dawbed with some uncomelinesse or other Will not the colours that look'd so sweetly afarre off stink if you bring them neere your nose Let that bee the first piece of advice Dir. 2 While you enjoy these things take heed of letting out your heart to them rejoyce as if you rejoyced not and use the world as if you used it not be not too much intent upon your fathers house converse not too much with any thing there things of the world have a glutinous quality the heart will cleave to them if you let it lie very long amongst them and if it once cleaves there will bee no wayes but either your heart must be soundly rent upon the severing or hell-fire must part them Dir. 3 Thirdly Ah Learne to live from your fathers house betimes take the wise mans counsell it was after a large survey and discourse of every roome and the vanity of every roome in our fathers house Eccl. 12. 1. Remember thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth if rottennesse enter into the bones it will hardly ever out You that are young for the Lords sake think of this Ah come off your youthfull vanities before they can plead custome with your soules live from home betimes believe it there will bee more weeping else when you come to part Dir. 4 Lastly Crie crie mightily unto God that he would take off your heart Believe it it must be his work you will be wearied else in the multitude of your owne indeavours if the Lord draw off the heart it will be drawne indeed Be much in publique prayer but especially be much in secret prayer I must conclude 2. Br. Lastly you that have been taught of the Lord to forget your fathers house that so the King might desire your beauty Let mee plead with you still to forget it more Selfe-deniall is a long and hard lesson a Christian must be learning it from his cradle to his grave and every time hee studies it hee shall find something to be done that is yet behind and all that he hath done to bee done better you have learned in part how to doe it I need not direct you you need no other directions then 1. To study every day more and more the vanitie of the creature Read over the book of Ecclesiastes well it is enough to teach you that lesson 2. Converse little with your fathers house have as little to doe with the world the pleasures or profits or riches or companie or manners of it as you can the lesser the better 3. Be more acquainted with Jesus Christ get neerer to him bee more in communion with him get more tasts of Heaven Earth will relish the worse for it I might presse upon you the same motives I urged before and I should doe it with advantages you know what this King is how much to bee desired how much to bee odored you know what a difference there is betwixt the worlds comelinesse and the comelinesse which hee putteth upon his Saints Let mee onely urge one word or rather name it Some read the words quia concupivit Because the King hath desired thy beauty here 's an argument an engaging argument to a Saint The Lord hath effectually made it knowne in your soules that hee desires your beauty more than tenne thousands of others Hee hath whispered not onely in your eares but in your heart his desire to you Ah now Christians be you humble self-denying ones because the King hath desired your beauty Let the love of Christ constraine you to order your hearts and conversations as becommeth the Gospell of the Lord Jesus Christ According to the lawes of this King that hath so passionately desired and so effecaciously declared his desire to your beauty I must have done The Lord adde his blessing FINIS
hee hath put upon you Secondly 2. Here 's comfort against all the dirt the world casts upon you all the uncomelinesse they conceit in you who so despicable creatures in the eyes of the world as those men and women whom the Lord delights to honour these are the despised ones upon the backs of these it is that the Plowers plow and make long furrowes they are the upright in heart that they privily bend their bow to shoot at against these are the puttings out of the fingers and the liftings up of the hands upon these are laid all the scoffes of the ungodly and through their weaknesse the barkings of these dogges sometimes trouble them But Christians hath not the King desired your beauty the beauty that these wretches are so blind they cannot see Hath not the King desired it Is it desireable in Christs eyes and despised in their eyes which is the best judge think you is it not enough for you that you please your husband 3. Here 's comfort for you not only against all their scoffes but against all their low esteeme of you David saith I am small and of no reputation Christ was accounted the least in the kingdome of Heaven hee was the stone which the builders refused A man of no fashion in the world who cared for him did any of the Pharisees believe on him The wife you know takes her honour from her husband and usually if hee be accounted one of no fashion shee is not valued at a very high rate Saints though they be indeed the worlds pillars yet in the vulgar estimate they are the worlds burthens and where ever they live they usually live at a low rate in worldlings desires if any of note before turne puritane hee loseth his rate in the worlds thoughts presently the Gentleman loseth his honour the Lady her repute but it is because their prizers have lost their wit and their eyes and it need not much trouble a Saint for Christ desires their beauty still They have put themselves out of the worlds reckoning and heightend themselves in Christ's esteem Despise on fooles the King hath desired these soules beauty Ah! but will a poore misdoubting Christian say I am afraid they have a true object of laughter in me I am afraid I have not that desireable beauty but am a painted sepulchre were I but convinced that I had indeed truly forgot my fathers house and that the Lord Christ had indeed desired my beauty I could naile their scoffes to my heeles and mourne over their gallant follies But I feare 1 Obj. Alas I am going home to my fathers house ever and anon I am ready to yield to temptations ready to fall into sinne yea and the Lord pardon mee I fall seven times a day If I had forgot my fathers house should I have such inclinations to goe home would my heart draw so hard for vanity as it doth sometimes should I sinne so often c. I answ 1. Which way stands your affection your heart you say bends that way but which way stands your affection doe you take pleasure in such inclinations have you a good mind to sinne if you durst to returne to your old vanities if you durst only you durst not that 's an ill signe But upon such inclinations doth there presently arise a loathing in your soules doe you say Get thee behind mee Sathan that 's a good signe that though you be invited by a temptation of vaine company or the Devill c. yet you have truly forgotten your fathers house 2. You goe home sometimes you say it may be you fall into some of your former vaine courses and are with some of your vaine companions But I pray What doe you when you are in your fathers house are you pleased with your vanities or with the vanities of your friends or doe you spend your time in chiding It may be your heart sometimes declines to some vanity or you are sometimes in converse with vain persons Are you one with vanity one with sinners or doe your spirits rise against your selves and against the vanities of those with whom you are What indignation is wrought if any you may have forgot your fathers house for all this going home 3. You goe home sometimes you say But I pray How long doe you stay there Is sinne your trade Doe you live in knowne sinnes this indeed will argue your profession but hypocrisie But on the contrary though you fall through weaknesse yet doe you rise through grace though you sinne sometimes yet is sinne as Davids concupiscence call'd a stranger in the Parable Thus the best Saints have sinn'd yea and may sinne not of wilfulnesse but of weaknesse not trading in sinne nor lying in it but falling into it and rising by repentance 2. Obj. Ah! but will another Christian say I cannot deny my selfe in the company of my fathers house wretch that I am I got acquaintance when I was young with vaine persons or I am related to such and I dare not say but I love their company and oft times leave better for them neither can I deny my selfe in my relations My heart is excessively let out after them 1. Thou saiest thou art oft times yet a companion of vaine persons but consider Christian are they thy invited ghests or accidentall meerly are they intruders or are they the welcome crmpanions of thy life are they thy pickt company or no thy intimates or meerly companions in respect of thy trade and converse with the world If thou delightest not in them they indeed are sometimes thy companions but thou art not theirs 2. Art thou a companion with them in sinne or onely in civill actions or for discourse c. sometimes if the first indeed it is a signe thou hast not left thy fathers house but if the latter onely it is no such signe thou keepest thy course they come to thee and it may be disturbe thee but thou doest not goe to them 3. Thou sayest thou lovest them But it would be considered Whether thy love be meerly naturall or more It may be thou lovest them because they are witty people or of ingenuous dispositions Thus Christ loved the young man Matth. 19. and thus thou mayest love them It is an ill signe if thou lovest them because they will drinke or sweare or bee vain and wanton in their discourse or carriages 4. Thou sayest thou lovest thy relations and thou canst not deny thy selfe in them thy heart is so glued to them c. and God forbid but thou shouldst love them 1. with a naturall affection it s a signe of a wretch Rom. 1. 31. to be without naturall affection and 2. with a providentiall love and care hee that provides not for his family saith the Apostle is worse than an infidell But 1. Suppose Christ should call thee to suffer for him and thou hadst a good mind to it and they should plead hard for thee to spare thy selfe wouldst thou with
Doctrine I will Insist upon Doct. That soule that would have the Lord Jesus Christ desire its beauty must forget its owne people and its Fathers House And whosoever doth that shall bee beautifull And the Lord Jesus shall desire its Beauty In the handling of this Doctrine I shall doe these 5 things 1. I shall shew you what it is for a soule to forget its owne people and its Fathers house 2. I shall shew you how and in what sense the soule that doth it shall be beautifull 3. I shall shew what is meant by the Lord Christs desiring such a soules beauty 4. I shall give you some reasons why it is requisite that the soule that would endeare it selfe to Christ and make it selfe desireable should forget its Fathers house 5. Lastly I shall apply the whole Doctrine suitably First what is meant by the soules owne people and Fathers house and secondly by forgetting of them What was meant in generall I shewed before Our Fathers house is old Adams house the world and all therein I shall now shew you in some particulars First What of our Eathers must bee forgot Secondly how and in what sense we must forget it The first I shall dispatch in these few following particulars as briefely as I can The soule must forget the manners of its Fathers house Our Fathers house ever since God and hee parted houses in Paradise is an house of ill manners an house of sinne and wickednesse Now every soule that would make it selfe beautions or desireable in the sight of Christs eyes must shake hands with sin Is 55. 7. Let the wicked man forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him returne to the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and unto our God and he will abundantly pardon him ay then the King shall desire his beauty but first let him forget the manners of his Fathers house All sinne must bee forgotten But I take it especially foure sorts of sinnes are hinted to us in this Phrase and may more properly be called the sinnes of our Fathers house 1. Originall sinne If we have any thing of Grace or Goodnesse wee never learn'd that at home It is the gift of God through the tutoring of the Spirit But for Sinne wee need not goe abroad to learne that it was bred in the bone that 's one reason why it will never out of the flesh Ez. 16. Tby Father was an Amorite and thy Mother an Hittite We are chilnren of wrath by nature Ephes 2. 3. Psal 51. 4. In sinne did my mother conceive me Now this must be forgotten this is a piece of our Fathers house Men and Women you know are usually borne in their Fathers House We are all borne in the house of bondage which must be forgotten if ever the soule be desireable to Jesus Christ It is a usuall saying of Divines that he that was never truely humbled for Originall sinne was never truely humbled for any sinne 2. The sinnes of our Education The Fathers house is the house where the Childe is brought up All sinne is not bred in us that which is bred in us may bee improved Originall sinne is sinne in the seed Actuall sinne is sinne in the Blade and Fruit. The World is a dusty house you can set a Creature in never a corner of it but it will contract some dust Joseph by being in the King of Egypts house learn'd to sweare by his Masters life According to different breedings are men addicted to different Vanities whether pleasure or honour c. Now when the soul comes unto Christ he must come off these he must forget his Fathers house all his vaine sinfull breeding and all the filth his soule hath contracted by reason of it 3. Sinnes of Conversation and company The Fathers house and the company of it is the childs company those of his Fathers house are his owne people It is true as well for Religion as any thing else Magni refert quibuscum convixeris It is a great matter with whom we converse from accompanying with vaine persons thou shalt learne to bee vaine Cum lupis ululare When the soule comes to Christ it must leave all sins thus contracted they are part of the manders of the Fathers House Paul left his Pharisaisme that he had learnt at Gamaliels feet 4. Customary sinnes must bee left The Child learnes customes in his Fathers House Customary sinning must be left of that soule that would render it selfe for beauty desireable to Jesus Christ Those sinnes which are to the soule as the Leopards spot and the blacknes of the blackamores skinne Inded this is hard Custome hatcheth a second nature Jer. 13. 23. How can you that are accustomed to doe evill do well Yet it must bee done the Fathers house must be forgotten ill customes must be laid aside or good ones wil not be taken up 5. Beloved sinnes must be left Every thing of the Fathers House almost is deare to the child But the dearest sinne must bee shaken hands with Matth. 18. 9. If it bee a right hand it must be cut off if a right eye it must be pluckt out Our Members must be Mortified Col. 3. 5. Thus the maners of our Fathers house must be forgotten All sinnes but especially these sinnes I proceed now Secondly The soule must forget the Company of its Fathers house What is that you will say I will answer you in two particulars 1. Our most near and dearest Relations See Luke 14. 16. If a man commeth to me saith Christ and hateth not Father and Mother and Children and Brethren and Wife and Sisters yea and his own life also he is not worthy of mee He shall not bee so beautifull not so beautifull as that the King shall desire his beauty As it was said Levi did in another sense so must the Saint doe in some sense He must say unto his Father and to his Mother I have not seen him neither must hee acknowledge his Brethren nor know his owne children Otherwise he will never have Levie's Character to bee one that observeth the Lords Word and keeps his Covenant Not that Religion teacheth or commandeth or indureth a Saint to break the tyes of all Religion No besides that it doth not discharge a Saint of his Duty of Nature it puts in a Plea also against such unnaturalnesse Honour thy Father and Mother c. is the fifth Commandement the first with promise saith the Apostle neither doth it allow a Saint to rob his parents of their due with saying Corban it is a gift The Ravens of the valleys shall picke out the eyes of such persons as well as the Devill hath done of their Religion Neither doth it discharge a Saint of his providentiall duty and respect to his relation Hee that provides not for his Family is worse than an Infidell 1. In point of due honour 2. In point of naturall affection 3. In point of Providentiall care Wee must not forget the
soule worthy of him though not through its owne worthinesse and suitable for him 2. It implies That the Lord Jesus Christ shall love such a soule discovering in it a suitable excellency he shall love it his heart will be ravished with it Cant. 4. 9. Thou hast ravished my heart my sister my spouse thou hast ravished my heart Christs affections will be drawne out to a soule that so forgets it selfe his heart will bee melting towards it and on fire for it there must first bee a love in the soule to the object before the heart bee drawne forth to covet an union with it 3. It implies That the Lord Christ will in his heart preferre such a soule when a mans desire is towards a particular woman to make her his wife he preferres her above other women his desire is not to her sex but to her to her rather than ten thousand others The Lords desire shall bee towards such a soule As you have heard described to you that hee will preferre her above ten thousand of his creatures though the Lord sees thousands of his creatures hundreds in a congregation that the world dotes upon some for their faire faces and on others for their brave parts this Eliab and the other Shammah yet the Lord that sees all and can judge best lets Eliab and Shammah passe and fixeth his eye upon this selfe denying in the world despised creature and upon it hee fixeth his heart and prizeth such a soule above all the other trumperies and kickshawes of beauty The Lord culs out such a soule his desire is towards her shee is the Esther hee picks out and such a soul is more preferred in Christs eye than this witty man or woman or that gallant this Lord or that Lady Christ hath no desire to them but to this soule his desire is 4. It implies That Jesus Christ will indeavour and effect an union and enjoy such a soule what is the meaning of that phrase the man's desire shall be to his wife but he shall desire to be joyned in marriage to her that they may bee no longer twaine but one flesh and if his desire be towards her and it be a feasible thing he will effect it if shee consent and friends consent c. The Lords desire shall be to the soule that is the Lord Jesus Christ shall indeavour yea and unite himselfe to effect an union with such a soul he shall wooe it yea and shee shall yield for when hee works who can let him Christ will marry himselfe to such a soule make a marriage covenant and tie himselfe in a marriage bond to it for though in man desire may bee frustrated so that desire and enjoyment are two things yet it is necessarily to be understood in Christs desiring whose power is such that hee shall not need starve his desire longer than he pleaseth 5. It implies That the Lord Jesus Christ will court neare communion with such a soule mark how he speaks to the Spouse Cant 2. 14. O my Dove that art in the clefts of the rocks in the secret places of the staires let me heare thy voice for sweet is thy voice and thy countenance comely hee will not onely have communion but hee will covet communion with such a soule hee will desire to have it draw nigh and dwell in his presence to have it come neare him in a duty in an ordinance c. 6. Lastly Hee will love such a soule with a constant and inseparable love it is said The King shall desire thy beauty he shall desire it and never cease desiring of it hee shall for ever desire thy beauty And thus I have opened to you all the three termes now I come to the second taske As I have gone along in opening the generals in severall particulars I have proved the Doctrine that it is so But may some say what ground is there that the Lord Jesus Christ should desire this of every soule that hee will love and marry and have communion with that it should thus forsake its owne people and its fathers house why should Christ hold the soule to this hard meat I shal therefore in the next place shew you the reasons of it And there is a very great deale of Reason for it 1. Because it is the very law of marriage Gen. 2. 24. Therefore shall a man forsake father and mother and cleave to his wife The Lord Christ marries himselfe to the soule It is written I will betroth thee unto mee yea I will betroth thee unto mee for this cause the soule shall forsake its owne people and its fathers house and shall cleave to its Christ for this cause because the soule is married or about to marry to the Lord Jesus Christ and therefore must look to doe as married persons use to doe leave all for their husband 2. A second reason is because while the soule lives at home with its owne people and at its fathers house it cannot be beautifull nor desirable Our owne people are a filthie people our fathers house a nastie house the soule while it hath left that cannot be beautifull nor desirable The most beautifull creature you know if shee bee brought up by sluttish people as wee say and goes in a filthy habit there is a cloud cast over her beauty So it is with a soule while it hath left its sins and vaine company and pride and ambition and pleasures and riches and selfe-righteousnesse it cannot be beautifull in Christs eyes Now beauty is the attractive of the soule the soule must see a beauty in that which it lets out it selfe to in desiring let that be a second reason 3. Because there cannot bee a cleaving to Christ unlesse there be a parting with these Christ requires the highest love of our soules it is the first commandement you know with our Saviours glosse upon it Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy soule Hence Christ tels us no man can serve two masters you cannot serve God and Mammon that soule that will hug sin must hate God that soule that will be a companion of Jesus Christ and a companion of Saints must not be a companion of sinners for what fellowship hath Christ with Belial righteousnesse with unrighteousnesse light with darknesse the temple of God with Idols and so the rest Your soule cannot love two thengs with an highest love 2. You cannot in heart truly cleave to two contraries There is a third reason especially if you consider 4. That God is a jealous God you meet with the phrase often and given as a reason why they should doe this or that For the Lord thy God is a jealous God Jealousie is a passion in the soule non patiens consortium in re amatà saith Aquinas that will not indure or that makes the soule that it will not indure any sharing in the object beloved The woman that hath a jealous husband must leave all her old
I have at last done with my first use of Instruction I proceed now to a second and that shall bee of examination Vse 2 Are you willing now to know Christians whether Jesus Christ cares for you yea or no whether you be desirable in his eyes yea or no heaven and hell hang upon this thing Trie whether you have forgotten your owne people and your fathers house The most men and women are afraid of the touchstone and are willing rather to take heaven for granted though they find hell for certaine but this is not safe with you Trie your selves then Christians I will helpe you a little in so good a work 1. If you have forgotten your fathers house you have first seene a great deale of folly and vanity in it Man is a reasonable creature and will never leave any thing but he will see some cause to leave it Did the Lord ever yet convince you throughly not with a Notionall but an heart conviction of the folly of your fathers house Did the Lord ever throughly convince you of your evill wayes the sinnes of your natures the customary sinnes of your lives of your education sinnes and your beloved sinnes Had you ever a through conviction of the vanity of your evill company the vanity of your pleasures and carnall delights Did your soules ever tast a reall bitternesse in them if not I feare me you have not left them 2. Have you had another excellency discovered to your soules Had your souls ever yet a reall discovery made to you of the excellency of the wayes of holines these wayes that you once hated Doe you now see a beauty a glory in them so much that you can even stand and hold up your hands and admire that you should be blind so long A present pleasant thing will scarce bee left but upon a discovery of and an obtaining of something more excellent Christians under what notion do you look upon Christ and his wayes Do you look upon them as excellent the wayes of strictnesse as excellent sanctifying a Sabboth praying the frequenting of the communion of Saints Doe you look upon them as excellent If you doe not I feare mee you but cheat your selves with a conceit that you have forgot your fathers house 3. If you have parted with them I am afraid it cost you some teares you did not part with so many friends with drie eyes friends cannot ordinarily pats without teares but your weeping hath not beene such a weeping if it hath been true it hath not been because you have parted with them but because you abode with them so long it hath for measure been like the mourning of him that hath lost his onely begotten sonne Zach. 12. 10. but not upon the same account not because you must now part with them but because you embraced them so long See the effects of godly sorrow 2 Cor. 7. 11. it worketh carefulnesse and indignation c. Were your soules ever in such a true bitternesse for sinne that it wrought in thee an indignation against your selves that you could even eat your owne flesh to think you should ever have been such a vaine wanton wretch such a proud sinner as you have been This is a good signe you and your fathers house are parted and that at the parting you sorrowed after a godly sort 4. If ever you truly parted with it both at the parting and since too you have found something to doe with your owne spirit some struglings and combatings with your selfe Before you parted you were at a dispute with your soules shall I leave this or that corruption or shall I not and since you have been at some debates with your spirit shall I goe home againe shall I returne to such a vomit to such a wallowing in the mire even Paul himselfe found the law in his members warring against the law of his mind and bringing him into captivity to the law of sinne Rom. 7. 23. the flesh lusting against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these contrary one to another Gal. 5. 17. I dare almost say that that soule never conquerd sinne that is not yet in combate with it never truly overcame it that is not still in combate never yet forgot its fathers house that hath not some strong inclinations sometimes to be going to its old home againe and sometimes finds not that it hath something to doe to keep his heart from a second time embracing what it hath beene once ashamed of 5. Doe you make Christ all your delight and your sole delight is hee to you solus desideria totus desideria Are your hearts taken more with Christ than with all the world besides and so taken with your husband that nothing of him nor from him displeaseth you can you bee content with Christ alone and say with David to the Lord Thou art my portion could you quest all things else for him and is there nothing of him but seemes lovely to you doe his strictest lawes seem excellent to you Is hee excellent to you in the intent of his Kingly office as well as in the comfort of his Priestly office doth his very yoke seem easie and his burthen seem light to you 6. Do you abide with Christ as the wife abides with the husband and the branch abides in the vine every true branch abides in him Joh. 15. 4. is your dwelling with him or are you onely religious by fits the hypocrite may bee so religions but the Saint makes the Lord his dwelling place Which is that which you count your home the best of Gods Saints may have some inclinations to vanity and be sometimes trading with the world Ah! but Christ is his home Christ is his dwelling place hee thinkes himselfe in a strange place when he is not with Christ in duties of holy communion Christian which is thy element Is your soule in its element when it is conversing with things below Christ that 's an ill signe by these things you may take a scantling of your owne haarts The Lord help you in applying these things to your soules I proceed to a 3d use Here 's comfort to the Saints joy to the upright in heart especially 1. Against all the uncomelinesse and indesireablenesse the Saint apprehends in himselfe There 's none so comely as the Saint in Christs eyes nor any so uncomely and ugly in their owne eyes Paul cries out O wretched man that I am Rom. 7. 24. and againe I am as one borne out of due time the least of the Apostles not worthy to be call'd an Apostle 1 Cor. 15. 8 9. It is an usuall account the Saints give of themselves ah wretched creatures poore indesireable wretches hard-hearted sinners vile persons c. Bee of good cheare Christian The King hath desired thy beauty thou art black in thine owne eyes but comely in Christs eyes Black in respect of thy merit but comely in respect of imputation comely through the comlinesse that