready to despaire But here Christ comprehends him and gives him faith to lay hold on his merit whereby hee is blessed and comfortable Math. 5.3 4. and godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation 2 Cor. 7.10 Secondly in the holy acts of renewing our repentance for example before a Sacrament in time of calamitie at the worke of the Ministery awaking and summoning the heart to make peace with God againe for relapses this costeth the Christian some paines and trouble of conscience and sometimes he is very low brought but all is for setling a stronger and firmer peace in his soule Psal 30.5 11. After a storme Christ ever brings a great calme into the heart Thirdly in mourning for the abhominations of the times This takes away the comfort that others have to the world-ward and macerates a Christian with vexing grieving sighing praying fasting but will procure the marke of deliverance in the evill day Ezek. 9.4 and joy with the Church and children of God for whom somtimes he vexed his righteous soule Esay 66.10 11. And saith our Saviour Ye shall weep Joh. 16.20 33. the world rejoyce but your sorrow shall be turned into joy in me you shal have peace Fourthly in enduring the afflictions of the Gospel or of the world shame
Hee dwells in heaven by his glory yet though thou wert as low as hell in thy selfe God will come and take possession of thy heart marvellous graciously In the words so farre as they concerne my purpose the thing mainly observable is the necessitie and excellencie of this broken and humble soule It is the only receptacle of the Lord Iesus Christ If you will have Christ and grace to dwell in you you must get humble spirits Doct. So the Doctrine in generall from hence is this The soule must bee broken and humbled None but the broken heart is an house for Christ before the Lord Iesus Christ can or will dwell therein and before faith can be wrought therein There must bee contrition before there will bee an inhabitation of Christ in the soule As men specially great men will have their houses ayred before they come to lie there so this contrition is the ayring or sweeping of the soule that so it may be inhabited Foretold This was typified and foretold in the old law When the people of Israel were to goe into the Land of Canaan which shadowed the kingdome of grace here and of glory hereafter they must goe through the vast terrible troublesome and roaring wildernesse and through those streights and extreme hazzards before God brought them to the Land of Promise Whereby the Lord typified thus much unto us that before the soule can bee truely possessed of Christ it must goe through these rockie wayes of contrition and humiliation Hos 2.14 Therefore behold I will allure her and bring her into the wildernesse Ad aperiendam spem Hieron and speake comfortably to her And in vers 15. I will give her the valley of Achor for the dore of hope and shee shall sing there as in the dayes of her youth and as in the dayes when she came out of Egypt Compare that 15. verse with Ioshua 7.25 The sloodgate of sorow a dore of hope The doore of hope is nothing else but the expectation of all good things from God which hee hath promised And here remember the story of Achor Achan had stollen the wedge of gold and the Babylonish garment and therefore God departed away from the Campe. Now the Lord pursued him and caused the people to stone him with stones and they called the place The Valley of Achor to this day .i. The Valley of trouble and affliction The Lord hath reference to his former dealing As he did before in the time of Ioshua hee first subdued Achan and then hee gave them successe against all their adversaries As if he had said I will give them the Valley of contrition and humiliation for the Gate to all comfort and sweet refreshing here and hereafter So you must goe through the wildernesse to this Valley of Achor before you can come to this doore of hope to this Land of Canaan you must stone these corruptions of yours which have troubled the Spirit of God and then there is a doore of hope set open for you And as it was foretold so it was the end why the Lord Iesus Christ was sent as Isa 61.12 The Spirit of the Lord is upon mee saith Isaiah in the stead of Christ because the Lord hath annointed mee to preach glad tydings unto the meeke hee hath sent mee to bind up the broken-hearted to proclaime libertie to the captives and to comfort all that mourne Nay 2. Accomplished the Lord hath not onely sent Christ to this end and promised this but he hath done as hee did promise And this is the condition upon which he hath promised and given all comfort to his people as in Psal 34.18 The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit Hee is neere them to comfort them and to assist them and deliver them and thus the Saints of God have found it as 2 Chron. 33.12 where the Text saith that Manasses humbled himselfe mightily before the Lord and hee found peace to his soule and the Lord pardoned his sinne Hee was a mighty sinner and had mighty rebellions and mighty pride of heart and therefore the Lord laid him as low as the dust though hee were a King As hee had beene a mighty sinner so hee was now a mighty patterne of humiliation and the Lord had mercy on him Two reasons of the point The reasons and grounds of Gods dispensation this way are these two especially 1 Whether we consider the receiving of faith and Christ with it or 2 The keeping and maintaining of faith being received In both these it is plaine that God will breake our hearts before hee gives us Christ or faith I say it is necessary in the way of his providence Reas 1 1 It is an especiall meanes to make way for faith and for Christ because all the lets and impediments which hinder the entrance of faith into the soule are removed by humiliation and brokennesse of spirit Two let ts of faith removed by brokennesse of heart Now besides many other bolts and springs as in a locke there are many springs and little bolts besides the maine bolt so I say there are two maine bolts which make the soule uncapable of faith which being removed faith will come into the soule The first let which is an hinderance to the worke of faith is this 1 Lett. To seek contentment in the naturall condition there is a settled kind of contentment which the soule taketh up in its owne estate and the heart of a sinfull creature sitteth downe well apaid in that sinfull miserable condition wherein he is and hee desireth no other nay hee would have no change in this kind This is one maine bolt which stoppeth the way and keepeth faith from comming into the heart This is the frame of every mans heart naturally So we see in Deut. 29.19 And if it come to passe that when hee heareth the words of this curse that he blesse himselfe in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walke in the imagination of mine owne heart or adde drunkennesse to thirst The Lord will not spare him but the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoake against that man and all the curses that are written in this booke shall fall upon him and the Lord shall blot his name from under heaven People blesse themselves in their condition notwithstanding all the promises of blessing and threatning of judgement If any man have such a root of bitternesse in him and shall blesse himselfe in this condition and say I will promise my felfe an happy end let Moses threaten what he can I tell thee the wrath of the Lord shall smoake against that man See that notable place in Iob 21.14 It imports so much For they said to God Depart from us for wee desire not the knowledge of thy wayes that is wee are as we would be When wholsome counsels and exhortations are ministred namely that
except it be humbled and broken so those knotty proud hearts of yours must be planed and hewed before you will rest upon God for mercy or yeeld obedience to him How farre God breaketh and humbleth we will shew afterward 2. Those reproved who dislike brokennesse of heart in others 2. This may fall heavie upon the brave Spirits and boone Gallants of the world that are not able to see and approve this brokennesse of heart in others they count it a womanish and weake kinde of disposition and make a mocke of this humility of heart and when God hath wounded and humbled a poore sinner they tread upon him and follow him with desperate disgraces reproaches and discouragements I need not mention their language in this case I wish wee were freed from them What say they And are you one of these broken hearts and tender consciences Take heed how you sinne for if you doe you must weepe out your eyes and mope out your dayes in a corner even for ever Good Lord is it possible that ever there should rest such inhumane desperate divellish prophannesse in the heart of any man upon earth Let mee presse a passage or two to this end that such as are guiltie of this sinne may take notice of it as there are too many of them in this age This argues a man almost forsaken of God and I had almost said reserved to everlasting destruction There is no greater token that God never purposeth any good to that man Consider that place in Psal 69.23 24 25 26 27 28. The holy Prophet makes many fearful imprecations as though he would pluck justice from heaven Let their eyes be darkened that they see not and make their loynes continually to shake Poure out thine indignation upon them and let thy wrathfull anger take hold upon them Oh what a strange passage is this that a man that was inward with God should rend the heavens to pull downe vengeance thence for such men Who are all these Surely they were some Divels incarnate and no men that Gods Prophet would pray against Let their habitation bee desolate and no man to dwell in their tents Why what 's the matter For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten and they talke to the griefe of those whom thou hast wounded Lord saith he adde iniquitie to their iniquity and let them not come into thy righteousnesse You that are guilty of this consider it Me-thinkes it might make the soule of a sinful man to shake at the hearing of it When God hath wounded the heart and awakened the conscience and the Lord hath spoken bitter things to his heart wilt thou grieve those that God hath smitten It is an argument of a man whom God hath devoted to destruction Were a mans eyes opened and his conscience awakened it would make him tremble Thou that hast bin an enemy to the Saints of God and because the Saints of God cry mightily and dare not doe as they have done to joyne with thee in thy wicked courses wilt thou I say reproach them and lay more burthen upon them and say What you have had Sermons enow Now you are wounded and you must mourne and you must be holy The God of heaven hath spoken this by his holy Prophet David who knew those wicked wretches Though I know none such it may be for the while yet no question there be such in the Congregation He that now makes a mocke of contrition shall breake for ever and he that will not now be broken shall have the wrath of God to burne in his heart for ever in hell The Lord in mercy breake the hearts of such men and make them to say Good Lord is this the brand of a reprobate and what shall my name be blotted out of the booke of life I have persecuted such and such a man and such a woman the Lord grieved him and I grieved him too His was the sorrow but mine was the sin and shall bee my shame for ever for ought I know Another passage is Deu. 25.17 18 19. When the people of Israel came from Egypt Amalek tooke advantage against them when they were weake Remember saith the Text what Amalek did unto thee by the way when you came forth of Egypt How hee smote thee when thou wert faint and weary Therefore it shall be when the Lord thy God shall give thee rest from all thine enemies that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven And 1 Sam. 15.2.3 seventy yeares after the Lord remembred that For the Text saith I remember what Amalek did to Israel how hee laid wait for him in the way when he came out of Egypt Now therefore goe and smite Amalek and utterly destroy all that they have both infants and sucklings and oxen and the like What this Amalek did even so doe these wicked men When a poore soule is humbled and will forsake his sinnes and his wicked wayes and he groweth faint and feeble-hearted and wonderfull heavie burthened wilt thou now turne Amalek Wilt thou kill him that is now burthened under the heavie wrath of God and wilt thou now raile upon him Curse Amalek I will remember him saith God Take heed lest God remember thee and root out thee and thy posteritie from under heaven Nay the Lord himselfe and all the Saints doe rejoyce in the ruine and destruction of an ungodly wretch as in the example of Doeg Psalme 52.3 4 5. Thou lovest evill more than good and lying rather then to speake righteousnesse Selah Thou lovest all devouring words O thou false tongue God shall likewise destroy thee for ever hee shall take thee away and plucke thee out of thy dwelling place Selah Thou lovest grieving words Well God will serve thee in thy kind and when thou art in hell the righteous shall rejoyce over thee and say Lord this is he that grieved the hearts of such as were humbled this is he that had a proud herrt and scorned to be humbled and therefore shall everlastingly de damned The Divels themselves will rejoyce in thy torments and say What are you become like to us This is the man that scorned to bee humbled and to have his heart broken what is hee come downe to hell now The hearts of the damned shall be enlarged to glory in thy confusion Indeed if a poore soule feele any weight of sin upon him then all the Towne is up in armes against him Oh see your sinne and goe and breake your hearts for this sinne Dislike not in others what yourselves are bound to be and to doe This of the first Use 2. Vse 2 To get comfort begin in sorrow It is a word of direction and instruction how to get this grace at the hands of God goe Gods way and goe the ready way If ever thou wilt receive grace from God doe that which God doth as Hosea 2.14 Behold I will allure her and bring her into the wildernesse and speake comfortably
to her Be throughly wounded first and then looke for comfort and ease Simile As it was in the Sacrifices of the law they did first kill the Sacrifice before they did offer it and first they did pound the incense then burne it so your soules must be broken by true contrition before you can receive any comfort as in Ioel 2. Rent your hearts Joel 2.13 and not your garments and then turne to the Lord. First rent the heart and then offer the heart in sacrifice to God We use first to burne the waxe and then seale with it As it is with vessels that are old and bruised a little washing and mending will not serve the turne but they must bee all taken in pieces and made up new so wee are all vessels of wrath by nature and a little patching will not serve the turne It is not enough for a man to say hee is sorry for his sinnes but his heart must be throughly humbled and broken then hee is fit to be made a vessell of grace here and of glory hereafter Of all things in the heart God cannot endure this patching in the worke of grace to sow grace and sinne together As in Daniels Image which was partly clay and partly iron and partly brasse so it is in a Christian course a man may easily be an Image of a Christian but not a sound Christian he will not have an heart humbled and broken before God easily Therefore in vaine they worship God and labour to approve their hearts to God that thinke to come to salvation and yet in the meane time this brokennesse of heart will not downe with them And the reason why so many men fall backe from a good course and come to such desperate discouragements is because they doe not walke in Gods way When a man will reare up a frame of grace in his fancy as he that set up a brave house in the sand when the winds blow and the stormes come it falleth by and by so when you reare up frames of grace in your imaginations and thinke you are holy and shall have Christ but yet you never felt this powerfull worke of grace if any temptations come or any thunderbolt from the Word this shakes all in pieces Dig deeper therefore and labour for this humbled and broken heart and build upon that and then the heavens shall sooner faile than this shall come to nothing This also may be a word of advice to the Ministers of God to teach us to begin as God begins not to presse faith upon them presently No no lay downe these proud hearts and let all these mountaines be laid low and these crooked thoughts bee made straight and then all flesh shall see the salvation of our God This only is not to heale and daube with untempered mortar Let us walke with God in his way and follow his course for the good of others and for the furthering of our owne account in the day of the Lord Iesus And you people must not thinke that we must alwayes speake that which will please you There is a wholsome severitie and sharpnesse The Surgion helpes by lancing and applying corrosives aswell as by gentle salves 3. Vse 3 Comfort to the broken-hearted This is for comfort to all that have entred into this condition that they may continue and carry themselves boldly therein If thou canst say God hath truly broken and humbled thee doe not labour to free thy selfe from this and to find an healing from hence but labour first to comfort thy selfe in respect of thine owne present condition secondly in regard of the reproaches and disgraces of wicked men 1. 1. In respect of their present heavinesse In regard of the miserie that such poore soules are in Though the burthen be heavie yet it is the way of comfort When the reed is bruised it is farthest off from breaking If thou hast an heart broken with the burthen of thy sinnes and smoaking with any poore desires towards God comfort thy selfe though the way be tedious yet the end will be comfortable for God is now making way for himselfe to come and dwell with thee and for thee with him Object Oh but will some say the wrath of God is marvellous fearefull and woundrous heavie Answ I answer it is so yet Gods anger is like the thunder-bolt that melts the sword yet hurts not the scabbard The wrath of the Lord if it comes against a proud rebellious sinner will breake him in pieces but if the soule tremble at Gods wrath and hath an heart to yeeld in obedience the Lord will never hurt that man and he never wounds him so farre but that he may heale him Who would not bee cut that he might be cured What though wee have our hearts broken and our consciences wounded Now the house is ayred God will come anon Now the gold is melting God will make it a vessell of glory anon and therefore cheere up your selves in this kind It is a foolish feare that the child hath the child seeth his father pressing the grapes and thinkes he wil spoile them and so when he seeth the gold melting If thou hast a wife perplexed and burthened for her sins comfort thy selfe and let it not grieve thee God is now pressing the grape and melting the gold that he may make good wine and pure gold he is humbling thy heart thereby that he may bring thee in obedience to him that so thou maist receive mercy from him for ever Who would not goe on in sackcloth a-while that hee might weare silke for ever Who would not be humbled that he may be for ever comforted as Esay 61.3 God hath appointed comfort for them that mourne to give unto them beauty for ashes the oyle of joy for mourning the garment of praise for the spirit of heavinesse If you have the spirit of heavinesse upon you and there are many miseries threatned and many corruptions burthening of you well goe your wayes cheered you shall have a suite of joy and gladnesse put upon you and then you will never repent you of all the sorrowes and burthens that you have undergone When God shall give you the assurance of his love it will never repent you in the day of your death when all your teares shall be requited with aboundance of joy and comfort therefore herein bee comforted and know that God intends good to thee by this dealing of his They that sow in teares shall reape in joy 2. As to comfort your selves in regard of your present heavinesse 2. In respect of evill men discountenancing so also in regard of the disgraces and reproaches which are cast upon you when your neigbours grow strange and looke afarre off let this be your comfort God is neere to such as are of a broken heart It may be thy husband or thy wife are gone and are weary of thy company let this comfort thee God will not be weary of thy company
forget also thy owne people and thy fathers house So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty for hee is thy Lord and worship thou him Take notice there must be a forgetting of the fathers house that is of all lusts sinnes and corruptions profits and pleasures all must bee forgotten and forsaken Simile A woman when shee is married unto a husband must not thinke alwayes to bee at home and to live in her fathers house so we when we are married to the Lord Christ Iesus must leave all our darling sinnes and forsake all our beloved lusts and reserve our selves wholly for our husband So that then the heart is prepared for Christ when all is laid aside when all former wicked courses are forgotten so farre as to love them as to remember to hate them that so the soule may be ready and the heart fitted to receive and entertaine Christ Iesus when he commeth And this is the rule which Christ himselfe giveth to any which will be his Disciple Mat. 10.37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me that is he is not fitted and prepared to receive me He that is not content to part with all profits pleasures and delights for the Lords sake he is not fit to receive the Lord Iesus Christ that soule is not yet prepared to entertaine him and to give any welcome to him So that this is the first passage there must bee nothing betweene Christ and the soule hee must lie next the heart as there must none lie in the Privie Chamber but the King so there must nothing but Christ lie next the heart The second thing wherein this preparation discovers it selfe is this 2. In giving way to Jesus Christ As the soule must reserve itselfe onely for Christ so the soule in the second place must be willing to give way to Christ Iesus For howsoever the soule in the very point and instant of preparation hath no more power or grace or strength to get dominion over sin than it had before yet it is willingly content that Iesus Christ should come into it and overthrow all that opposeth him it is content to joyne sides with Christ it goeth along with him it is content that Christ should do what pleaseth him in the soule if there be any corruption that the soule cannot get mastery of it wisheth Oh that Christ would come and remoove this corruption Thus the soule is content to have Christ make havock of all and set up his kingdome in it and doe whatsoever pleaseth him The soule that is prepared for Christ how soever it hath not grace and power and strength in the particular moment of preparation though it hath not attained that power to kill and crucifie all corruptions yet it is willingly content that Christ should come and take all the keyes of the house it is willing to open the gates of the City unto him and let him doe what hee will therein it is content that the Lord Iesus should every way overthrow the power that comes against him and dispose of all things to his owne glory and honour In Esay 26.13 There is a pretty passage saith the Text Other Lords besides thee have had dominion over us but by thee onely will we make mention of thy Name The people of the Iewes here would not beare the Lords yoke and therefore they had hard taskmasters and when they saw enemies on the one side and enemies on the other then they complained Many vexations have we found at the hands of unreasonable tyrants but now we wil remember thy Name onely that is if our God will now come and rule over us wee would rebell against our other lords and let God be Lord onely over us and doe what he will unto us In 2 Kings 10.3.4 when Iehu had overcome two Kings he sendeth messengers to the people of Israel to choose a King and set him up over them But saith the Text behold two Kings stood not before him how then shall wee stand But in the fifth verse they sent word unto Iehu and sayd We are thy servants and will doe what thou wouldst have us to doe we wil not not make any King doe what is good in thine own eyes This is the frame of the heart prepared for the Lord Iesus When Christ cōmeth against a soule and saith You have set up your corruptions to be your gods you have cast away my Commandements defend therefore your selves and know that God is angry with you and I am comming against you to take vengeance if the soule now submits it selfe and saith Lord do what thou wilt and what is good in thine owne eyes our humors shall not be followed any more we will not follow our owne minds and affections but we will doe what thou commandest us doe Lord even what is good in thine eyes if a soule bee thus disposed then it is prepared for the Lord Iesus The prodigall son Luke 15. when hee saw that poverty pinched him and that he must come home by weeping crosse when by wofull experience hee saw that want befell him and that famine came close unto him then hee confessed What a wretch am I there are they in my fathers house yea the servants there have bread enough but I starve here for hunger upon this he resolves to goe to his father he doth not stand vpon termes with him and say I will be so and so advanced but he saith Luk. 15.18.19 Father I have sinned against heaven and against thee am no more worthy to be called thy son make me as one of thy hired servants Now if hee can come within his fathers doores he cares not hee will stoope and bee conformable in every case So it is with the soule prepared for Christ those that have stubborne hearts they will not obey the Lord but they will be gone as the prodigall sonne did yet they will one day bee found when misery hath seized upon their soules and then they will say Oh happy are those that live under the ministery of the Word If the Lord would but once receive mee to mercy againe then I would obey every command and stoope to every word of the Lord then I would willingly give place ever to the Lord. And this is the second thing wherein this preparation manifests it selfe when the soule of a poore sinner is willing thus to give way to Christ and to let him take possession of it to overthrow whatsoever hindereth and opposeth him and to dispose of all things to his owne good pleasure Thirdly 3. In giving up all the roome unto Christ when the soule doth rebell against her former sinnes and is reserved only for Christ and is content thus to receive God and is willing that Christ should overthrow whatsoever opposeth him and doe whatsoever pleaseth him then in the third place this is only observable the manner how the soule prepared giveth way unto God It gives the
treat of First that the humbled sinner stands possessed of Christ for he that is not humbled and broken hearted hath nothing to doe with Christ nor comfort comming from him I use this phrase He stands possessed of Christ rather then that Hee possesseth Christ because the worke lies on Christs part The Spirit of the Lord Iesus takes possession of and humbled sinner and makes him part of his care and hee comes by that meanes to bee interessed into the care of Christ Christ possesseth him and by this meanes he comes to be possessed of Christ so that all he hath is meerely the worke of the Spirit of God upon him as the Apostle saith Gal. 4.9 But now that you haue known God or rather are known of God It is not what wee conceive or what wee know but what hee knows and conceives and in Phil. 3.14 Saint Paul strove hard If that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of him He doth not say that hee is able to apprehend God but that God comprehends him As it is with a little child that is not able to goe of it selfe the father takes the child in his hand and then it is able to go The child holds the father not because it hath any power of it selfe but because the father holds him so we hold the Lord Iesus Christ because we are holden of him for the humbled soule stands possessed of Christ because Christ maketh him his care and his charge and takes possession of him and therefore he comes to have an interest in Christ Secondly as he stands possessed of Christ so he is made partaker of all the spirituall good things that are in Christ still the action lies chiefly upon Christ and we so move as we are first moued by him and we so worke as we are wrought upon by him He is made partaker of all the good in Christ not because hee can challenge it but because the Lord will convey and communicate it to him These two things you shall obserue to be general operations and to go through all the works of application of Christ as in vocation the Lord by his Spirit doth draw the soule after him there is the possession of Christ and then the soule follows Christ and comes to him and in justification Christ undertakes for the sinner and layes downe the payment of the debt for him and then he freeth the sinner from the debt thus the soul is neerer still and in adoption God the Father taketh him in the roome and right of a son and then he stands further possessed of grace and withall the Lord estates him in all the priviledges of grace in meeknesse and holinesse and he sets his seale to him and gives him his marke and withall he is free from the power and dominion of his corruptions So that these two are generall things and have a kind of conveyance of themselves over all the whole worke of application of Christ Thirdly the last thing in the description is this All this is done by the worke of Gods Spirit For the graft cannot be planted till it be cut off and pared It must have the same hand that cut it off and pared it by contrition and humiliation for the same hand of the same Spirit must ingraft the soule into Christ Now for the following discourse we haue chosen these words of the Prophet Malachy from which we will take onely so much as will serue our turne for that wee have to speake These words are nothing else but a Prophecy of the ministerie of Iohn Baptist and in them two things principally considerable First the worke of the ministery of Iohn Baptist Mal. 3.1 Behold I send my messenger to prepare my way before mee Secondly The consequent good that flowes from this And the Lord whom ye seeke shall suddenly come into his Temple As great men have their harbingers to make ready their way before them and to make preparation for them before they come to any place so it is with the Lord of life hee is the great Commander of the world it is he that takes possession of the hearts of all that belong to life and happinesse but before he comes to take possession he sends Iohn Baptist to prepare the heart and when it is fitted then he comes suddenly into his Temple Here consider First What the Temple is Secondly What it is to come into his Temple and how Christ commeth into it This word Temple besides the natural and literall sense of it wherein it aimes at the materiall Temple of Ierusalem which we will not meddle with Christs temple is spirituall is taken spiritually and so it is to be conceived here and then it implies the Church of Christ in the number of the faithfull You shall see the phrase of Scripture to intimate so much 1 Pet. 4.17 If judgment begin at the house of God what shall the end of the ungodly be that obey not the Gospell of God There the house of God is opposed to them that obey not the truth of God so that they that obey the truth that are willing to bee at the dispose of God and reforme their lives after his will and word they are the house and temple of Christ As in generall all the people of God thus obeying the word of God so in particular euery Christian man and woman is the Temple of Christ As the Apostle saith You are the Temples of the living God 2 Cor. 6 16 As it was in the materiall Temple in Ierusalem the glory of the Lord filled it and the Lord said he would dwell in it for ever so the heart truely prepared is the Temple of the Lord and the Lord Christ takes possession and rules in it and fils it with all grace This is the meaning of the first word It is plaine by force of argument The word Temple is to bee taken in the same sense in which the way to the temple is taken As also the way to the Temple but the way to the Temple is the fitting of the soule and the heart for Christ for so all the Evangelists expresse it Iohn saith Repent yee for the kingdome of heaven is at hand Mat. 3.2 Isa 40.3 Also Isaiah saith Prepare ye the way of the Lord make his paths straight So that the preparation of the way to the Lord is nothing else but for people to repent of their sins Repenting and preparing are both one But more especially that place of Saint Luke ch 1. ver 15.17 where speaking of Iohn Baptist he saith He shall bee full of the holy Ghost nay Hee shall come in the spirit and power of Elias to turne the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisedome of the just to make ready a people prepared for the Lord The way is in the heart of a man and this preparation is the turning of their hearts to the way of the just men
naughty spirit who endure not broken spirits Doth Christ come suddenly into the heart truely humbled and prepared Let us trie then and take a taste of the spirits of such men that are not able to beare nor endure the presence of poore broken hearted sinners If the servant will not lie for the masters advantage and if the child leaue his base courses and will not give a carnall father content according to his mind marke how their spirits rise against such men their hearts rise with marvellous desperate indignation against such men they cannot thinke of them with any quiet they cannot brook the sight of them if it be a servant never so loose and vile hee is regarded but the humble child is trampled upon and they say to him You had best goe to your holy brethren and to the company of such and such precise ones This is the undoubted argument of a gracelesse spirit either Christ erres or else thou art out of the way either Christ is to be blamed for his practice or thou Doth he come to such as are humbled and art thou weary of them Thou art a gracelesse soule and an enemy to the Lord of life When the people of Israel began to speake of going into the wildernesse to sacrifice to the Lord their God they did stinke and were abominable in the eyes of Pharaoh and the Egyptians indeed the Egyptians did alwayes dislike them Exod. 5.21 but now they were an abomination to them This was nothing else but a type Pharaoh is the Devill and this Egyptian servitude is our spirituall bondage under sinne How doth thy heart stand towards these poore soules Art thou carried with indignation against them It is an argument of a heart void of grace and that thou art an Egyptian to this day therefore the Lord will requite thee in thy owne kind and that thou art now weary of their society and art not able to live with them and art loath to be seene amongst them and darest not shew thy selfe to come within the compasse of a broken heart lest thy drunkken companions revile thee for the same and say art turned a Puritan now will you bee of their company and then thou swearest thou knowest them not This is a shrewd signe thou shalt never enioy the company of those poore Saints in glory Vse 3 The third use is a ground of instruction and we hence learne how to make choice of our companions Chuse the broken-hearted for companions Learne of our Saviour the broken hearted sinners are the best for society in the world and therefore reioyce thou in their company Let us not thinke much to come to such as Christ comes to let us not thinke that the basenesse of their persons or the meannesse of their estates will be any cause for us why we should discard or disdaine their company Be sure that thy soule bee farre from this carnall distemper Happily thy carnall friend will say Thou wilt disgrace thy person to keepe company with such as those are Make answer for thy selfe and against their face and say They are my betters yea the Lord Iesus Christ blessed for ever keeps company with them and shall not I doe it too The Lord Iesus desires no better company and shall I goe any further If he bee a sound broken hearted sinner it s no matter what his condition be As the Apostle Saint Iohn saith That you also may have fellowship with us 1 Iohn 1.3 Why may some say what great matter is that The Apostle saith our fellowship is no small matter for it is with God the Father and with Iesus Christ There is never a poore soule though hee goe barely and fare meanely but if his heart bee truely humbled his fellowship is with Iesus Christ which is no little matter Zech. 8.23 when the Lord had honoured the Iewes there came many citizens to them and took hold of the skirt of a Iew and said We will go with you for we have heard that God is with you So doe thou Dost thou see a broken hearted man lay hold on his skirts dwell in that house if thou canst and say I will liue with thee for ever God is with thee nay the Lord is in thee yea the company of an humbled soule is even a corner of heaven here upon earth It is so in truth and therefore let it be so in your judgements What is it to be in heaven Wee shall be ever with the Lord this is to be in heaven 1 Thes 4.17 Is this to be in heaven Then wheresoever thou art thou art with Christ thou art in heaven Whensoever thou art in the company of a broken hearted sinner thou art with Christ and therefore in heaven and whensoever thou commest into their company Christ Iesus will give thee the meeting Your fashionmungers count it a matter of credit to have Court fashions this is the Court fashion and the Court is where Christ our Lord and King is Christ dwels in such a house and in such a heart and therefore as thou dost hope to be with Christ for ever rejoyce to be with such persons this is the onely way that a man must take to chuse his company Doe good to all neighbours and all Christians and hope well of all but reioyce especially in those whose hearts are truely broken in the sight and presence of the Lord. Vse 4 4. It is a ground of thankfulnesse to all that are truely humbled before God Be thankfull for this great respect of Christ to thy poore soule Thus you ought to have your hearts stored with thankfulnesse nay to stand and wonder at the goodnesse and kindnesse of God I would have a man spend all his time this way When the Lord Iesus hath gone through many Countries and passed by many rich and honourable and great ones of the world and that he should looke in at a poore family and knocke at a poore mans doore and that hee should looke in at a poore wretched heart of a wife or of a child this is marvellous mercy If a great person especially a Prince or Monarch did looke into a poore mans house or come to visit a man in prison what would the world say Oh the like was never heard of the King himselfe in his owne person lighted there and staid there and went into the dungeon and conferred with him a great while Men would bee besides themselves if they had this favour from the King In Luke 1.43 when Mary was with child of the Lord and came to visit Elizabeth shee said to Mary Whence is this to mee that the mother of my Lord should come to mee I see no ground nor reason for this there is no worth on my part that I should looke for such favour Now if shee were so ravished with the presence of Mary the mother of Christ what maist thou bee then in regard of the presence of Christ himselfe that is come to lodge in thy
hearts will it then bee that we have shut our hearts against him When the sins of thy youth shall seize upon thee and thou shalt see hell gaping ready to swallow thee up and destruction ready to take possession of thee and Sathan shall lay grievous accusations against thee and time I say shall then come that thou wilt say Ah that Christ would come to saue and helpe me a poore forlorne wretch Will it not then be a gall to a mans heart to thinke of it It will make him say With what heart can I looke for grace or mercy from Christ before whom I haue preferred the world and my base lusts and the delusions of the world and when the Lord Iesus Christ by his mercy did labour to allure me and said openly to me My sister my love my dove my undefiled I would none of him it is that Christ whom my heart rejected and whose bloud I trampled under my feet and shall I now come to him for mercy Nay how justly may the Lord answer me as he did those people in Ieremy Ier. 2.27 who in the time of their trouble did say to the Lord Arise and helpe us but the Lord made them answer and said Where are the Gods that thou hast made thee let them arise if they can save thee in the time of thy trouble for according to the number of thy Cities are thy gods O Iacob So will it bee with you you must away one day and goe before the Lord Iesus die you must and to judgement you must come to give an account for all Can you answer one of a thousand can you stand against the fiercenes of his wrath Ah how will those wounded soules be helped Onely by a Christ Then Christ and grace will bee worth something When you lie looking every houre for the last gaspe then you will cry for mercy and Christ and would give a world for him but Christ will make you answer and say Remember the time wherein thou wouldst not have mee to rule or right that heart of thine thou wouldest not have mee to sanctifie thee and wouldst thou have me to save thee now No no let thy base lusts and corrupt companions save and succour thee and procure consolation to thy soule wofull comforters are they all you will then think it a terrible thing that this Christ Iesus which now you will not haue your Saviour to purge and sanctifie you shal then be your Iudge 2 Thess 1.8 The Lord Iesus shall come in flaming fire rendring vengeance to all that know him not Thou that wilt not have Christ to take away all thy sin to rule in thee and thou that hast thrust Christ out of thy heart and from thy house thou wilt wish that thou mightest never come to judgement but Christ will come to thy cost Thou wouldst not haue Christ to rule in thy heart therefore he will come in vengeance to execute upon thee all those plagus threatned and which thou hast deserved and then stoppe him in judgement if thou canst Now the way is ready and the meanes set faire before your eyes take the right course and the Lord Iesus will not deferre to come suddenly doe you what you should and Christ will doe what you desire Ob. Ah saith one it is marvellous hard to bid adieu to all lusts and corruptions and to cut off the right hand and to cast away the right eye and to part with every darling distemper Ah saith the covetous man if I could have Christ and the world too then I could be contented to have Christ and the Adulterer saith If I could haue Christ and my Queanes and my lusts and the Hypocrite saith If I might haue Christ and my secret haunts of heart then I would be willing to yeeld but if all those corruptions must be sacrificed and if Christ must take away all my corruptions from mee and worke all in mee this will be tedious Answ It will be bitter and tedious at first but it will quit all cost in the end and it will never repent you then of all your teares that you haue shed nor of all the anguish of heart which you haue had when you shall haue mercy and bee for ever comforted thereby and by this meanes haue a way made to everlasting life I would haue the heart of a poore Christian doe as Shechem saith the heart of Hamor did when he would marry Dinah Gen. 34.22.23 Come let us be circumcised as they are Shall not their cattell and their substance and every beast of theirs be ours Their heards are great and their wealth is mighty and all this shall be ours Thus he perswades the hearts of the people to yeeld to him in it onely but through the desire of their goods Let mee plead so with the soule of an humble sinner in this kind thou must thinke of humiliation as the Shechemite did of circumcision I must never see the face of drunkennesse more I must bid adieu to all carnall profits and pleasures Ah this goes to my heart this pinches indeed this strikes to the quicke They would bee circumcised though it were painfull how much more maist thou reason with thy owne heart and say It is tedious and irkesome but it wil be comfortable hereafter Let us bee circumcised and bid adieu to all our lusts shall not all the substance of Christ Iesus be ours Let us forsake the world to have Christ and not onely mercy shall bee ours but euen every grace and comfort shal be ours as the Apostle saith The God of all comfort and consolation is ours If thou wilt be humbled and part with the world and cut away every lust and throw away all whatsoever then all the pleasures of his right hand shall bee ours and all the happines of heaven shal be ours nay all the fatnesse of the earth shall be ours Suppose I must part with these Affatim dives est qui cum Christo pauper est Hieron I shall haue Christ for my riches and if I part with friends I shall haue Christ to stand by me and if I part with honour here I shall have Christ to honour me and if I part with joy here I shall have those joyes which are not conceived by the heart of man You fathers speake of it to your children and you husbands speak of it to yourwives let every soule be humbled and take all mercy Shall not all be ours Fathers advise your little ones and friends advise one another Ob. But the poore soule saith I confesse nothing should bee hard and nothing should be deare and I hope nothing shall bee too hard for me so that I may gaine a Lord Iesus Christ if I know mine owne heart and if I know it not let the Lord make it knowne to mee I see no sufficiency in my selfe over my sin to succour mee and I have had a care to be burthened and yet I see not a Saviour Answ I answer
to this Is this true and is thy heart humbled as thou saist then I say the Lord Iesus Christ is come and hath come many a day though thou perceivest it not So soone as thy soule is thus disposed the Lord Iesus comes and that suddenly too though thou knowest not at what time As when Iacob fell asleepe upon the stone and the Lord had made known himselfe to him he said Surely the Lord was in this place and I was not aware of it So I say thou hast beene truly humbled and the Lord Christ is truely come and thou knowest it not Ob. But can this be that the soule should bee possessed of Christ and not apprehend a Christ Answ Yes it is not onely possible but it is too ordinary and the reasons why it is so and the hinderances which keepe a soule from seeing they are these foure in particular for there be foure lets on our part 1. First Christ may come into thy soule and thou dost not know him As one man comes to another mans house and happily one that he hath loved and desired too yet his ghesse is such and the distance of the time so long since he saw him that he may be there and his friend never the wiser so thou maist complaine that the Lord Christ is not in thy soule yet knowest not when he is there this is the ordinary mistake in the soule as it is in the sight Mat. 14.25 26.27 Christ comes to his Disciples walking upon the sea and they were all affraid because they had thought they had seen a Spirit and they cried out for feare but Christ said Be not afraid it is I. Christ was then most neer to cōfort them when they had thought it had bin a Spirit to affright them and the fault was in their understanding they could not discerne him As it was in the bodily sight so it is in the spirituall eye thou saist it is many a day since the Lord Iesus did open mine eyes and burthen my soule and made me weary and made my sinnes loathsome to my selfe and I could even be content to be rid of my selfe to be rid of my sin Whence comes it that thou art content to see thy sin and whence is it that thou art burthened with it and that thou art content to bee rid of thy selfe and sin and all Is it not from Christ thy Saviour whence is it that thou art content to lie under the word of God and to be disposed by it Is it not from Christ Did you never heare of a poore countryman that went to the King in his hunting and asked him where the King was It hath beene so in many deare saints of God as Iohn 20.13.14 c. after the death and resurrection of Christ Mary went to looke for him and the Angell said Why weepest thou and whom seekest thou Oh saith shee Because they have taken away my Lord and I know not where they have laid him Her soule did yerne after Christ and shee enquires of Christ for Christ and thought him to be the Gardiner Christ said to her Mary why weepest thou then shee turned her selfe and said Rabboni that is Master Mary loved Christ and was acquainted with a Saviour yet now because of the suddennesse of it she understood him not and therefore shee asked him for a Saviour So I may say to thee poore humbled soule Why weepest thou and thou saist Oh I seeke a Saviour if you can tell me the way whereby mercy may be derived from him to my soule I beseech you advise me of it if you know the way how I may carry my selfe before the Lord that I may find mercy in his sight let me know it The truth is Christ is there it is he that makes thee looke after a Christ and it is Christ that makes thee seeke unto him for mercy thou seekest to a Christ for a Christ Secondly as the soule of a poore sinner knows not Christ though he meet him in his way and out of the weaknesse of his judgement and by reason of his ignorance hee knowes not his presence so in the second place thou attendest not to the Lord Iesus when he is come therefore he comes meekly and quietly and calmely and spiritually notwithstanding thou regardest him not Christ came into the midst of his Disciples when all the doores were shut and they attended not to him so thou knowest not of a Christ because thou attendest not to him and his comming Consider this well the maine hinderance is this when the heart of a poore Christian is marvellously taken aside with his owne weaknesse and distempers and troubles and his mind is all upon them Christ passeth by and hee regardeth not as Luke 24.5 when Mary came to seeke for Christ the Angell said to her Why seeke you the living among the dead So this hinders an humble soule from the knowledge of Christ wee looke upon our corruptions and rebellions and rub the sore daily and we thinke thus can grace bee in such a heart as this and will the Lord dwel in such a heart as this thus vile and thus pestered with many base corruptions Thou canst never see him there Why seekest thou a Christ to comfort thee amongst thy owne corruptions that would hinder thee from seeing him and from receiuing mercy from him It was not for want of eyes that Hagar did not see the well but because shee did not search for the Well so it is with a poore soule The well of life is in Christ there is the fountain of all grace and mercy the well is hard by us nay it is within us but alas we sit like Hagars and thus wee lye and perish in our discouragements Simile If a man prepare for some great person happely some King or deare friend and one that he hath long looked for if he comes not then he gets him into a close walke and there hee sits sighing and mourning for his abscence and while he sits thus the man is come and hath beene long in the house before hee thinkes of any such matter and when he comes in he begins to aske if the King or his friend be come Oh say they hee is come long agoe where have you bin we wondred what was become of you Iust so it is here for when we are weldred in our owne sorrow and thinke thus Oh when will it once be The soule lookes long for Christ to comfort him and because hee receives not comfort he goes into the dungeon of desperate discouragements and then the Lord Iesus comes to refresh that soule though hee perceives it not Simile A man may sit long in a darke cellar or dungeon before he can see when the Sun comes into the house and shines there but let him come from the cellar and then he shall see the Sun shine cleerely So when the Son of righteousnesse shines into a man and reveales himselfe he gets him downe into
hearts the Lord Christs baile will be taken for more debts then you owe nay the Father desires no better surety as hee himselfe saith Mat. 3.13 This is my beloved Sonne in whom I am well pleased hee doth not say with whom I am well pleased but in whom that is in him and all that come to God the father in his name Thus the Lord Iesus Christ doth and so a sinner is freed from that wrath of the Almighty Secondly the power of Satan is crushed so that he shall never more bee able to bee Lord and Ruler over the soule truely humbled but wheresoever the Lord Iesus Christ comes Satan gives way to the supreame authority of the Lord Christ and the Lord Iesus makes all to vanish and no more to appeare or have any thing to doe in the heart as hee himselfe saith in Rev. 1.18 I have the keys of Hel and of death You know that he that hath the keyes doth all he opens and shuts he lets in and puts out whom he will so the Lord Christ hath the supreame command over hell and death and he can unlocke hell gates and bring out from the gates of death any poore sinner that is wronged by Satan and therefore when the Lord Iesus Christ arose he led captivity captive as a valiant triumphant Conquerour leades a company of poore captives Now then Christ having conquered hell and death wheresoever he comes Sathan gives way and dares not meddle there any more Therefore Christ saith in Luke 10.11 I saw Sathan fall downe from heaven like lightning that is when the Scepter of Christ was set up in the Gospel then the Devill that cruell tyrant fel down on a sudden and was faine to give way and not to lay claime to the heart Thus sinne is shaken off and comes to bee casheered from that soule for whom Christ hath undertaken Sin as it were challengeth prescription to the soule but Christ having taken possession he satisfieth all quarrels and beares all the charges of whatsoever sinne makes against the soule and when sin saith I have had a possession of his soule from his very birth to this day and why should I goe out now then the Lord Iesus saith the issue is out and thus sin challengeth a right to the heart but Christ saith it is forgiven And therefore though sin be never so violent yet the Lord Iesus saith that soule is mine and was created by mee for my owne glory and howsoever sinne hath crept in yet now depart I am come to take possession of it Rom. 8.3 there the Apostle saith What the Law could not doe in that it was weake through the flesh God sending his owne Sonne in the likenesse of sinfull flesh and for sinne condemned sinne in the flesh The phrase that fits our purpose is this the Lord Christ condemned sinne The judgement of Mr Calvin is this To condemne sinne in the flesh is nothing else but thus as it is with a man that is in law when the cause goes against a man and hee is cast in that he laid claime to we use to say hee is condemned Sinne layeth a kind of claime to the soule of a poore sinner and claimeth a kind of right upon these grounds Every sonne of Adam is a child of disobedience and so the child of wrath But that man is a child of Adam and therefore the child of disobedience and consequently death and damnation is due to that man and hereupon hee is mine Now Christ answers all these pleas of sinne and makes sin fall off from the cause and saith It is true that those that are charged with the sinne of Adam and are under the power of that corruption which they receive from Adam they are the children of disobedience and so no wonder though they are subject to wrath He grants all this but yet saith hee They for whom the sinne of Adam hath bin satisfied and from whom the guilt of it removed and they for whom Christ hath conquered sinne they ought not to be condemned for they are delivered from this wrath but such is this humble soule for whom I have undertaken Is the sinne of Adam imputed I have satisfied for it doth the sinne of Adam prevaile against him by my death I have overcome sinne and hell and hee shall haue the benefit of my victorie Now sinne falls off from the claime and loseth the day If the first Adam hath sinned against God the second Adam hath suffered if the first Adam hath polluted the sonnes of men the Lord Iesus by the power of quickning hath subdued the power of corruption so that neither the guilt of sinne can be imputed nor the power of sinne prevaile against the poore sinner for whom Christ undertaketh So then it is plaine that the Lord Iesus undertakes for the soule and provides for it as in all the three particulars this is the first particular of the possession Reas 2 Secondly Christ doth dispose of the soule for his best advantage This is one specialty that a man will dispose all his occasions for his owne convenience for his owne behoofe so farre as may be for his owne benenefit and comfort So when the Lord Iesus Christ comes to take possession he will have the rule and command of the heart But when Satan that strong man armed keepes the house and sinne rules in the soule in a mans naturall condition and that the soule is at their managing and at their framing and teaching it either lyes barren and fallow or else brings forth nothing but thornes and thistles as in Ier. 4.3 Breake up the fallow grounds of your hearts and sow not among thornes for the soule naturally being ruled by sinne is overspread with thornes and is altogether corrupt and detestable and Satan and sinne rule in the heart and affections so that now the whole frame of the soule bringeth out fruits of darknesse to Satan And hence it is that the Apostle saith Rom. 6.20 When yee were the servants of sin yee were free from righteousnesse that is when yee were under the power of sinne yee did not worke for God yee did all to satisfie your owne lusts the drunkard is free from the power of sobriety and the thiefe is free from the power of justice and so the graces of Gods Spirit rule not in a man But now when the Lord hath by the power of his grace bound the strong man and cast him out by contrition and humiliation then hee takes the soule and it is in the hands of the Lord Iesus Christ and hee disposeth of it so as may bee for the comfort of the soule and for the furtherance of the glory of his rich grace In Matth. 20.15 when the servants began to quarrell because they had but every man a penny the Master said Is it not lawfull for me to do what I will with mine owne so when the Lord hath cast out corruption and saith This heart and this hand and this tongue
is mine is it not lawfull for mee to doe what I will with them This tongue shall praise my name and shall never speake vainly and foolishly and this heart shall love me and this hand shall worke for mee I will dispose of all for the advantage of my great name Three wayes Christ disposeth the heart to himselfe This the Lord makes knowne in three particulars for wee keepe our selves to the generall that wee may not incroach upon those particular workes which are to follow I say there are three particular acts upon the soule First the Lord Iesus fits the soule for his seruice which otherwise is altogether unfit for any spirituall service the Lord Iesus puts those spirituall abilities into the soule which may make it fit for Gods turne so that it is now a fit patterne to expresse the riches of his grace in Christ Iesus As it is with a man that hath passed over some part of his possession into the hands of some prodigall sonne Simile or some naughty tenant and the land is out of heart when he taketh possession of it againe he will be sure to order it that it may be fit for use he will digge and dung and manure it that so hee may expect some fruit from it just so it is with every sinner he lies lay and that wretched heart of his never desired any good and his loose tongue never spake any good it lay fallow and it brought forth nothing but base practices but when sinne and Sathan hath driven the soule out of heart that it hath no power to doe any good then the Lord Christ comes and takes possession of the heart hee taketh it in from the common of the world and he manureth it with the grace of his spirit as it is in that phrase Rom. 11.16 Thou art partaker of the roote and fatnesse of the Olive tree Though it were a barren minde and a sinfull and corrupt heart and a wanton eye the Lord hath taken these parts of the body and soule and mannured them and convaieth such fatnes and grace that the soule becomes fit to doe him honour and to receiue comfort from him Secondly as the Lord fits the soule for his service so he maintains that fitnesse and that gracious disposition of soule and spirit wheresoever he hath bestowed it so that the soule if it be not negligent of its owne salvation cannot lose that fitnesse altogether and the Lord Iesus cannot lose that glory which hee expects from it as in Psal 16.5 The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup thou maintainest my lot The Lord Iesus allowes a portion of grace to every soule that hee comes in and he maintaines that grace Lastly he doth improue that fitnesse for the praise of his great name the Lord Christ ever receives some in-come of service and obedience and that soule ever receives some comfort and consolation from him This is the difference betweene the first and second Adam the first Adam had grace but hee neither kept it nor improved it aright he did not improve that wisedome which God had given him to repell the temptations of Satan and he did not improue his strength and ability to keepe him from falling from God but when the Lord Iesus comes to take possession of a poore soule he will not onely keepe and maintaine the grace that hee hath given him but he will quicken it and provoke that soule to doe what hee should doe in all obedience and to receive what comfort the Lord hath in store for him See this in some passages of Scripture Ioh. 15. 1 2. I am the true vine and my Father is the husbandman Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away and every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit Every poor Christian every poor woman and every poore Apprentice and little childe whom God hath called shall beare fruit hee purgeth them and so the Lord receives some improvement of his graces that he gives to those that he takes possession of So then let us gather up all If the Lord Iesus undertakes for the soule so that justice cannot proceed against him and if he doth dispose of the soule and fit it for his service and maintain that fitnesse and improue it for his glory then certainely hee doth take supreme possession of the soule and he that undertakes for the soule takes possession of the heart Vse 1 Vse 1. Reproofe of them that keepe Christ out of possession I cannot tell whether wee haue matter of lamentation or reproofe How few have given entertainment to the Lord Iesus Christ have we not cause to lament our condition that the Lord Iesus hath passed by all our coasts and is not regarded How often hath hee come to thy bed-side and besought thee to receive favour and to be reconciled to God and receive pardon from him how often hath he entreated thee to consider of that which was for thy peace how often hath he said Come to mee you rebellious children and Ah every one that will come and take of the water of life freely and live for ever Where is the man that can say Christ is come and that hee hath given entertainement to him as the man when hee had found the evidence of Gods love after much doubting Mr. Gloveâ— Martyr said He is come He is come Where shall a man finde the Lord Iesus Christ If a man should goe from house to house and from heart to heart who keepes possession doth Christ dwell in that heart and doth he rule in that soule Oh woe to us that we have suffered the Lord Iesus Christ to desire entertainement and yet would not receive him we have taken notice of him but wee would none of him Who rules in that heart The old Tyrant the old lust and corruption as pride and covetousnesse these beare rule every where both in the closet and at the table the husband and the wife and all are proud these will not out but retaine their hold there still And profanenes and contempt of God and his ordinances this is the tyrant that rules in many families and in every coast in our land The father swears and the child sweares the master reviles Gods Ministers and the servant knows the length of his Masters foot and hee railes too and the child heares it and followes the same course If these beare rule in you the Lord Iesus Christ is farre from you May I not complaine as sometime Ieremiah did Ier. 17.13 when the Lord was going from the people the holy prophet looks longly after him and saith O Lord the hope of Israel why art thou as a waifairing man So may wee not iustly complain and say Oh that Christ should come and offer himselfe and not be regarded When the Divell shall drag downe your soules to hell and destruction then you will cry after him and say Oh
not worthy of mee He that prizeth any thing more in love or delights in any thing more with joy than in Christ is not worthy of Christ So then whosoever bestowes love or joy upon any carnall contents more than upon Christ his love and joy is not brought from Heaven it is a false love that will fade and will not bring him that comfort which hee lookes to receive from it This love is called the spirituall love 2 Tim. 1.7 For God hath not given us the spirit of feare but of power of love and of a sound mind wee have not received the spirit of bondage that is in preparation but the spirit of love that is in vocation It is called spirituall love because the Spirit of God in the promise kindles it and joy goes with it as you shall heare anon and it is that affection also in the example of Zacheus Luke 19.6 hee had a moneths mind to see Christ and as the learned well interpret it he had a blind desire but well set on by Christ and therefore see how hee labours to preventall opportunities and occasions he runnes before the croude and gets up into a tree and when hee was there Christ saw him and said Come downe quickly for I must dine at thy house Here was the voyce of Christ and the kindnesse of Christ too and this kindled the fire and wrought love and ioy for these two goe together and therefore the Text saith Hee came downe and received him joyfully This seemes to me to be the reason and meaning why sometimes in the phrase of Scripture love is put for beleeving as in Ioh. 3.18 19. Hee that beleeveth is not condemned but hee that beleeveth not is condemned already because he beleeveth not in the name of the onely begotten Sonne of God And this is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men love darknesse more than light The Text saith He that beleeveth not or he that receiveth not for they are both one hee proves this that a man not beleeving shall be damned why for this is the great condemnation that light is come into the world and men love darknesse more than light because he will not love Christ and will not receive him he receives darknesse and loves darknesse more than Christ intimating the neere combination betweene these two and the working and acting of them There are many other places that speake of love and ioy but none that fits this place of vocation Now to make this good there are two things necessarie to bee propounded and handled First to shew the reason of the order of Gods worke why after hope and desire there comes this love and ioy Secondly the ground of this love and what it is in the promise that will kindle and strike fire upon these two affections and bring them home to the Lord this being cleared it will then appeare how the Spirit of God in the promise doth kindle this love and ioy First for the former What is the reason of the order of Gods worke Why after hope and desire God workes love and joy in the soule why comes love and ioy next after hope and desire I answer There are but two affections and there need no more God being perfectly wise hath appointed it whereby the soule should send to meet with any good that is absent if the good be absent then the understanding saith that is a good to be desired and very comfortable oh that I had it then it sends out hope and that waits for that good and stayes till it can see it and if that good come not then desire hath another proper worke it goes up and downe wandering and seeking and suing for Iesus Christ and this desire goes from place to place from East to West from North to South saith When shall I and how may I come to the sight of Iesus Christ As the Spouse in the Canticles sought to the watch-men to enquire after Christ so desire wanders up and downe For so I told you it is the wandering of the heart and it never ceaseth going and enquiring if it can gaine any intelligence of Iesus Christ It goes to prayer to see if it can speake with Christ there and from thence it goes to the Word to see if that will reveale Christ and to conference if that will mention it and saith See you the Lord Iesus Christ The hungrie soule comes to the Church to see if it can heare any newes of Christ And thus it continues till at last the Lord Iesus Christ is pleased to come himselfe after the soule hath hungred for him and sought for him as Marie said Oh if you can tell me where my Lord is So the soule goes from one place to another from Prayer to the Word and from the Sacrament to Fasting and asketh of the ordinances Where is my Saviour and saith If you know where hee is tell me of him that I may be possessed of him After this the Lord Iesus Christ is pleased to come himselfe into the view of the heart which longeth thus after him and saith as the Prophet Behold thy King commeth So he saith Oh thou poore broken-hearted sinner here is thy Saviour hee is come downe from Heaven this day to speake peace and comfort to thee and thou that hast so long time prayed to thee he saith Here I am and all my merits are now become thine and to thee that doest thus hunger and desire Christ hee is now come to comfort thee Now when the Lord Iesus Christ is come within thy view and thy desire hath met with him then there comes the other two affections he is come within sight and now there are other affections stirred up and sent out by the Spirit of the Lord to give entertainment to Christ Iesus Love leads him into the soule and tels the will of him and saith Loe here is Iesus Christ the Messiah that hath ordered these great things for his Saints and people and Ioy is the attendant to wait upon him when he is come Suffer me to expresse my selfe thus in this manner because I would shew the guise of the frame of the heart in this worke It is with a poore humbled sinner Simile as it is with a malefactour or traitor who is pursued with a Pursuivant that hath laid wait for him as farre as the Sea and at last hee is resolved to yeeld and come in He hath offended his Soveraigne and hee is driven to a stand he cannot procure a pardon nor hee cannot escape therefore hee is content to come in and yeeld his necke to the blocke that as he hath offended so he may receive his punishment accordingly Now as hee is going he heares an inckling that there is some hope of a pardon and thereupon the poore man begins to reioyce in hope that he may be pardoned and then heareth other newes which saith if hee will but bee humbled before his Maiestie
thing so there must be a beam of Gods love to fall upon the soule before it can love God againe as in Hosea 11.4 I drew them with the cords of a man even with the bands of love God lets in the cords of love into the soule and that drawes love againe to God But above all that place Cant. 2.4 marke the manner how Gods Spirit expresseth himselfe to the soule He brought me into the banquetting house Cant. 2.4 opened and his banner over me was love stay me with flaggons and comfort me with apples for I am sicke of love And so when the banner of Christs love is spread over the soule the soule comes to be sicke in love to Christ As it is in war when the Commander displayes the banner these three things are signified by it First that there is the presence of the Commander Secondly the displaying of the banner commands all to come to it Thirdly while it is held out all keepe to it Now see the excellencie of the Spirit of God in the Scripture The Church was then in some trouble but the Lord Christ brings the Spouse into his chamber nay into the wine-celler and the banner that was displayed over her was love and first Christ came as a Commander to redeeme her and to save her from all troubles and afflictions Secondly it commands the soule to come to the banner Thirdly when God displayes his love in the beautie of it in any measure then all the company of poore sinners come in unto it and so they love the Lord because the Lord hath loved them This love of God doth beget our loves in three particulars First Gods love to us begets love in us towards him and how there is a sweetnesse and a relish which Gods love le ts into the soule and warmes the heart with you shall see how the fire is kindled by and by As when a man is fainting we give him Aqua-vitae so a fainting sinner is cold at the heart and therefore the lets in a drop of his loving kindnesse and this warmes the heart and the soule is even filled with the sappinesse of the mercy of God as Cant. 1.1 2. where the Spouse saith Let him kisse me with the kisses of his mouth for his love is better than wine The poore soule though hee drinke water yet he drinkes better wine than any carnall man under Heaven the kisses of his mouth are the comforts of his Word and Spirit The soule saith Oh let the Lord refresh me with the kisses of his mouth that is of his Word and Spirit let the Lord speak comfort to the heart and this is better than wine For the Lord must doe it before hee can be apprehensive of his love yea let the Lord expresse the comfort of his precious promises in Iesus Christ to me And againe in the second verse Because of the savour of thy garments thy name is as an ointment poured forth therefore the virgins love thee Christ was the oyntment Christs oyntment is his graces and the savour or the communication of this is the expression of his love to the soule the virgins are the soules truly humbled that love the Lord. Secondly as this warmes the heart so the freenesse of the love of God thus let in and thus intimated begins even to kindle this love in the soule that it sparkles againe Rom. 5 8. see how God sets out his love to us Seeing saith the Apostle that while wee were sinners Christ died for us This commends the love of God the Lord sends to poore miserable sinfull broken-hearted sinners and saith Commend my mercie to such a one and tell him that though hee hath beene an enemy to me yet I am a friend to him and though hee have beene rebellious against me yet I am a God and a Father to him and let him not thinke that because he hath offended me therefore hee shall not receive mercie from me but here is my love and it is worth the commendation Christ died for poore sinners when they were enemies therefore if God so loved us as to dye for us when wee were sinners and enemies how ought we then to love one another But much more how ought wee to love the Lord What was it that kindled that frozen and vile and stubborne and wicked heart of wretched Saul who had a heart as hard as ice 1 Sam. 24.19 when David had him upon the hippe and might have slaine him but would not even this wrought upon the heart of Saul and kindled a fire of affections of love towards him and made him say Come againe my son David Thou art more righteous than I for thou hast rewarded me good whereas I have rewarded thee evill And thou hast shewed mee this day how that thou hast dealt well with mee forasmuch as when the Lord hath delivered me into thine hand thou killedst me not For who ever slew not his enemie when he found him at such an advantage wherefore the Lord reward thee good for that which thou hast done unto mee this day Sauls heart is all on fire with this kindnesse So when the poore sinner considers this with himselfe and saith Is the Lord so mercifull to mee who ever thus found his enemie and slew him not I that loved my sins and continued in them had it not beene just that I should have perished in them But will the Lord not only not slay his enemie but give his Sonne for mee Oh let my soule for ever rejoyce in this unconceivable goodnesse of God! Bee thy heart neuer so hard if it have but the sense of this it cannot but stirre thee to humiliation Lastly the greatnesse of the freenesse of this mercie of God being setled upon the heart enflames it This sweetnesse warmes the heart this freenesse kindles the fire and when the greatnesse of the sweetnesse comes to be valued this sets the heart all upon a fire In Eph. 3.17 18. the Apostle desires that Christ might dwell in their hearts and that they might be rooted in love but how shall we come to this that we may bee able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height of the love of God in Christ As if the Apostle had said If I once come to see the unmeasurablenesse of Gods mercy this will blow up the soule and enflame the heart with admirable love againe to the Lord and make the soule say I that have done all that I could against the good God it breakes my heart to thinke it there was no name under Heaven that I did more blaspheme and teare in peeces more than this I have despised no command so much as the command of God and of Christ and I have grieved no spirit so much as the good Spirit of the Lord against those sweet motions that God hath let into my soule and struggled with me to plucke me from my company and to contend with me
hee may doe that which hee hath purposed Let there bee but some frothy Minister or some foolish man or woman that will commend fashionablenesse the fashion-monger will hugge him in his armes and say Hee spake marvellous wisely to the point and very judiciously though he had not one argument whatsoever is spoken to the contrary he will not believe it but the Scripture hath no such thing for where are those words of yellow starch bands and the like Well it is sufficient that he is fashionable to the world the issue is this hee is contented to give himselfe honour and ease and liberty but hee will not content the Lord Jesus Christ and therefore I say he never had this love of God nor this saving grace in his heart Rom. 2.8 But unto them that are contentious and doe not obey the truth but obey unrighteousnesse not those that are contentious with their neighbours but against Gods truth What of them why to them shall be indignation and wrath Such were they 1 Tim. 6.4 Hee is proud knowing nothing When a man should come and joyne side with the word of truth hee is puft up in his vaine minde and hath no sound worke of grace in his heart He that wrangles against truth never loved Christ I doe not say that hee which is ignorant in any truth of Christ but hee that thus wrangles with any truth of Christ that man cannot have any sound evidence of Gods love in this blessed worke of grace and this I prove thus 2. arguments First hee that will have this evidence of Gods love must entertaine the truth aright that is in the love of it not for his own private ends aimes not because it is profitable or honourable but because it is true and he that entertaines one truth in the love of it will entertaine every truth so far as it is revealed but this hypocrite doth not entertain the truth in the love of it and therefore hee cannot have any sound evidence of Gods love Secondly never any man had as yet this worke of true grace that is not yet come from under the power of sinne and Satan for no man is come from under the power of sinne or the dominion of Satan that will joyne side with sinne and Satan against the truth but this man doth joyne side with sinne and Satan against the truth of God and therfore was never come from under the power of sin and so consequently never had this worke of grace I compare this wrangling wretch to the Merchant that will trade with other Princes but not submit to them as King so this man will trade with the Gospel but not subject himselfe unto it and therfore he is but a hang by and a retainer and one that makes a booty of the Gospel Thus much of the wrangling hypocrite The second sort is the whining hypocrite who will continue daily to abuse the Gospel and to grieve the Lord Christ and he thinkes to make up his wrongs by laying open his sorrow that he hath done so and thus he thinkes to be friends with him againe As it is with some servant whom the Master will neither let goe nor yet use as a servant so it is with these whining hypocrites they have great need of the power of the Gospel and yet they are not willing to bee under the power of it however they keepe it in and fawningly flatter it and if they come and say they are sorry for this and that then all shall be well and they entreat the Lord not to take it ill at their hands they will mend it c. so that in truth they love not the power of the Gospel but onely to make gaine of it to themselves Simile As it is with some whining debtor that partly out of covetousnesse would not and partly through indigencie cannot pay hee will come and complaine of his hard peny-worth and desire some respite not that he may give content to the Creditor but to himselfe So it is with this whining hypocrite hee will ever bee complaining but never amending I speake not against sorrow and complaining as though they should be altogether quit of the body of death and of distempers and of their cursed lusts and corruptions for if a man love Jesus Christ as much as ever any mortall man did yet he shall never be quit of this body of death so long as hee is here but I speake against those that are still complaining and vexing themselves in the outward appearance who have teares at command because of some violent passion or for some discredit to the Gospel or some disgrace to themselves and yet stand just at the same stay Oh varlets that confesse their sin to Christ and yet forsake it not that they may love him that thus they may fawne upon Christ making their sorrowes a plea for their sin and think to cry and whine it out and yet returne to their old courses againe Thus it was with Ahab 1 King 21.15 who killed Naboth for the vineyard and in the 27 verse hearing Eliah denounce such heavie threatnings against him knowing himselfe to be guilty of that sin he fasted and prayed and rent his clothes yea prayed in print as the proverbe is but yet hee returnes to his old byas again for in the next chapter he hated Michaiah still This is but the bathing of a mans sins not the drowning of them he thinks to please Christ and to keepe Christ with him because hee cannot be without him and though he sinne against him yet he thinkes to make all whole with complaining This is too ordinary in the world The rebellious hearted sinner that is crosse and peevish and froward he will be a professor in a high strain and pretend great love to the Lord Jesus Christ and complaine of his froward heart but yet he falls into passion upon every occasion and hee to by his complaints thinkes to make all whole againe This is base false hypocriticall love and not the love of the Father that will enable a man to give content in those things that he may easily doe I can hire these men from their passion for money and scare them from it by the Magistrate And shall a reward hire thee or a Magistrate scare thee and shall the Lord Jesus have no power over thee to cause thee to doe it Goe thy way thy heart is naught if thy love were sound it would worke more than all this comes to that is not love at all that is not able to doe so much as this for Jesus Christ the like I may say of the untoward doggednesse of some husbands and masters it is their life to fret and talke like mad-men and thus the cunning chapman will cheat you to day and whine to morrow and hee thinkes this pleaseth the Lord Jesus very well Shee is not accounted a loving wife but an adulteresse that when shee hath played the harlot
will come and whine to her husband and yet goe to it againe no if shee had a true heart to her husband and sought for peace she would not have returned to her vile courses againe So it is with the soule it is adulterous and base love and not the love of the Spouse of Christ to confesse and bewaile sinne and yet to commit it That sorrow which loosens the heart from sinne and makes it come neerer to God and so to be rid of corruption that sorrow I say gives content to Christ but that sorrow which indeed doth incourage a man and rather give way to the commission of sinne than loosen the heart from it gives no content to the Lord Jesus but to thy selfe and stands not with the allegeance of him but of sin but yet if thou canst say so and sorrow so as to be loosened from thy sinne then thou contentest the Lord Jesus but if thou thinkest thou hast a warrant or a privie seale for thy sinful practices because thou hast sorrowed this argues little love to Jesus Christ Object But some will say May not a man make his moane and expresse his griefe for sinne Expression of sorrow for sin limited Answ I answer Yes it is fitting and necessary yet consider these two rules 1. First make it not an ordinary table-talke for that smells too grossely of false hypocrisie as if a man did say Now I hope every man will take notice how I mourne for sin but rather if thy heart be full and surcharged with griefe inquire what is the danger of such and such corruptions and the cause of them and how thou mayst get power against them but keepe thy sorrow in secret 2. Or else in the second place thou shouldst make thy sorrow knowne to some godly Minister or faithfull Christian out of the burden of thy sin and not for fashion sake thus doe that thy heart may be loosened from thy sinne and thou see thy need of a Saviour A third sort is a new upstart hypocrite that is newly come up many of them are in other parts and some neere unto our owne selves they are such as are full of carnall confidence and are proud of their beleeving but faith shuts out boasting They are as full of hypocrisie as an egge is full of meat or a toad full of poyson Such an hypocrite I will discover to you thus Hee is a man that hath long professed the truth and hath seene his sinne and been awakened to his owne sense and hath had a kinde of attendance to the Gospel and a kinde of brainish acquaintance with the promise in Jesus Christ so that now he is fully perswaded that Jesus Christ is his and he is Christs And yet after all this when he is come thus farre he lookes no more after himselfe but lookes all to the Lord Jesus Christ insomuch that the Lord Jesus becomes a drudge to him Now the guise of this man is this he casts away all sorrow and reasons thus For me to see my vilenesse and to be sensible of the body of death and to bleed inwardly and mourne daily for my wickednesse I thinke is needlesse these are past with him for he sayth I have mourned before this day and now I have gotten Jesus Christ thus he thinks he needs not be afflicted with his sins nor mourne for his many failings but the Lord Jesus who he thinkes is at his command must doe all and thus he surfets on his sinnes still This is the root of the doctrine of the Familists that cursed hellish unconceiveable basenesse that is in them I have heard of many of them that after long profession and much zeale and exactnesse in a Christian course have fallen unto this straine and come to just nothing A poore sinfull deluded Sot thou art thou poore creature dost thou entertaine the Lord Christ as a Commander when thou wilt not have him so much as to dispose of thee but as thy drudge that thou mayst take what mercy thou wilt and leave what thou wilt They will have Christ to pardon their sinne but not to make them mourne for it as if in truth they meant that hee should stand at their beck They rest upon their faith and will not have themselves and their faith to rest upon Christ for this is their conceit they apprehend they doe beleeve and there they rest and so in conclusion they never goe to Christ to have their hearts humbled and brought under as if a man should goe and graspe with his hand and take no hold of the rocke he neither findes strength to himselfe nor any hold to his hand so they rest upon their faith and neither they nor their faith upon their Saviour Thou sinfull deluded hypocrite the Lord Jesus will make thee come under and stoope and force thee and thy carnall confidence to lye in the dust and begge for mercie Can any man in reason judge this to be love which in deed is nothing but a marvellous cursed distemper They say the law hath nothing to doe with them and they live by the law of love and yet they have not any love to the Lord Jesus Must the Lord Jesus Christ pardon thy sinnes and thou remaine in them Must the Lord Jesus seale to thy soule the forgivenesse of thine iniquities and thou dally with it No the Love of the Lord Christ will compell thee to doe any thing to give contentment to the Lord Jesus Esa 57.15 Psal 51.17 An humble heart is the onely house where Christ dwells and the onely sacrifice that he accepts of and the onely guise of spirit that Jesus Christ lookes to and if thou love the Lord Jesus thou must be sure to provide this dainty dish for him Ob. But some will say What need have I of this sorrow seeing Christ Jesus must doe all Ans I answer What need then hast thou of faith for Christ must in that do all for thee Though I doe not say thou hast as much need of sorrow and brokennesse of heart as of faith Continuall sorrow as needfull as continuall beleeving yet there is a kinde of proportionable need of a continuall sorrow as well as of continuall beleeving and that upon these grounds First thy sorrow helpes on thy faith that it may be more strongly carried to Jesus Christ for the more weight and burden of thy sinnes thou feelest the more need thou wilt see of Christ As it is with a sharpe sauce though it breed not a stomacke Simile yet it stirres up a stomacke so this godly sorrow though it is not the worke of beleeving yet it stirres up the stomacke of faith to go goe to the Lord Jesus for faith is the going out of the soule to Christ and hee that findes the burden of his sinne will be the more ready to goe out to Christ Againe this makes a man the more fit to receive the assurance of Gods love this I say makes
When a man entertaines the King he is content though the King put him out of his owne house to bee his servant for the while and if his Majesty may be contented he cares not so it is with a gracious humble heart if the Lord will blast a mans parts and comforts and take all from him and give him Christ naked and onely that honour that is in him hee is contented This heart is right and hee will say It is Gods will to take away these parts honours credit c. and if the Lord Jesus say I will not assist nor comfort thy soule he lyes downe and saith not a word but this Let the Lord be honoured though I be as the dung in the streets whatsoever become of me though I be damned so the Lords glory may be advanced I am content Suppose this should be which indeed cannot be that a man were left destitute of al comfort friends and meanes and all that he hath loved heretofore and in stead of honour were to have shame and imprisonment for liberty and want and dishonour in stead of friends the soule saith It is Gods will to doe so and to take away honour and parts who must order the businesse but he onely Doth it please the Lord Jesus to doe so blessed bee his name for it I shall now be contented let me lye at his feet though I goe downe to hell let me wait on him and let him doe what he will Now all you that are of any of these sorts to you is the Word of the Lord spoken this day and I beseech you in the name of Christ take it in love and as spoken out of indignation to your sinnes to you I say the Minister and the Word saith The Lord bee mercifull to you you are haters of the Lord Jesus there is none of the love of God in the hearts of any of this generation to this day Now do not goe away and say Let the Minister say what he will for hee must say something to hold out the houre What wilt thou shew thy selfe to bee a most notorious wrangling hypocrite Conscience speake is not thy heart met withall as in all the former particulars Conscience saith so and the Lord saith so Oh be perswaded therefore and yeeld the bucklers and say Now I see it is not in truth all that I have done is wrong and false Oh that I could once at last fall upon the right way The Lord perswade your hearts to conceive of it and to say I am still a hater of Christ I am yet an enemy Do I yet live to be saved by Christ and do I hate him think of thy sin and consider thy sorrow 1. Thinke thus much with thy selfe This sinne of all other is most unconceivable and not to bee named much lesse to bee practised and retained Oh that ever any wretch that hath received so much from Christ should still hate him Good Lord that ever there should bee such a wretch upon the earth and yet Lord I am the man I am hee that have approved of the practises of the wicked thou art an open enemy to the Lord Jesus and therefore thinke what thou hast done all this while Rom. 1.19 20. That which may be known of God is manifest in the creatures But in the meane time thinke but what thy sinne is that thou hast not onely the creatures to preach to thee but the Lord Jesus who came downe from heaven It is a wonder that ever he came for such wretches as we are hee hath torne his bowels in pieces for thee and entreated thee to bathe thy soule in his death and bee saved for ever Luke 19.42 yea hee hath wept over thee and said Oh that thou hadst knowne even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace yet thou regardest not Oh thou poore ignorant profane carnall wretch nay the blood of Christ and his teares and the offer of his mercies and his spirit speake to thee and intreat thee to beleeve in him and live for ever and yet thou continuest an infidell You know the spirit of love hath met you in your Churches and in your houses and walked with you in your journeies and said Now open the Lord Jesus calls tenders mercy and you have snubbed it Good Lord is it possible that the blood of Jesus Christ should speake to us and that a company of wretched creatures should trample upon that blood and grieve that spirit rather then forsake their lusts and corruptions You children tell your fathers of this and you wives your husbands and say Is it possible that we have done this and yet live still it is a wonder Therefore reason thus with your selves and say If a heathen shall be condemned that had but trees preaching to him and his conscience open then what shall become of me that have had Christ and his blood to preach to me what will become of me what sin is mine it is a scarlet sin it hath in it all abominations 2. Secondly thinke of thy sorrow how will the Lord Jesus be revenged on thee Doest thou say Oh he is mercifull and will forgive all What wil the Lord suffer his sonne to be trampled upon will God the Father suffer this thinke what will be the end of it Oh thy judgement is intolerable and unrecoverable continuing as thou art Consider the heavinesse of thy plagues 1 Cor. 16.22 If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be had in execration or bee accursed or bee made Maranatha that is All the curses of heaven and earth and all the curses of the world to the highest straine of cursing as if he should say All you Churches on earth and all you Angels in heaven curse ye that man and all ye Divels in hell torment that man nay let him be accursed for ever and then blessed Redeemer take this man into thy owne hands and let him be accursed for ever As in Jude 14. And Enoch also the seventh from Adam prohecied of these saying Behold the Lord commeth with tenne thousands of his Saints to execute judgement upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him You thinke it is nothing to speake against the Lord Jesus thousands of Angels shall minister to him and ten thousands shall goe before him and say The Lord is comming to execute judgement upon all that work wickednesse and upon those that have spoken against him So that when the Church of Christ and the Angels in heaven and the Divels in hell have conspired to torment a man then also the Lord Jesus will come to torment him Oh that my heart could bleed and if it were possible breake in sunder for the misery in which you are in that day the Lord Jesus will say to such as hee
1 Joh. 2 15. Little children love not the world What if we doe may some say If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him You must not think to have heaven and hell too to have Christ and the world too It is impossible in reason that a wise should have a true affection of love to her husband and an adulterous affection to her filthy mates too the mate must be abandoned before the husband can be loved as he ought to be Jam. 4.4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God This is meant of spirituall adulterers and adulteresses those that withdraw their hearts from the Lord and have their back-doores for the world O yee adulterers saith he know ye not that he that loves the world cannot love God These two cannot stand together either make these two at ods or else there can be no love to Jesus Christ Another As it is with the body of a man when the heart is hot the heat of the sunne drawes all the heat outwards and leaves the stomack cold insomuch that many times he swelters away so when the profits pleasures of the world come marvellous strongly in a good booty or bargaine and shine hotly upon your fouls and drawes out your hearts to that then they are cold to grace and Christ and the promise as if you were dead men nay many a man hath died and perished everlastingly by this way and meanes When a Gentleman hath stockt his man with money Simile and sent him to the market for such things as hee hath need of hee will not lay out his money upon bables and rattles because the more he layes out the lesse hee hath for his market but he will keep his money together so when the Lord hath stockt your souls with strength of grace so that now you have very violent affections of love and joy if you lay out these affections upon profits and honours when you come to provide for Christ all is already spent One man layes out his love upon his lusts and another upon his chambering and when they come to Christ and grace then their hearts are dead and loose adulterous and have spent all Therefore in a word when the world and profits and honors come say Let us have so much love and keepe so much for Christ tell the world thus and say Nay we must keepe our choyce affections for the best things we must love Christ and therefore let the world stay and let its better be served first This is the first hinderance Hinderance 2. 2 Secondly take heed and cast off those vaine and groundlesse surmises and suspitions which either Satan casts in or thy own heart breeds against the Lord Jesus and his goodnesse There is a cavilling jealousie which is in every mans heart by nature whereby we are subject to thinke hardly or at least to surmise sinfully against the Lord and his dealings with us look how thou doest suspect God to be unto thee Simile so art thou unto him As it is with two friends if they once begin to be jealous of one anothers love and if I once surmise in my heart that he hath some ill will towards me this is the next way to breed in my heart an ill-will towards him therefore be sure to quit thy heart of these A loving conceit makes the thing lovely that wee meddle withall but a groundlesse suspition turnes all another way and also makes us thinke ill of the Lord it takes all with the wrong hand for if a man have the blessings of this world then the soule saith It is true indeed God hath given me these but it is as a hook the Lord makes my table my snare and onely fits me for the slaughter For when the Lord lets in the horror of his wrath into the soule all those blessings come to nothing and are forgotten because the heart hath God in a jealousie and thinkes that God onely fats him to the slaughter and to ruinate him for ever whereas the Lord could as well destroy him presently as beare ill-will towards him Againe on the other side if the Lord gives but a small pittance and allowance then the soule saith The Lord loves not me how straight-handed is he towards me if he did love me it would be otherwise As the naughty stomacke turnes the best diet into ill humours and as the greene glasse makes all seeme greene to him that hath it so it is with the heart that is uncharitably conceited toward the Lord for we notwithstanding all his loving kindnesse still think we have him upon the worst hand and are provoked in our hearts against him Therefore take heed of harbouring any ill thoughts or groundlesse suspitious jealousies against the God of heaven this is ordinary yea too ordinary with our base hearts a vile heart is a breed-bate between the Lord and us for it accuseth God to the soule and then the soule to God and therefore when haply wee labour to bring a poore sinner to looke towards God and to consider of Gods goodnesse to him No no saith he It is true I confesse God is very gracious and it is his goodnesse that I have the meanes of salvation but I shall one day perish and God onely serves his turne of me the Lord never gave me that assurance of his love that such and such have God will one day leave me in the lurch And then the heart is transported with a secret dislike of the Lord Jesus Wretches that we are whereas a good and a charitable conceit of God would make a good construction of his dealings as the wife of Manoah did Judg. 13.22 23. when Manoah offered a sacrifice and an Angel appeared which Angel was the Lord Jesus Christ he said Wee shall surely dye for we have seene an Angel for this was their opinion in ancient times that if a man did see an Angel he should dye the Angel received the sacrifice and did wonderfully accept it and yet hee saith Wee shall surely dye Here was a groundlesse suspition but marke how she reasons If the Lord were pleased to kill us he would not have received a burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands as if she had said Oh doe not you thinke so hardly and uncharitably of the Lord as that he will kill us why did he thus and thus we may rather expect good from God becuse hee hath done good to us before So I say and so I would have thee to say to thy soule The Lord doth mee no harme and therefore why should I think that he intends any unto me I have received nothing but good from the Lord and therefore why should I thinke so ill of God Oh take heed of this 3. The third hinderance is this Hinderance 3. Judging the goodnesse and kindnesse of the Lord according to thy owne desires
what thou wouldst have not after thy owne unworthinesse nor the kindnesse which others doe enjoy better than thy selfe murmuring that thou art not worthy whereas thou art not fitted that God should do any thing for thee This mis-judging many times carries the heart with a speciall mistaking against the Lord as it is with a poore creature that hath had the meanes but not received the like comfort and mercy thereby that others have see how the heart reasons saying Others have such and such assistance in the meane time God leaves me and such and such have evidence of his favour but God regards not me had I but such power against corruptions and such evidence of Gods love and favour as God hath given to such and such Christians farre younger than I I seeke and pray and intreat and have not and with that the heart is carried with a secret heart-burning against the Lord this breeds a secret kinde of wrangling and quarrelling and withdrawing from the Lord. Therefore labour thou to still those distempers and to rectifie thy selfe and to judge as thou oughtest Judge not thy selfe by what others have and by what thou deservest but say Blessed be God I am not as I might have been and blessed be God I am not as I have deserved for then I had either beene upon the chaine with felons or upon the gallowes with theeves and robbers or in the Ale-house at my abominations for my nature is prone to it as well as others I confesse I am not so holy as I ought to be but blessed be that mercy in Jesus Christ that I am as I am I have not what others have and yet it is a wonder that I have any thing at all at the hands of the Lord so unthankefull and dead-hearted as I am others are meeke and patient and heavenly and painfull and therefore it is a wonder that I have any thing at all Goe thy way and bee contented with the Lords goodnesse and quarrell no more and mis-judge the Lords kindnesse no more Thus you see the hindrances removed now there is a way made that the soule may come to some termes of love with God Meanes 2. 2. When the soule hath beene thus ordered we must labour to bee throughly acquainted with the beauty and sweetnesse of Christ in the promise that this may provoke our soules to love the Lord and to rejoyce in him When these hindrances are removed there is way made for the promise to come and meet with the soule these breed-bates are sent out of towne and now there may be some possibility of love and this is the next way to worke and draw our hearts to Christ and to kindle in us these affections of love and joy The soule that is loosened from all the causes of jarres and dissentions betweene Christ and him that soule is ready to match with the promise and to bestow it selfe in love upon Christ In a marriage a man must know the party first and the portion and understand both or else he can love neither so thou must see the beauty and excellency of the promise before thou canst love the Lord Jesus As it is in the baser affections the covetous man seeth a good bargaine before hee loves it so that it is the eye that makes the bargaine as one well observes so thou must looke wisely upon the promises and be able to know them and this will make thee love them as in Psal 91.14 Because he hath set his love upon me therefore will I deliver him I will set him on high because he hath knowne my Name How came he to love the name of the Lord because he knew him as it is Cant. 1.2 when the name of our Saviour was as an ointment powred forth then did the virgins love him this name is the graces of our Saviour revealed and communicated to us and Cant. 4.9 see what our Saviour saith My sister my spouse thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes with one chaine of thy necke this is by way of comparison from the lesse to the greater the Spouse of Christ is the Church of Christ and by eye and neck is meant nothing else but the beauty of his grace in the heart truely humbled now the Lord Jesus Christ lookes upon these graces and loves them and is ravished with the fight of them Now if the worke of grace in the heart of a poore sinner ravished the heart of Christ who is the God of all grace then much more if our hearts could but see one finger of the excellency that is in Christ they would bee ravished with earnest love and kindled with violence towards him There are three things that ought mainely to bee respected in the promise that we may eye and apprehend and that our hearts may be kindled with love to the Lord and these three worke love any where First the worth of the party in himselfe Secondly the desert of the party Thirdly the readinesse of the party in himselfe to seeke our good Three things in Christ to make us love him So it is with the Lord Jesus first he is worthy of our love in himselfe considered Secondly he hath deserved it Thirdly he seekes our love Thou that dwellest in a poore cottage wilt hardly beleeve this but I say he seekes thy love First Christ is worthy in himselfe I wonder that the Lord Jesus Christ will suffer himselfe to be beloved by such wretches as wee are if wee had a thousand hearts to bestow upon him we were never able to love him sufficiently for as Nehemiah said Nehem. 9.5 The name of the Lord is above all praise and as the name of God is above all praise that wee can give him so the name of the Lord is above all the love that we can bestow upon him Will you let out your love and affections as wee use to say in the market it is a good penny worth it is worth more money than you shall pay for it so if you will lay out all the affections that you have you may lay them out here and that with good advantage too What would you have you may have enough for your money Wouldst thou have beauty then thy Saviour is beautifull Psal 45.2 Thou art fairer than the children of men yea he is full of grace nay the Spouse Cant. 5.10 saith My beloved is the cheife of ten thousand and in the 16. verse Hee is altogether lovely hee is a very beautifull husband There is no beauty in the world but it hath its blemish nor no day so faire but it hath its clouds but the Lord Jesus Christ is altogether love if beauty will please thee he is altogether excellent Would you have strength Psal 45.3 hee is all strength A wife would not have a cowardly husband therefore the Text saith Gird thy sword upon thy thigh O most mighty ride on prosperously so that Kings are slaine and people shall fall
before him and his right hand shall teach thee terrible things therefore if beauty will please thee he is the fairest of all if strength will please thee hee is the strongest of all if riches will please thee hee is more rich if it bee possible than he is strong for Heb. 1.2 he is the heire of all things he is not for a Crowne or a Kingdome or lands or revenues but the heavens are his and the earth and the sea farre and wide and all the depths thereof are his yea and thine also if thou wilt have him Hee is rich likewise in regard of his grace as the Apostle saith Col. 2.3 In him are hid all the treasures of wisedome and knowledge What wouldst thou have eternall life and happinesse then he that hath Christ hath all these for Christ is the Author of life and happinesse to all that have him and hee hath not onely these in himselfe but hee will infeoffe thee in them if thou wilt but match with him If the world and beauty and strength and life and salvation will prevaile it is all thine let the Lord Jesus Christ once have your love and it is done See what the Prophet David saith Psal 63.3 Thy loving kindnesse is better than life therefore my lips shall praise thee You know what we use to doe in the world if a man match with a maid where there is much wealth wee say he is made for ever so say I Truly the world cannot nor will not doe so for you it promiseth faire and performes nothing If thou set thy heart upon riches and honours they will faile thee Where is all the beauty of the world Some sicknesse or other makes many a men ready to run out of his wits for griefe A man is here in health to day and in hell to morrow but if thou wilt love the Lord Jesus Christ he will never faile thee he onely is worthy of the choyce of thy affections therefore set them not upon that which cannot comfort thee if thou wilt have Christ set them upon him and all that he hath is thine Secondly Christ as he is worthy of our love so he deserves it if his worth cannot win our love yet let his desert have it It is a great matter to win the affections of a man If a man be never so worthy of himselfe for his parts and gifts yet if hee have wronged me and dealt basely with me and exprest the part of an enemy saith a woman I will not have him no not though he had all the world But it is not so with the Lord Jesus Christ for as hee is worthy of all love in himselfe so hee hath dealt mercifully and graciously with you and therefore he deserves your love deale equally with him and give him what he deserves We have had hard dealings from the world and base usage from these base things never a man here but hath found it so for it hath promised much and done nothing and all the pleasures it affoorded us have left nothing but vanity and emptinesse behinde them Let the adulterer come forth and shew what pleasure he hath ever had by his filthy dalliances and base courses he hath had but an ill match a galled conscience for the present and the expectation of plagues and punishments for ever The world also hath vexed the covetous man and pleasure hath disquieted the ambitious man but the Lord Jesus Christ hath ever dealt graciously and mercifully with his servants In your sicknesse who helped you in your want who supplied you in anguish of heart who revived you was it not the Lord Jesus Christ and therefore doe not onely what religion requires but what reason requires If you love them that love you doe not the Publicanes even the same they doe good to such as doe good to them The Lord Jesus Christ hath loved you therefore love you him and enlarge your hearts to him for ever Ob. Oh but saith the soule I confesse the Lord hath been mercifull and it is his mercie that I live and he hath inlarged himselfe towards me but yet I grow gracelesse What love is this if the Lord Jesus Christ give me these and deny me that which is better than these what love is this I now speake to all that want assurance To all such I answer in three things Three things done by Christ for a sinner though as yet he want assurance Ans I will tell thee what he hath done for thee taking thy selfe in the worst condition First consider that thou livest in the bosome of the Church and that Jesus Christ hath brought life and immortality to light by the Gospel many thousands of poore Infidels and Heathen would bee glad to gather the crummes that fall from thy Table The Heathens never knew the way to a Saviour they never had the meanes to comfort them and is not this mercy then that God hath brought the word of life and salvation to thee and set thee under the meanes for he hath not dealt so with other Nations neither have the Heathen knowledge of his wayes he hath not dealt so with many better than thy selfe I meane better in regard of many actuall transgressions of thine Oh therefore love him for this favour Secondly consider farther what the Lord Christ hath done for thee he hath not onely brought the meanes of grace to thee and planted thee in a land of Goshen where thou didst enjoy them but after thou hadst resisted and opposed them and cast his kindnesse behind thy backe and sleighted his Spirit sinfull wretch that thou art he hath often come and intreated thee to receive mercy and though againe and againe thou hast opposed it yet he hath beene patient and good to thee love him for it Again the Lord Christ takes no advantage against thee as thou surmisest He might have done it and that justly too thou that resistest the meanes of grace it is just that thou shouldst never have them If God had sent thee one way and the Gospel another it had beene just but hee hath not done so therefore love him he deserves it at thy hands Thirdly he hath not onely brought thee under the meanes of grace and beene patient to thee though thou hast resisted the meanes but he hath let in some inkling of his love and come neerer to thee than all this Why should Jesus Christ offer mercy to thy wife and child it is extraordinary kindnes thou canst not but know that there are many in the same family that have the same means and yet remaine in a miserable condition and why are thy eyes opened and thy conscience awakened in any measure every morning you rise and every night you goe to bed blesse and magnifie the Lord Christ that hath dealt thus mercifully with you for he is worthy of it as Jude said Joh. 14.22 Why wilt thou reveale thy selfe to us and not to the world why wilt thou shew mercy
to a poore cottage and enlighten a blind minde and a sottish spirit in this manner Oh this is love Oh love him againe for it he deserves it Thirdly Christ seeks thy love here is the admimiration of mercy that our Saviour that hath been rejected by a company of sinfull creatures should seeke their love for shame refuse him not but let him have love before he goe Had the Lord received us when we had come unto him and humbled our hearts before him with deepe importunity and had he heard us when we had cryed unto him nay when we had spent all our daies and all our strength in begging and craving one good looke from heaven and at the day of our departure taken compassion upon us it had beene an infinite mercy but when the Lord Jesus Christ shall seeke to us by his messengers as all the Ministers are his messengers to accept of his love this is beyond all expression I say if he had onely sent a love letter from heaven and said that he was willing to match with us and had left us to finde out the way and the means it had beene beyond all wonder but that the Lord Jesus Christ should come and wait upon us and seek our love it is the wonder of mercies When a company of base lusts and sinfull desires have found acceptance with us and the doore hath been open upon all occasions to talke with them though the Lord Jesus Christ hath often come and said Oh muse upon my name and not upon the world and these lusts and we would not heare him when I say you and your adulteresses have beene upon the bed of dalliance and Christ hath beene at the doore and could get no audience nor acceptance yet after all this he hath not onely call'd but seriously besought us to be reconciled to him that is to love him and to be beloved of him and blessed by him for ever these are the tearmes of his love What shall I answer the Lord will the Lord seek our love then returne him this answer and say Shall he seeke love and not have it shall he crave it and I not give it Oh God forbid Can the Lord Jesus Christ be in love with me In truth Lord I am out of love with my selfe by reason of my base heart and filthy thoughts I have abused thy Majesty from time to time by following my base lusts adulteries and abominations I have not only loved the world but filled my selfe therewith and thus my adulterous heart hath gone away from thee to them But will the Lord Jesus love such a wretch as I am Yes he will for the Lord saith Hosea 14.5 I will heale their backe-sliding I will love them freely He lookes for no portion no he will take thee with all thy wants Is not the Lord worthy of thy love he desires no more and sure hee deserves no lesse Deut. 10.12 when the Lord had recorded all his kindnesse towards the children of Israel mark how he inferres this saying And now Israel what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to feare the Lord thy God to walk in all his wayes and to love him and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soule So I say to thee after all the sinfull abominations of thy heart and all thy sinfull practices committed what is it that the Lord doth require of thee when all thy sinnes are pardoned onely that thou love the Lord thy God with all thy heart Let me therefore tell you what to doe get you home and every one in secret labour to deale honestly and truely with your owne hearts and make up a match in this manner and say Is it possible that the Lord should looke so low that the great Prince should send for the poore peasant that Majesty should stoope to meannesse and heaven to earth and God to man Hath the Lord offered mercy to me and doth he require nothing of me but to love him again call upon your owne hearts I charge you and say thus Lord if all the sight of mine eyes were love and all the speeches of my tongue were love it were all too little to love thee Oh let me love thee dearely O Lord my strength Say you had a faire offer and that a poore Minister of God did wish you well bee not coy and squeamish the Lord may have better than you every day lye downe therefore and admire at the mercy of the Lord that should take a company of poore dead dogges I say be sure that you bee not coy and squeamish say as the Prophet did Lift up your heads yee gates and bee yee lift up yee everlasting doores and the King of glory shall come in Psal 24. Now the hindrances are removed and the promises are brought home wee will come to see if the match bee liked of Meanes 3. Lastly it is our skill and cunning to draw these two together Yee see what wee have said the hindrances are removed and the promises are brought home now if wee can but affect a Saviour hee is our owne hee that will not now be beloved of the Lord JESUS CHRIST let him bee ever accursed There are two particulars considerable to fasten these two together First Two meanes to bring our hearts and the promises together labour to give attendance daily to the promise of grace and Christ drive all other suiters away from the soule let nothing come betweene the promise and it and forbid all other banes that is let the promise conferre daily with thy heart and bee expressing and telling of that good that is in Christ daily to thy heart Simile You know if all things bee done and agreed upon betweene the parents of two parties to be marrried and there wants nothing but the fixing of their affections one upon another the onely way to draw their affections to one another is to keepe company together and daily to meete and see one another so let thy soule daily keepe company with the promise and let not thy heart onely see the promise once in a weeke but daily shut out all others besides and keepe company onely with that and see what beauty and strength and grace there is in the same and say Oh wretch that I am if I had had either wit or grace I might have been made happy long agoe Thus keepe company with the promise that thy soule and it may dwell together Secondly labour by undeniable reason as to discover so to conclude the unconceivable good that will come to thy soule by this many men will promise that such and such things shall be done if the match may but go forward and doe not onely talke of it but make it good too so doe thou by undeniable arguments make good to thy owne soule the unconceivable good that will come to thy soule nay God hath pawned his truth to thee for it As it was
with Sechem Hamors son Gen. 34.24 when he would perswade the Citizens to joine side with him he doth two things First he did commune with them in the gates and then hee shewes what undoubted good they should bee sure to get by it Shall not their cattell and their substance and every beast that they have bee ours and hereby will they consent if every one bee circumcised as they are He communed of the busines and of the good that comes by it so likewise let us commune with the good of the promises Secondly conclude that the good thou expectest shall come thereby and that all happinesse shall come unto thy soule If thou match with Jesus Christ shall not all his mercy all his excellency all his merits and love yea all his comforts and grace be thine Yes every grace of Jesus Christ and all the comforts not only of this but of a better life Wee stand demurring upon the matters of agreement if we might have a good ingagement what would wee doe lay all these aside and know that if thou wilt have Christ thou must part with all and then thou shalt finde in him what ever thy heart desires 1 Corinthians 3.23 All is yours and yee are Christs and Christ is Gods so I say to every of you if Christ bee thine then all is thine nay all the Divells malice shall promote that which shall make for thy good Therefore is this so that the Lord Jesus Christ is worthy of your love and hath deserved it is he worthy of more love then all that you have and doth he seeke it for he hath sent me this day to entreat love at the hands and hearts of all you poore sinners you then that are in higher rankes and places the Lord Christ is worthy of your affections and he doth offer love to all you that are weary and have need to every poor soule now what answer shall I return to him in the evening shall I say Lord I have tendered thy mercy and it was refused and they sleighted thy mercy and thy promise and they would none of Christ they have taken up their hearts with the world therefore they cannot give up their hearts to thee Brethren it would grieve my heart to returne this answer Christ Jesus becomes a suiter to you and doth beseech you through me to be reconciled to him and to bee blessed by him for ever Will you love the Lord Christ let him have but love from you that is all he cares for I beseech you for the Lord Jesus Christs sake if you will not love him nor his grace and mercy yet love your owne selves deny not this gracious offer lest hereafter you seeke for love and mercy and compassion and be refused and condemned for ever Therefore give up all and bid adieu to all other Lovers And because it is not in your power to love Christ goe to the Father of love and to the Spirit of love and entreat him but to strike one sparke of love from the promise and say good Lord is it true I have a base vile heart and I have contemned thee my only comfort but thou that requirest love thou that art the God of love kindle but one sparke of love in the heart of thy servant that I may love thee more than my selfe and all things here below Hitherto of the love of Christ Next we will speake of joy in God Spirituall Joy HABAKKUK 3.17 18. Although the Fig-tree shall not blossome neither shall fruit be in the vines the labour of the Olive shall faile and the fields shall yeeld no meat the flocke shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no heard in the stalls Yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation THIS Text may fitly be called Order The poore mans comfort in a deare yeare It was the Prophets stay in the great desolation which he fore-saw to be comming by the Chaldeans In the first Chapter hee complaines of Israels sinne and the Chaldeans crueltie In the second he sees a vision of comfort for the Church and the destruction of the enemies In the third he prayes for accomplishment and strengthens his faith in prayer by recounting the old dealings of God with his people Now toward the conclusion hee professeth his owne hope and confidence in God which by his example he would worke all godly men unto True hee was greatly afraid at the vengeance of God but by fearing before hand he procured a sweet securitie for time to come verse 16. That I might rest in the day of trouble And in the text he speakes more fully Although the Figge-tree shall not blossome c. Parts In the words is 1. A supposition of great evill which probably might come upon the Jewes vers 17.2 A proposition of his own unmoveable comfort amidst it all vers 18. Exposition Of the supposition In many particulars the Prophet sets forth an extreme vastation and desolation of their countrey all commodities should faile which concerned both delight and necessitie that is Corne Wine Oyle other fruits both small and great Cattell those in the fold those in the stall Sheepe and Oxen all should come short of the wonted plentie I name foure wayes whereby such misery invades a nation and the particular inhabitants First by Warre and the Sword which layes all waste where it comes as in Germany the vines cut the fruit trees rooted up the corne burnt or not sowed flockes and herds driven away Temples and houses laid in their rubbish and people slaughtered Neither Easterne nor Westerne Babylonians can affoord better termes of agreement with the Israel of God Prov. 12.10 The tender mercies of the wicked are cruell Secondly by drought or other calamities of ill weather when the yeare of restraints commeth Jer. 14.1 and then hee describes a grievous famine the former and latter raine is with-holden the sweet influence of the Pleiades is restrained Job 38.31 the heaven made as brasse the earth as iron unkindly windes devouring wormes blast mildew and other evils which we have indured Thirdly by losses and casualties which the wisedome of man cannot foresee nor his power prevent Thus the folds and stalls of Job were made empty and the like hath befallen many a rich man and may hereafter To the world-ward none can rightly be accounted blessed but hee that is fairly buried Others have wine and oyle and olives and other dainties in plentifull measure but this or that man hath lost his part and hath much adoe to sustaine his necessitie Fourthly by meere poverty and utter disability to make such provisions Some never had these fine things mentioned in the Text nor have nor are likely ever to have unlesse at other mens tables with some every yeare is a deare yeare through their whole life though some pinch them more than other A poore empty smoke-bound cottage with course bread and water out
of the next ditch must containe and content them till their dying day Yet to such as these the proposition of Habakkuk extendeth it selfe If the persons and causes be alike the joy also shall bee alike I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation If Christ be come into the house and by him salvation who shall forbid them to bee comfortable as Zacheus and the Jaylor I will rejoyce in the Lord or because of the Lord Bajehova and so in the next clause Baelohi God is left unto me when all else is taken away still I I have a God to take comfort in And First he is greater matter of comfort than any of those things can be of sorrow and dejection for those are finite evils but God an infinite good Secondly he is higher than they all my comfort lies out of the reach of all enemies and all adversities Psal 46.1 Thirdly he is nearer than any of them a very present refuge in the time of trouble Losses and crosses goe neere to the heart and to the quick but God is nearer Fourthly he is Jehova in whom I rejoyce hath his being of himselfe and gives being to all the creatures and preserves it so long as him pleaseth Therefore by his benefit I shall subsist when all the secundary meanes of maintenance are intercepted Matth. 4.4 Man lives not by bread onely but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God Fifthly he is the God of my salvation that is he saves my body and naturall life whether I have meanes or no meanes it is he that strikes the maine stroke in my preservation by an Hebraisme oft called The God of salvation and this not only temporally for the body but spiritually and eternally for the soule And then the argument is easie He that doth the greater will doe the lesse too God that saves us from hell the Divell will save us from starving and the like miseries Jehova that became the Lord Jesus to us when we had no strength will never sticke with us for trifles in comparison This sweet and blessed name meets him that reads the Text in the Originall Baelohi jishgni which Saint Jerome translates in God my Jesus or Saviour just as the Virgin sang Luke 1 47. De civit Dei l. 18. c. 32. My spirit rejoyceth in God my Saviour and Saint Austine preferres the using of this nomen amicius dulcius before the Septuagints Deo salutari meo Certaine it is that by Christ only we have interest in God and can rejoyce in him There is no salvation in any other Act. 4.12 nor any other name given under heaven by wich wee can be saved And in him doe all true Christians triumph Phil. 3.3 not in the righteousnesse of the Law nor in any legall and carnall priviledges And wee have ample cause to rejoyce in him even in the greatest failing of naturall comforts and greatest desolations that can come upon us Although the fig-tree blossome not c. Although there be another drought another and ten years one after another and a greater mortality of pestilence and the sword too with all the mischiefes that accompany it Yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation In greatest wants true Christians have cause enough to rejoyce in God Doctr. However the world goes for comforts of nature yet in Christ wee have full cause to rejoyce and so should stirre up our selves to doe See Psal 42.5 7 8 9 10 11. and 73.25 26 27 28. Dying Jacob lifted up himselfe by thinking on the salvation which God had wrought for him Gen. 49.18 Job stript of all praised God as when hee had all about him Moses seeing him that is invisible feared not the wrath of the King Micaiah having seene God in a vision was nothing daunted at the presence of two glorious Kings The three children beleeving in God regarded neither NebuchadneZZars anger nor the furnace extraordinarily heated So the Apostles Acts 4. and 5. and the Martyrs in severall histories of the Church Reason 1 Eccles 1.2 One reason whereof may be taken from the vanity of the creature Vanity of vanities vanity of vanities saith the Preacher all is vanity and vexation of spirit They are good comforts of nature where they may be had and a good man will make them so many encouragements in the way of grace But God never appointed them to be part of the Saints portion Gen. 15.1 No I am thy portion thy buckler and great reward and so the Christian makes account Lam. 3.24 The Lord is my portion saith my soule therefore will I hope in him And he sets no such high price upon wine oyle or other comforts as that without them he should not rejoyce in his God So he either parts with them the more easily or wants them the more joyfully Reason 2 The other is taken from the superabundant excellencie of the Creator Both in respect of his Attributes on which whiles a Christian meditates hee shall ever finde something to set against his particular maladie with a large over-plus of comfort And in respect of his Workes both of Creation and Providence and this both for preservation and gubernation Psal 92.4 5. Thou Lord hast made me glad through thy worke I will triumph in the workes of thy hands O Lord how great are thy workes and thy thoughts are very deepe And these very evils drought dearth warre c. are they not by Gods permission and limited how long they shall continue and ordered to a good end Rom. 8.28 And in respect of his Ordinances The Word is our song in the house of our pilgrimage and the joyfull tidings of our salvation The Sacrament is a marriage supper of the great King for his onely Sonne Eate O friends drink yea drink abundantly Cant. 5.1 Psal 84.1 O beloved And the Tabernacles of God are amiable the onely joy of David And in respect of his unspeakable benefits in and by Christ that one word Salvation is an epitome of all blessings it comprehends the causes means effects and perpetuitie of our blessednesse and absolute overthrow of the enemies and specially the immediate authour of salvation which is Christ It would aske an houres discourse and more to tell in particular what ample cause we have to rejoyce in Christ that if we had nothing left us but naked Christ in naked Christ we should have Peace and Joy enough John 16.33 Christ at the worst and poorest is a rich treasure Quod cunque Deo indignum est mihi expedit Tert. Whatsoever became him not as God is expedient and profitable unto us even his shamefull accursed death And if his death be so joyous and blissfull what shall his resurrection be his ascension session at the right hand of his Father and intercession for us with all the gracious execution of his Kingly and Propheticall
reproach losse paine persecution for righteousnesse sake shall be abundantly recompenced with joy in the holy Ghost and the joy of heaven Mat. 5.10 11 12. The like of suffering by the hand of God or men in common affaires They that are well exercised by afflictions shall one day bee comforted as Lazarus all will end as a Comedie in mirth and felicitie All this is metaphorically compirsed in the Text by a figure of sowing and reaping usuall in the Scripture Sow to the flesh or spirit sow liberally Gal. 6.8 2 Cor. 9.6 Psal 97.11 and reap liberally the Lord gives bread to the sower light is sowen for the righteous c. A wet and cold seed-time brings the husbandman afterward a plenteous and ioyfull harvest so the sad times and occasions that goe over Gods people will first or last bring them a great measure of joy comfort blessednesse Heare the limitations a little 1. Not the teares themselves considered in themselves bring forth the joyfull crop but the sowing in teares Esau his teares were shed to no purpose and in hell there will be weeping and wailing but because there is no sowing no good comes of it It is onely the pretious seed in vers 6. that affoords the good sheaves and it is required it be godly sorrow 2 Cor. 7.9 that we mourn for the absence of the Bridegroome and that we faint not when we sow Gal. 6.9 neither in faith nor obedience In due time yee shall reap if yee faint not It were unreasonable to sow in September and look to reap in October No stay till the moneth of harvest and then see what blessing God will give The husband-man hath patience c. Jam. 5.7 2. Of the joy that is to be reaped here put for the whole happinesse of a Christian as a Christian both here hereafter according the Grecian salutation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They joy before thee Isai 9.3 according to the joy of harvest In this life a Christian hath the beginning first fruits of the Spirit peace joy quietnesse assurance for ever In Christ he shall have peace by the Ordinances comfort is to be had and the afflictions would be too sharp and heavie if there were not some mixture of joy But in the world to come we shall have joy to the full what is wanting now shall he supplied then to the uttermost This rich harvest will pay for all the cost and labour and patience good measure pressed downe and running over 3. Of the reaping of that joy first it shall be certaine which no husband-man can promise to himselfe a Christian is sure to reape if he sow All the promises of God are Yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1.20 Secondly it shall be abundant not an hundred for one but a thousand yea millions of degrees beyond our expences a farre more exceeding 4.17 and eternall weight of glory But many a poore husband-man reapes sparingly scarce can pay his rent and live c. Thirdly it shall be in joy onely all teares for ever wiped from our eyes no chaffe among our wheat no darnell nor weeds of any kinde The joy of this harvest is never done the barns never emptied the provisions never spent the labours no more repeated It is no proverb for these husband-men Their worke is never at an end No they rest from their labours and their workes follow them henceforth they are blessed Rev. 14.13 Sorrowfull seed-time breeds Christians a joyfull harvest Doctr. The sorrowfull seed-time of true Christians in the exercises of humiliation and mortification yeelds them a rich ioyful harvest They shall be paid for all sooner or later They sow in righteousnesse and reape in mercy Hos 10.12 they have their fruit unto holinesse and the end everlasting life Rom. 6.22 Reas 1. Because of the promise of God And why This in the Text is uttered by way of promise and there be many the like promises in Scripture which for the matter of them are precious for the manner free for the extent universall and for certainty most faithfull confirmed divers wayes by oath c. 2. Because they are heires of blessing the Israel of God partakers of the heavenly calling and promise Destroy not the cluster for there is a blessing in it Esa 65.8 9. They are as an Oke whose substance is in them though the leaves be cast Chap. 6.13 namely in and by Christ who makes them honourable before God and capable of a sound and lasting joy 3. Because of the precious seed which they beare forth and must bring home againe in the harvest The seed of God abideth in them 1 Joh. 3.9 and they sinne not as the wicked doe that is Rom. 11.29 the gifts and graces of the holy Ghost which are without repentance of an immortall being and immortall in the effect 1 Pet. 1.23 24 25. 4. The very field wherein they sow is ioyous and wholsome I meane the duties they performe and ordinances they frequent Prayer yeelds a comfortable answer of God to the soule The Lords Supper affords much ioy and peace of conscience hearing receives the glad tydings of the Gospel c. In the field lyeth a treasure he that buyes it goes away rejoycing 5. The shedding of these teares preventeth the matter of future sorrow namely the curse of sinne the wrath of God the deadnesse of heart the reigne of lusts the sting and feare of death the bitternesse of persecution Having mourned before and kept even with God from time to time there is the lesse sorrow now to be taken Is not the guiltinesse gone and a sure foundation laid for comfort 6. As the causes of sorrow are removed so the Christian by mourning makes sure to his soule all the causes of true joy Causes of true joy assured by mourning which are the love of God a part in Christ inhabitation of the Spirit the great Comforter the white stone and new name the image of God in the soule the testimony of a good conscience interest in the prayers of all Gods people a sanctified and safe use of all mercies and afflictions joyfull and assured expectation of the glory of heaven Rom. 5.1 2 3. Grant the full and the immediate cause and the effect will follow Objection What say you to the case of desertion Answ It is one day of the sorrowfull seed-time the harvest comes afterward and the Eclipse will soone be over in darkenesse the Lord shall bee a light unto me Mic. 7.8 Some lightsome passages there are in the meane time Sharpe Preachers make you gainers Use 1. If so then by our sharpest preaching you receive damage by us in nothing we make some weepe and take on for their sinnes we wring teares from them wee take them off from their pleasures of sinne which are for a moment But while you are set a sowing in teares you are set into the right way of reaping in joy We give
them and make them fitting to receive his Majesty and therefore sweep your hearts and clense those roomes clense every sinke brush downe every cobweb and make roome for Christ for if thy heart bee prepard and divorced from all corruptions then Christ will come into thy soule and take possession of it Remove therefore all corruptions out of thy heart And when thou hast swept every corner of thy house doe not leave the dust behind the doore for that is a fluts tricke doe not remove sinne out of thy tongue and out of thy eye and out of thy hand and leave it in thy heart No no out with all let every chamber be dressed up let every part and faculty be right disposed that the Lord may come and dwell in thy soule The second motive that may stirre us up to prepare for the Lord Iesus 2. Christ is most worthy for whom we should prepare is his transcendent worthinesse in regard of which all preparation may seeme too little You are not to entertaine an ordinary person it is not a man it is not a King it is not a Monarch but it is a King of Kings that will come into your soules to comfort them yea his holy and blessed Spirit will remaine with you for ever Therefore doe all that possibly may be done to prepare for his comming and for the entertainement and welcomming of him when he comes In Psal 24.7 David calleth upon his owne soule and other of Gods people for so the words are to be expounded there he saith Lift up your heads O yee Gates and be yee lift up yee everlasting doores and the King of glory shall come in As who should say Be enlarged love joy hope set open give way for the Lord is comming But who is the Lord It is the Lord of hostes the Lord strong and mighty the Lord mighty in battell ver 8. And with that he knockes againe Lift up your heads O yee Gates and be yee lift up yee everlasting doores for the King of glory shall come in ver 9. As if he should say What shall the Lord knocke shall the King of glory stand Open suddenly and make all preparation Did David doe thus Why doe you so then Christ knockes by promises hee knockes by judgements hee knockes by threats yea hee speakes this day unto your soules and labours this day to make way for himselfe make therefore all preparation let nothing be wanting that when he comes he may take possession of your soules Particulars and bee a God unto you for ever There will come a great deale of benefit by this meanes unto your soules And this also may encourage us The Lord commeth into our soules not to trouble and charge us no hee commeth to bring everlasting salvation and happinesse to our soules Looke what Christ said to Zacheus Luk. 19.5 8 9. when hee went up into a Sycamore tree to see him Make haste and come downe Zacheus saith he for I must abide with thee in thy house Zacheus made no cavilling but made haste and came downe and received him joyfully And marke what Christ saith unto him This day salvation is come into thine house So likewise it shall be with you when Christ commeth salvation commeth with him when he commeth everlasting happinesse and salvation commeth when Christ commeth goe home and witnesse against all your carnall neighbours that they that refuse Christ and doe not make preparation for him refuse salvation and everlasting happinesse that is offered unto them Amos 4.12 when the Lord had sent a great plague and a heavie judgement upon Ierusalem he saith Thus will I doe unto thee Oh Israel and because I will doe this unto thee prepare to meet thy God O Israel I will doe thus unto thee O Israel that is I will send mildewes plagues and pestilence and famine I will draw you out with hookes and your posteritie with fish-hookes And what followeth Prepare to meet thy God O Israel If God come against us to plague us we must prepare to meet him Reason now with your owne soules upon strong grounds to your everlasting comfort Should the Lord come in judgement to torment us should the Lord come to scourge and punish us if wee must then prepare to meet him then what preparation ought we to make for his comming when hee shall not come thus in judgement to condemne us but in his mercy to save us in his goodnesse to enrich us in his compassion to comfort us then now if ever prepare to meet thy God O Israel Let every heart perswade it selfe of this particular and reason and consider with your owne soules in this case Is Christ so gracious and so mercifull doth he send downe from heaven unto us and say he will come if any man keepe my Commandements I stand at the doore and knocke Rev. 3.20 if any man will open my Father and I will come in and sup and dwell with him Why where is the heart in the meane time And if ever now prepare to meete the Lord. But if neither the judgements of God will perswade us nor the mercies of God allure us yet let the complaints and moanes of Christ Iesus prevaile with you to prepare for him Consider our Saviour Christ hath taken a great journey from heaven to earth to save us miserable wretched and sinfull creatures conceive you saw those streames of bloud trickling downe his cheekes conceive you saw him upon the crosse with his hands thrust thorow with nailes and his side pierced with a speare enduring the wrath of God for our sinnes and behold now hee standeth at the doore and saith with the Church Lam. 1.12 It is nothing to you have you no regard O yee that passe by behold and see if there bee any sorrow like unto my sorrow c. Imagine you heard Christ say I have suffered these and these things for you these hands of mine were nailed this side of mine was pierced this heart of mine was melted with anguish of spirit Imagine you saw Christ standing and knocking at the doore of your hearts as indeed hee doth and say Hoe all you within there hoe all you proud hearts hoe all you covetous and malicious hearts have you no regard of a poore Saviour have you no regard of a crucified Saviour hee that died for you even the bitter death upon the crosse for you and now laboureth to doe good unto you Would not this move you to prepare your your hearts for him and to let him in Nay marke what Christ saith to the Church Cant. 5.2 Open to me my sister my love my dove my undefiled for my head is filled with dew and my lockes with the drops of the night As if hee should say I have had an ill journey a bad way and unkind entertainment and therefore come away my love my dove my undefiled and open unto me So hee saith to every one of our soules This day I have travelled