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
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
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
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
love Christ I say neither thou nor I can doe it by any power or vertue in our selues nay I say thou art as able to save thy owne soule and to redeeme thy selfe without Christ as thou art able to love Christ unlesse he by the power of his spiritenable thee to doe it Nay you that make nothing of it to loue Christ marke what I say If a man might have happinesse in hand and heaven laid downe upon the nayle if he could love the Lord Iesus of himselfe I say if he had no more but nature he would never goe to heaven nor never bee happy Nay it will cost more than so it will cost time and paines and many teares and prayers you must have the Father come downe from heaven to teach you and you must goe to another schoole than ever you were at yet before you can learne it and unlesse the Father make you able to loue Christ you can never doe it It is true if it were nothing but pratling and professing and yet to stand in open opposition to the power of grace and the spirit this cannot bee for to welcome a Saviour to receive Christ answerable to the worth of him a man cannot doe it by the meere power of nature it is the worke of the Lord as the Apostle Saint Iohn saith 1 Ioh. 1.5 God is light and in him is no darknesse and Ephes 5.8 You were darknesse God is nothing but holines and you are nothing but darknesse Now you know darknesse can oppose light and wickednesse can oppose holinesse but never give way to it nor receive it This is thy nature and condition thou hast an ignorant darke heart of thine owne but the Lord is altogether holines and light and thou canst not receive it nor wilt thou receiue him As 2 Thess 2.10 they would not receive the truth of God in the loue of it the truth of God makes love to thy carnall heart and would plucke thee from thy base lusts and corruptions and would woo and winne thy soule that it might take place in thy heart the world will not receive it Iesus Christ came into the world to save sinners but the world would not receive him so farre were they from seeking to a Saviour that they would not receiue him though he came to offer himselfe to them thou hast a heart that hatest Iesus Christ and cannot loue him and thou hast a heart that can oppose him and his grace but canst not take contentment in that grace and rich mercy of his if thou hast not grace and mercy thou hast but what thou wouldst haue and therefore it is just thou shouldest never haue it The second cause Saints Iove not as they might and should because they rely not on the promise why I presse this instruction is this To shew the disorderly proceedings of many poore Saints that labour extremely to worke their owne soules and to bring their hearts to love Christ that they even fall out with themselues and curse their base hearts that can loue the world and cannot loue Iesus Christ they labour much and would bring their hearts to loue him but they cannot doe it because they goe to worke the contrary way they would bring loue to the promise and not receive love from the promise as if a man should bring water to the sea or light to the sunne It is as if he would have a sun of his owne and yet there is but one sunne of righteousnesse that can kindle this loue of Iesus Christ to carry it selfe worthy of him Therefore be wise herein and thinke not to bring love to the promise but come to the promise for it and goe to the sea for water and looke up to the sunne of Gods loue and be under the beames of Gods mercy and looke not down into that dead frozen heart of thine own for if thou wouldst never so faine thou canst not receive one sparkle of this love from thy owne abilities See his love therein and bee thereby drawne to love him againe and see the fulnesse of those pleasures at his right hand which endure for ever Ioh. 16.14 the Lord Christ saith He shall send the Spirit the Comforter and he shall take of mine that is take of Christs All spirituall graces are Christs therefore goe thou thy way and tell the Lord thus much saying In truth Lord I have not a heart to love thee it is thine owne worke and thou hast sayd that thy spirit shall take of thine and give it to thy servants that thy servants may also give thee of thine owne againe that love and that delight is thine to give that wee may giue thee of thine owne as David spoke of the building of the Temple Thus much of the use of instruction Vse 2. Comfort to them that love Christ In the second place here is a strong consolation to sustaine and refresh the hearts of those that have received this gracious worke though they haue some small weaknesses it skills not be the worke sound it is enough thy soule may bee comforted that the Lord hath enlarged himselfe to thee in this gracious worke I say it is a ground of admirable sweet refreshing of soule to any that finde this gracious love unto Christ A man by nature cannot have this therefore hast thou this by grace Goe thy way as he that hath found a treasury and make much of it and say and know thou hast something more than all carnall wretches can have and thou hast more than all the cunning close-hearted hypocrites under heaven can have let them pretend and fain and flatter what they will Me thinks this should wonderfully refresh the hope of you poore ones for though many times other things goe not well with you yet this is enough to cheare up your hearts for ever You know a childe will loue his father though hee can doe little for him he is a child and therefore though he can doe little for his father yet if he love his father hee is contented so they that haue little meanes and small sufficiencies towards any servants of God and it may be their understandings are not so deepe as others be and their tongues runne not so glib as such and such and they cannot talke so freely of the things of grace and salvation and thou hast meaner parts and canst not enlarge thy self in holy duties and holy services though this is commendable where it is and thou canst not dispute for a Saviour and perform such duties as others can doe yet thou canst loue Iesus Christ and reioyce in him Methinkes there is many a poore soule would say I blesse the name of the Lord that 's all that I haue the Lord knowes that all the friends I have and parts and meanes and abilities in the world they are but as dung and drosse in comparison of Christ Oh it were the comfort of my soule if I might be euer with him Goe thy
way and the God of heaven goe with thee this is a worke of God that will never leaue thee and it is a badge and a proper livery that the Lord Iesus gives onely to his Saints never a meere professor under heauen ever wore it nay there was never any hipocrite under heauen to whom God did intend it but onely those whom he hath effectually called and whom hee will save therefore though thou wantest all thou hast all to comfort thee in the want of all and thou maist say I can say little for Christ my tongue falters and my memory is weake yet the Lord knowes I loue the Lord Iesus 1 Ioh. 4.7 it is the incouragement that the Apostle gives saying Love one another for love commeth of God and every one that loveth is borne of God Indeed he presseth it in regard of the love to the brethren but the arguments serve for our purpose for if the loue of the brethren come from God then the loue of God is a more speciall worke of God Therefore can you plead thus with your hearts and say The time was Lord that this wretched sinfull carnall heart of mine could find no relish in the promises of grace and I could not bring this base heart to love the Lord Iesus Christ and the promise was wearisome to me but now I thanke God I can doe that which before I could not doe I thanke God that the promise of life and the light of Gods countenance is more to me now than all the contentments of the world surely I loue the Lord Iesus Christ And is not this of God Yes I warrant theee it is not of thy selfe thou hast beene taught from heaven it was not the schoole of the flesh and the world that taught thee this lecture it is from heaven and the Spirit of the Father hath over-shadowed thee in his promise and hath kindled this sparkle of loue in thee and thou hast that which is sound and true therefore bee comforted and reioyce in it thou canst say more than any man under heaven can say that hath not this sound love in his heart And likewise blessednesse And as this is a ground of comfort so also it is a ground of blessednesse Rom. 8.28 All things worke for the bâ—st to those that loue God Me-thinkes the Apostle speakes of such a love as is wrought by the Spirit of the Father in our vocation they worke for the best to those that are called according to his purpose he minded well towards them and called them from the love of the world And therefore since nothing can harme thee goe thy way and let nothing dismay thee nor discourage thee nay goe away ever cheered I charge you David desired no more but what God was wont to doe to his children that loved his name Doe to mee saith the Text as thou usest to doe to those that loue and feare thy Name Psal 119.132 I know thou lovest them that love thee and wilt save and glorifie them in the end I desire no more but this Doe as thou usest to doe to those that love thy Name Be quieted with thy childs part thy lot is fallen into a marvellous faire ground David a King desired no more and if thou hast so much as hee had it is enough Ob. Oh but some will say this is all the difficulty if a man had this love which came from God effectually calling him it were enough and a man might have comfort in it but there is a great deale of false love and false ioy in the world therefore how shall I know whether mine be any otherwise than theirs that I may not bee deceived as they are How may I know if this be of the right stamp For if it be right love God will owne it Answ Notes of true love to Christ Now for the answer to this question let every man put his love vpon the triall and wee will say no more then that which we have ground for from the doctrine delivered Therefore examine thy loue and thy joy thus Whether dost thou welcome Christ and grace according to the worth of them Now marke this if I prove I love God then there will be joy there too for they both grow upon one root onely this joy hath a little more of the sweetnesse of Gods love in it Now whether we welcome Christ according to the worth of it it will appeare by these five particulars First observe the roote and rise from whence thy love came 1. Triall consider this and weigh it sadly for it is of great difficulty yet it is never failing and it is the narrowest search that I know of therefore looke well to it if it come from the right mint it is currant You know it is the priviledge of Kings and Princes Simile that all the coine that comes from his Mint and is coined with his stamp is warrantable but if there bee any other Mint the King will not allow of it but rather punish him that did it lust so it is with this love it is the priviledge of the Lord Iesus Christ the Sonne of Gods love to mint and to coine love that may bee currant love indeed that hee may take for good payment Therefore doth thy love come from the Spirit of the Father then it is onely fit to close with a Saviour with the Father and the Spirit and so consequently the Father allowes it Great men must bee entertained answerable to their persons Another for such a man to have poore and leane diet it is not meet for him the greatest delicates that can be doe beseeme such men of place So this leane and earthly and naturall love that growes onely out of thy owne parts and abilities or whatsoever it is it is but leane love and poore provision and suites not with God the Father nor Iesus Christ Base love and base things for base men and meane love for meane things and naturall love for naturall things but would you entertaine the Father from heaven and a spirituall Saviour then you must let your love be spirituall to welcome a blessed Saviour This besuits him Simile and otherwise he will not be entertained As it is with flowers the flowers that are of speciall planting as Ieremy speaks of the Iewes and the flowers that are inoculated by the hand of the cunning Gardiner as the Provice Rose or the like there is much care and paines about them but your ordinary hedge row Roses there is no care taken for them Iust so it is with the worke of Gods grace and all other common graces in the world there is a provice love and joy that is a love that comes from the planting and a joy that comes from the inoculating of the spirit This provice love and joy is wrought by the Spirit of God and this makes a sweet savour in the nostrils of Almighty God and of the Lord Iesus Christ and the Lord
Christ will say Oh that love pleaseth me They cannot welcome the Lord better than with this love but the other love and joy pleaseth him not Canst thou say I love the Lord because hee hath loved mee then thy love is of a right mettall and know it for ever that that God which cannot but love himselfe hee cannot but like that love which came from himselfe who is the God of all love and which comes from his owne divine nature Is thy soule affected and enlarged in love to the Lord because thou hast felt and received the rellish and sweetnesse of his grace Dost thou love and joy in God upon this ground namely upon a grounded affection of Gods loue to thee setled and sealed to thy selfe so that thou canst say The Lord hath let in the glimpse of his favour and the Lord hath said it in his truth hee lookes to him that trembles at his word the Minister said it and the Spirit saith it that my mercy is registred in heaven and my desires are received and granted Oh how shall I love the Lord My sinnes are many which I have bewailed and my sighes and sobs I have put up to heaven and at last the Lord hath given mee a gracious answer O how may I love the Lord my strength dearly Lord thou hast looked downe from heaven in love and mercy upon me and therefore my soule shall ever looke up to heaven to thee in love If it be thus with thee thy love is sound and will never faile thee but if any mans love comes from himselfe and therefore loves God that love will onely bring all to himselfe and there is the end of it A man hath a love to his parts and abilities and prayer and preaching and reading and conference and understanding and policy hee loveth these and therefore he would fain be beholden to Iesus Christ to helpe him to honour and to glorifie these parts of his This love was from his parts and brought to his parts and in the meane time the Lord Iesus lay in the dust and his glory was not regarded whereas the love that is wrought by God it alwayes doth draw the love of the soule againe to God and so love from him draws love to him This is the excellencie of this love and this is love of the right kind But if the love of parts and profits draw me to honour and glorifie parts and profits then I love my profits and not Christ Thinke of this often this is certaine this will bee the mainest difference betweene all the love of carnall hypocrites and of the Saints of God I would expresse my selfe to you thus As it is with meat which a man takes downe inwardly and digests it this breeds good bloud but that meate which a man eates and spits out againe and tarries not long with him this breeds no bloud at all So it is in the heart of a poore humbled sinner truely wrought upon to receive Christ in the worth of him and with the hypocrite A heart truely wrought upon by Gods Spirit it takes downe the promise and feeds upon it and it breeds good bloud and complexion True love is like this good bloud and true joy is like this complexion Marke this the promise of God settled upon the heart nourisheth and feedeth the heart and it breeds good bloud but the foolish hypocrite that hath a kind of flattering sweetnes this tickles the heart with vaine conceits but they never goe downe And hence it is that that love which comes from hence it is but a fading love and there is no good bloud nor no good complexion comes from it but rather corruptions and overture Secondly 2. Triall as the root of this love must be from the kindling of the Spirit so if thou entertaine thy Saviour as it beseemes him True love of Christ entertains him as a King thou must entertaine him as a King and that is thus give up all to him and entertaine none with him upon termes of honour but such as retaine to him or be attendants unto him this is the manner of receiving great Princes Love all in a Christ and for a Christ but expresse thy love and thy joy to a Christ above all he is as the King and all the rest are but as retainers and all his servants are as servants to him He that loves any thing equall with a Christ it is certaine he did never love a Christ but he that sets up any thing cheeke by joll with Christ he despiseth him and never receives him It is all one as if a man did put a slave into the same chamber with the King which is all one as to drive him away So if thou dost set up any thing with Christ thou dost drive him away with such base behaviour As in Iames 4.4 O yee adulterers and adulteresses know yee not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is an enemy of God A man cannot retaine fellowship with Christ Iesus and with the world too upon point of honour Simile As the woman that loves her husband she loveth other men as friends and neighbours and will give them very courteous entertainment and welcome them kindly but if they come to claime the love of a wife she abhorres and detests them So a loving heart that loves Iesus Christ as the Bridegroome he loves Christ onely and all for Christ and the rest as friends c. The soule wil love honors or profits or credit or parts and priviledges that they may be friends to speake for a man and to give a man occasion to speake with a Saviour as the wife loves the husband firstly and all the rest she regards onely as they may further the match this way so the Lord Christ and his grace is chiefe to the soule but the world and ease and credit these are meerely as friends to leade him to a Saviour and make him acquainted with a Saviour The soule loves the word and prayer and all Gods ordinances to speake a good word to a Saviour for him but all the rest are despised by him and if any of them come to claime the love of a soule from a Christ it hates them deadly as Luke 14.26 If any man come to mee and hate not father and mother in comparison of me he is not worthy of mee that is if father and mother stand betweene thee and Christ and would have thy soule married to them again the soule hates them This is a plaine difference betweene a sound heart and a false heart in the receiving of Christ the sound heart receives him as a favorite receives a Prince he gives up all to him Simile and lets him have the command of all but now an Inne-keeper entertains him that comes next to him he will take any mans money and will give welcome to any man if it bee the best man
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
doth Luke 19.27 Those mine enemies which would not that I should raigne over them bring hither and slay them before me He will say Bring hither that enemy of mine he hath opposed mee and grieved my spirit and sleighted my mercy bring my enemies hither not the Heathens or Pagans I regard not them so much but him that hath beene a hater of me and of my Gospel and then shalt thou see the intolerablenesse and unavoydablenesse of thy punishment Oh poore soule what wilt thou say or doe when thou art put to such a plunge as Josephs bowels did earne within him when hee talked with his brethren that he could forbeare no longer I wish that I had a heart to mourne in secret for thee I say what will become of thee poore wretch Happely thou wilt say there is mercy It 's true but thou hast hated that mercy which should save thee or wilt thou thinke that the blood and merits of the Lord Jesus will save thee thou hast trodden upon them Wilt thou say The good spirit of the Lord will prevaile with this wretched heart of mine with what heart canst thou crave aide from the spirit when thy owne conscience can say I have hated that good spirit of the Lord and that mercy which should save mee And when all is done and thou art come to the period goe your way home to your husbands and wives and mourn for them for there is neither mercy nor Christ for them for they also have hated him And when this is done imagine thou didst see the heavens opened and the fire melting round about thee and the Lord Christ coming in flaming fire rendering vengeance to all that obey not the Gospel lay thy hand upon thy breast say that 's I Lord that 's my husband or my childe he is come against us to render vengeance to them that have lived with mee and have opposed the Gospel and the riches of grace and of mercy in Jesus Christ Thinke of these in Gods name and labour to prevent them here that thou mayest bee freed from the punishment of them hereafter Love the Lord Jesus in sinceritie Use 4. The last use is for Exhortation Oh that God would please to worke our soules to this duty which the Saints take up and all of us ought to labour after You heare how the Lord works in the hearts of his and how they which are truely called of God have this love kindled in their hearts Oh therefore what remaines but onely this bee exhorted since you see the way to walke in it and since we see what the Saints of God have and doe let us labour to expresse this frame of heart that so the Lord Jesus may make us partakers of their hapnesse I say let us labour after it and when we have it expresse our loves to the Lord Jesus Christ as wee ought It was that which tooke up the heart of David Psal 18.1 when hee saith I will love thee deerely O Lord my strength As it is with a woman with child though the infant in the wombe have life yet the mothers love is not so great towards it till it bee borne but then she clasps her armes about it with much tendernesse so hee saith I will embrace the Lord with much love I will love him as if hee had said All the world shall not hinder mee but I will love him though I love not my selfe and hee perswades all the Saints of God to do the like Psa 31. 23. saying Love the Lord all ye his Saints who will you love if you love not him Oh you poore ones love you the Lord for you have need of him and all you rich ones love you the Lord for you have cause to doe it and you little ones too if there be any such in the congregation he knockes at every mans doore and perswades every mans heart and he deales faithfully with his Saints therefore if you have but this grace it is an undoubted argument that you are the Saints of God nay though out of thy blindnesse thou couldst never know the way to Christ and out of thy weakenesse thou couldst never close with Christ yet if thou wilt but love him thou shalt know him and be with him for ever 1 Joh. 4 12.16 No man hath seene God at any time God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him If thy heart be perswaded to continue in God and to be with God for ever then love him and he will dwell in thee for he is love it selfe for so saith the Apostle Love is of God Ob. Oh but some will say it is true we know it is fitting and we ought to doe it but it is a difficult thing and we are unable to doe it though we know it is requisite to be done To love the Lord Jesus we find is a difficult worke and hard although the world thinke it not so Ans I would to God you did finde it difficult and marke what I say that man never loved Christ aright who found it not difficult He that saith Oh such an one as will not love the Lord Jesus it is pitty he should live it is to be feared he did never love Jesus Christ aright Poore silly deluded creature it will cost thee hot water before that day yet when thou hast it it will quit all thy cost and labour Oh but some will say Means to love Christ what are the meanes to prevaile with us and how may wee draw our sturdy rebellious waiward hearts to this love of Jesus Christ I referre the meanes to these three heads 1. First there are some hinderances to be removed 2. Secondly labour to see the beauty and excellencie of Jesus Christ in the promise 3. Thirdly when the promise is come neere and the heart made empty then learne the skill to make the soule and the promise meet Meanes 1. First that you may love the Lord Christ there are some hinderances which lye upon the heart which are marvellous causes of dissention between Jesus Christ and the soule and these must be taken away Now the hinderances of this sort are these three Hinderance 1. The first is this To take off the soule from the love of these base things here below I beseech you observe it be marvellous wise that you lavish not out your soules upon these lying vanities for as it is with a streame Simile if the banke be cut and all the streame run that way then the proper chanell must needs lie dry because all the streame runs another way so is it with the streame of a mans affections if the stream of love joy be let out upon profits or pleasures or honours you cannot have spend you cannot have your affections still when you have spent them upon other things therefore bee sure to knocke them off from the world that you may give them wholly to the Lord.
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
THE SOULES IMPLANTATION INTO THE NATURALL OLIVE By T.H. Carefully corrected and much enlarged with a Table of the Contents prefixed JAMES 1.21 Receive with meeknesse the ingraffed Word which is able to save your soules LONDON Printed by R. Young and are to be sold by Fulke Clifton on New-Fish-street-hill 1640. THE CONTENTS TWo wayes God prepareth the heart for Christ Pag. 1 It is also prepared by contrition and humiliation 2 Doct. None but a broken heart is an house for Christ 3 Two lets of faith removed by brokennesse of heart 6 By faith the soule goeth out to another for all-sufficiencie 11 Use 1. Reproofe to them that would have comfort without brokennesse of heart 15. and them that dislike broken-heartednesse in others 18 Use 2 To get comfort begin in sorrow 22 Use 3 Comfort to the broken-hearted in two respects 25 Doct. The heart must first be prepared for Christ 31 Preparation for Christ standeth in three things 35 Use 1. Those reproved who thinke to have mercie and heaven upon a sudden 40 Use 2 A miserable estate to live in the old sinnes 47 Use 3 Prepare for Christ or thinke not to enjoy him 55 Motives to prepare for Christ 56 Doct. The Ministery a speciall meanes to prepare us for Christ 68 A powerfull ministery consisteth in three things 71 How a powerfull Ministery workes upon the heart to prepare it for Christ 79 Affliction prepares the heart for the Word the Word for God 88 Use 1. Much fault in Ministers that their peoples hearts are not fitted for Christ 84 Use 2 Fearfull is their estate whom a powerfull Ministerie workes not upon 88 Use 3 Let the Word be powerfull to prepare thy heart for Christ 90 Two things keep from Christ 95 What ingraffing into Christ is 99 Doct. Christ delayes not to come into an humbled heart 106 Use 1. Great comfort to each humbled soule 114 Use 2 They are of a naughtie spirit who endure not broken spirits 118 Use 3 Chuse the broken-hearted for companions 120 Use 4 Be thankefull for this great respect of Christ to thy poore soule 122 Use 5 They that would have Christ dwell in them must be willing to be humbled 125 Christ neare the soule yet not discerned for foure reasons in us 133. and for three reasons in Christ 147 Doct. Christ takes possession of every humbled soule 157 Three wayes he disposeth the heart to himselfe 168 Use 1. Reproofe of them that keepe Christ out of possession 171 Use 2 Give all to Christ whose it is 176 Doct. Love and joy by the Spirit wrought in a broken heart for embracing mercie as it deserves 180 The reason of Gods order in working these graces 187 Gods promise the ground of our love and how 195 His love to us begets love in us toward him and how 201 Use 1. Nature breeds no love to Christ 206 Saints love not duly because they rely not on the promise 211 Use 2 Comfort to them that love Christ 213. and blessednesse 216 Notes of true love to Christ 217 Use 3 Reproofe of them that love not Christ in truth 231. sorts of them 238 Enmitie against Christ shewed three wayes 240 Glozing neuters described and shamed 243 Hypocrites enemies to Christ foure sorts of them 246 247 c. Discoveries of not loving Christ 250 Hee thas wrangles against truth never loved Christ 2. arg 254 Expression of sorrow for sin limited 258 Continuall sorrow as needfull as continuall beleeving 261 Use 4 Love the Lord Jesus in sinceritie 272. meanes 273 Three hinderances of loving Christ ibid. 274 Three things in Christ to make us love him 282 Three things done by Christ for a sinner though as yet hee want assurance 286 Two meanes to bring our hearts and the promises together 291 Doct. In greatest wants true Christians have cause enough to rejoyce in God 300 Use 1. Reteine comfort in God whatsoever thou wantest 302 Use 2 Reproof to them that grow uncomfortable for crosses 304 Use 3 Make this sure God is the God of my salvation 305 Six meanes to rejoyce in evill times ibid. Doct. The sorrowful seed-time of true Christians in the exercises of humiliation and mortification yeelds them a rich and joyfull harvest 312. 313 Causes of true joy assured by mourning 314 Use 1. Sharpe Preachers make you gainers ibid. 315 Use 2 Enemies helpe the joy of Christians 315 Use 3 Esteeme none by present grievances 316 Use 4 Sow still though in teares ibid. Use 5 Be patient in suffering for God 317 Use 6 Comfort in death our owne or friends 318 Use 7 Be painfull in thy calling ibid. Use 8 Encouragement to repent of sinne and renew our repentance 319 THE BROKEN HEART ESAY 57.15 For thus saith the high and loftie One that inhabiteth eternity whose Name is holy I dwell in the high and holy place that is in heaven which is his throne and I will dwell with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the heart of the humble and the heart of the contrite ones THere are two maine parts of the preparative worke for Christ First the manner of the worke on Gods part and this discovers it selfe in these two particulars 1. In proposing Christ in the Ministerie of the Gospell as the most beautifull object which the soule can view or affect Psal 2.12 Cant. 5.9 with 6.1 2. That God doth by an holy kind of violence plucke the sinner from sinne to himselfe as in that place Iohn 6.44 No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him The second is on our part a frame and temper of the heart that God workes upon us by this holy kind of violent drawing This discovers it selfe in these two particulars 1 Contrition 2 Humiliation For the handling of these two wee have chosen this place of Scripture And I intend not to trade with every particular in the Verse but so much in it as fitteth my intendment in hand Expos That which I aime at is in the middle of the Verse I dwell with him that is of a broken heart Give me leave to open the words The great God of heaven that inhabiteth eternity in glory for the comfort of every poore broken-hearted sinner Gods two houses saith hee will dwell with him The Lord hath but two standing houses the one is in heaven in glorie the other is every broken heart and every shivered soule How he dwels in the heart Now how doth God dwell in the heart of a poore sinner The Apostle Ephes 3.17 tells us Christ dwells in our hearts by faith and it implies the constant abode of Christ by his Spirit in the soule being received and entertained by faith So that first there must bee a broken heart before there can bee faith or before Christ will dwell in our hearts to our comfort Consider what a kind of heart it must be wherein God will dwell It must bee an humble and a shivered spirit
his distempers and wil not looke to a Saviour the Son of righteousnesse is come and shines and hee perceiues it not And as Phillip said Iohn 14.8 Shew us the Father and it sufficeth Then Iesus saith unto him have I beene so long a-time with you and yet hast thou not knowne me he that hath seene me hath seene the Father he desireth to see the Father and yet when hee seeth Christ he seeth the Father So it is with this blessed frame of soule for when a poore soule mourns under the burthen of sin and desires that the word of God may prevaile with it and take all away then he desireth to see Christ this is the Spirit of Christ humbling and breaking and waking it is the Spirit of Christ that makes you willing to part with sinne Hath Christ beene so long with you and do you not know him The third is because we judge Christs presence by our owne sense and by some extraordinary sweetnesse that the soule imagins should be with him if Christ were there This is the nature of every poore creature he sets up a kind of imagination in his owne head and thinkes if Christ were come once there would bee extraordinary sweetnesse and joy Now setting up this imagination in his owne conceit hee will heare no other evidence if he cannot find this and so mis-judgeth the presence of Christ This was the failing of Gideon for the spirit of Christ came to him and said The Lord is with hee thou mighty man of valour And Gideon said Oh my Lord if the Lord be with us why then is all this befallen us and where be all his miracles that our Fathers told us of saying Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt but now the Lord hath forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites Iudges 6.12.13 The Angell knew what he said but marke what he replies And hee would not be perswaded that the Lord was there because the enemy had the upper hand he thought God was not present with them because the enemies were vexing them and prevayling against them but the argument was naught for the Angell was certaine of that which he spake Iust so it is for all the world with the poore broken-hearted sinner that now is oppressed with many corruptions Sometimes when the faithfull ministers speake to them and say Goe in peace you broken-hearted sinners the Lord is with you Oh say they if the Lord were with us why doth all this befall us Why are our minds so ignorant and our hearts so vile and sinfull and why are our corruptions so violent Can the Lord be here and so many weaknesses too The Lord hath done great matters for them that he hath done good too and they have rejoyced with ioy vnspeakeable and glorious the Saints of God haue been more then conquerours through him that loved them and have subdued their corruptions but yet we are under the power of our sinfull poysonfull venemous hearts still Can the Lord bee with us and all these abominations not onely presse in upon us but even captive us Yes you mistake the presence of Christ he is as well with you in the opposing of sin as in the over-comming thereof therefore the argument is false The same Apostle that was sometimes more then a conquerour was sometimes led captive as Rom. 7.23 and hee that did walke after the spirit of Christ had the Flesh lusting against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh Gal. 5.17 This is your imagination that if once the King come to your house and keepe court no Traitour must come there yes Traitours are ever where the court is they follow the court for there they thinke to accomplish their villany And you thinke if the King come to your house he must hug you in his arms and presently promote you to all honors so the soule saith If Christ were with me I should have abilitie to doe my duty and I should have more power against corruption Though wheresoever Christ is there is sight of sin yet this extraordinary sweetnesse doth not follow but because they have not this they thinke they have not Christ It is just with the soule in this case as if some Gentleman should receive the King into his house Simile and yet he would not be perswaded the King was come because he did not presently send for him into the presence chamber and advance him to some great place of honour he is there though he will not presently send for you This was the fault of Thomas Iohn 20.25 hee would haue tied the certainty of Christs resurrection to his owne sense and if hee could not doe this and that he would not beleeue that Christ was risen for so the Text saith the Disciples all saw it and did witnesse it but he confines all to the compasse of his owne sense except he could see in his hands the print of the nailes and thrust his hand into his side he would not beleeue Iust so it is for all the world with the poore humbled broken soule When a man depends upon sense and some stirring apprehension Oh saith he if I could see that evidence of Gods love and had that assurance and if my heart could thus breake for my sin and if I had this ability with all care and cheerefulnesse to all holy duties then I could beleeue that Christ were come this I told you before you will not beleeue that the King is come to your house except he will send for you presently into his privy chamber and make you the favorite of the Kingdome And therefore it befalls the soule of a poore sinner as it did good old Iacob Gen. 45.26 his sonnes told him that his sonne Ioseph was alive but his heart did faint for he could not beleeue it but when hee saw the Chariots that his son had sent for him his spirit revived within him and he said It is enough Ioseph my son is yet alive c. Thus it is with us we have the messengers of God and the testimony of Scripture to confirme the presence of Christ but we will not beleeue except wee be charioted with that power and ability and that feeling and except you have your hearts fully satisfied according to your owne imaginations you will not be perswaded that Christ is come into your hearts The fourth also is on our part Bee it so that either we have abilitie to know a Christ and that we see his comming in and that we doe not mis-judge the presence of Christ and doe not account of his comming by our owne sense yea though wee were in the chamber of presence and have had much experience of Christs presence with us yet there is another hinderance which keeps off the poore soule and that is when our eyes bee hindred that wee cannot see Christ though he were before us when the sting of conscience remaines and the fiercenesse of some temptaion presseth in
thou the hope of Israel why dost thou depart In Gen. 19.2 when the two Angels came to Lot in Sodome the one was Christ Lot compelled them to go in Christ is not now unwilling but hee knockes and calls and saith Open to me my love my dove my undefiled he entreats the loose person to forsake his base practises and the covetous person to leave his oppression and to receive mercy but you suffer Christ to lye in the street and despise that word of his and will bee at your owne carving This especially falls foule upon two sorts of persons The first sort is all carnal profane opposers of the Lord Iesus The carnall Gospeller is content that Christ should undertake for him and bee his Protectort to defend him from the plague of sin but he is not content that Christ should rule in him He doth as the Inne-keeeper that receives a guest into his house to make an advantage of him for as the Inne-keeper will come to his guest and pretend great matters to him not because he would have his guest to possesse him but because hee would bee possessor of his money so the carnall Gospeller would have Christ for his owne turne hee would dispose of Christ and mercy for his owne purpose and hence come all those speeches God is mercifull and Hath the Lord Christ created men to damne them Oh but mercy is sweet and pardon is good This is thus much you would have Christ to pardon sinne that you might commit it with lesse feare and more freedome If you did see no Saviour but that you must needs be damned for it you would startle at it But you would have Christ to stand by you that you might sinne the more freely Oh be not deceived doe you thinke that Christ will come to be an underling to your lusts and a drudge to your base distempers whose condemnation is iust saith the Apostle No you are deceived you shall not have Christ a servant to carry your lusts and pleasures to heaven with you The truth is the Lord Iesus will never bring comfort nor consolation to thee that wilt not bee possessed of him either haue both or neither chuse whether you will The second sort to be reproved are a company of slie hypocrites that would part stakes with Christ and part houses with him they could bee content that hee should have some roome in the house but they will dispose of all themselues as a man that lets some roomes in his house Simile upon this condition that he may have them when he lists You willl pray against sinne provided that now and then Christ will give you leaue to practise it and you will cry out against it provided that you may have a privy seale or some secret licence for it and you will professe bitterly against base courses so you may haue some backe doore and inward lust still The Lord Iesus doth not share with any man can he have a part and the Divell a part nay hee will have either all or none It was the tricke of an adulterous heart for when there was contention for the children the harlot said 1 King 3.26 Let it be neither thine nor mine but divide it Nay saith the mother let her have all Shee was the harlot that would have the child devided So it is with an adulterous and dissembling heart that saith Let Christ have a part and the world a part let lusts and pompe have a part and Christ a part this is dissimulation with GOD and shall receive condemnation there must bee no sharing If your hearts be guilty of this I charge you in the name of the Lord Iesus consider it the Lord never came into your soules you must resigne all to him and then he will saue all he will pardon all sin and give power against it What a fearfull thing were it if the Lord should deale with you as you deale with him Suppose thou couldst be halfe damned wouldst thou be content to have thy heart go to hell and thine eye to heaven or thy body to hell and thy soule to heaven therefore that thy body and soule may both be saved resigne up up all into the hands of thy Saviour and let him dispose of all here in the kingdome of grace and then he will take all to himselfe in glory for ever Vse 2. If the Lord Iesus be the possessor of all the house then let every one haue his owne Give all to Christ whose it is doe not with draw from Christ that which is his Whose image and superscription hath the soule Christ Iesus hath the protection of it therefore let him have all Let thine eye see his works and wonder and admire at them let thy minde know Iesus Christ whom to know is eternal life but do not withdraw any thing from the true owner therof that hath purchased it full deare 1 Cor. 5.15 Shall I take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot God forbid Thine eye and thy tongue and thy hand and thy heart they are all Christs members he hath bought all with his blood and thou hast nothing to do with that which Christ hath bought therefore whensoever thy corruptions stirre and Satan tempts and begges for the use of thy mind or heart make answer and say Shall I take that heart that is Christs and thinke basely God forbid Shall I take the hand of Christ and worke wickednesse with it The holy Apostle is marvellous peremptory in this case as 1 Cor. 6.19 Glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are Gods and hee hath bought you with a price your bodies and soules are the Lords hee undertakes for both therefore glorifie God in both If a man did come to your house and take the meat and drinke that you have provided and rob you of your money you would take it very hardly and say It is my owne So you are not your owne Therefore if the Divell or the world would prevaile with you and enter into the use of your heart or minde tell him they are not thy owne they are the Lords IESVS CHRIST hath come into thy heart and minde in mercy and therefore say it is the Lords let him doe what hee will with it â‚ SPIRITVALL LOVE AND IOY Gal. 5.22 The fruit of the Spirit is love ioy goodnes faith c. THE sure mercies of David which faith beleeveth love embraceth And who so getteth this field and treasure must needs go away rejoycing in so good a bargain All this and all other graces and comforts worketh one and the same Spirit directing the heart to God uniting it unto Christ and thereby comforting it abundantly All is his fruit in us At this time of loue and joy The point of Doctrine is this Love and joy by the spirit wrought in a broken heart for embracing mercy as it deserves Doct. The Spirit of the Father kindles in the soule of
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
Sam. 23.17 When Saul had made a cunning search for David and he was fled Jonathan comes to him and chears him saying I know that my father shall not prevaile against thee but that thou shalt be King over Israel and I shall be next thee Jonathan was Sauls Sonne and he might have said I am my fathers heire and why may not I bee his successor in the kingdome but he loved David and rejoiced in his good and therefore he said Thou shalt be King over Israel and I shall bee next unto thee As if hee should say I am more glad that the Crowne shall be set upon thy head than if it were set upon mine owne for my soule is thereby comforted and refreshed So it is with a good heart that loves Jesus Christ and his grace and his Gospel in truth the happinesse glory and the honour of the Lord Jesus is the greatest good that can befall him wherefore he saith If the Lord may be honoured though I am disgraced I care not it is enough to me if may stand to behold and see it Ioh. 3.26.29 When the Lord Christ began to set forth the frame and glory of the Gospel and to baptize the Disciples of John came to their Master and said Rabbi he that was with thee beyond Jordan to whom thou barest witnesse behold the same baptizeth and all men come to him they began to be troubled because the Lord Jesus baptized and the praise went from them as if they had said There is one come that carrieth the hearts of all men after him Now mark what John answered He that hath the Bride is the Bride-groome as if he should say The Lord Christ is the Bride-groome and I am onely the friend of the Bride-groome all my care was to prepare hearts for him and hath he now gotten those hearts and hath he prosperitie then have I enough if I heare that the case goes well with him I have enough let the Lord have the praise that is due to him and let me have whatsoever is due to me 2 Sam. 19.30 when Mephibosheth had been wrongfully accused to David and David had taken away the inheritance from him and was returned in safety so that he saw the Kings face againe David began to comfort him saying Thou and Siba divide the land but marke how he replies Yea saith he let him take all for as much as my Lord the King is come againe in peace It matters not for the inheritance and for my selfe and my life I passe not fith the King is returned in peace it is enough that I enjoy thy presence which is better to me than goods life and liberty So it is with a kinde-loving heart when hee is not able to indure to see Christs honour and glory lye in the dust but if his praise be advanced then he is glad this is a good and loving heart indeed which saith Lord I have enough that Christ is mine and that his honour and glory is magnified Let the world take all if I may have Christ and see him praised and magnified Labour to bring thy soule to this pitch a minister in his place and the master in his place and every Christian in his place let it be all our care not onely to honour God our selves but let it be our comfort if God may be better honoured by others than by our selves This is our basenesse of spirit we can bee content to lift up Christ upon our shoulders that we may lift up our selves by it this too much prevailes amongst all men But be content to lye in the dust that the Lord may be praised though thou be disgraced And though every mans heart goe opposite against thee yet let this content thee if the Lord Jesus may thrive and prosper yea if any of Gods people thrive and prosper more than thou let that be thy onely joy 5. Triall More more it desires union with Christ Lastly it is the nature of sound love to covet a neere union with the thing that is loved and to have a kinde of impatiency and to be restlesse till it doe attaine the greatest measure thereof This flowes directly from the nature of love especially of this love to Christ who is the greatest good love is of a linking and glewing nature will carry the soule with some kind of strength earnestness to injoy full possession and fellowship of the thing that is loved it cannot have enough of it and it is not satisfied with it upon any occasion As it is in reason with a childe Simile happely when the father entertaines him at the table hee gives him a little sweet-meat as some Conserve or the like which is so sweet that he can tast nothing but that and his minde is still upon it that he may receive more of it the father commends this and that and praiseth a third and extols a fourth dish but yet the childe cryes More of this because hee felt the sweetenesse of it So it is with a soule that truly loves Christ when it hath tasted how good the Lord is and hath had a good looke from heaven it covets union not so much with any thing as with that riches honours profits seeme as irksome as may be in regard of that the soul desires nothing so much as this and craves more of Christ more of that mercy and holinesse and grace and love that is in him let the wicked talke what they will of the world if he have that he hath enough Psal 73.25 when David had been doating upon the world and the vanities of it see what he sayth Whom have I in heaven but thee and whom on earth in comparison of thee and then see what followes hee bids adieu to the world and sayth in the last verse It is good for me to draw neere unto God as if he had said Let the ambitious belly-gods have their pleasure drinke and swill and goe downe to hell But oh let mee have that mercy and that good which God hath provided for and will bestow upon those that love him You shall observe it Joh. 20.15 16 17. Mary was a marvellous loving woman and therefore when Christ said to her Woman why weepest thou whom seekest thou she supposing him to be the Gardiner saith unto him Sir if thou hast borne him hence tell me where thou hast laid him I will take him away She would be content to have the dead body of her Saviour rather than none at all But when the Lord Jesus had revealed himselfe to her in the 16 verse shee said Rabboni and when she saw it was he she flies upon him and with marvellous violence embraceth him for so the text is to be conceived though hee forbad her to touch him because hee was not yet ascended saying Doe I once possesse thee againe I will never part with thee any more thus she held him by the feet till he checked her because shee
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
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
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
Most in the Church love not Christ First most that are in the world yea that live in the bosome of the Church have not their hearts carried in love to God but in a hatred and desperate opposition to the Lord Jesus as in Joh. 1.3 4. In him was life and the life was the light of the world The Lord Jesus was the life and light of the promise and that promise of life was a way to lead men on to eternall happinesse this light shineth to the dark world but they comprehend it not as it is in vers 11. Hee came unto his owne and his owne received him not His owne by reason of their priviledges and the badge of the ordinances his owne because they by profession took his name upon them as the Churches of the Gentiles are Gods owne by the outward not the inward covenant of Sanctification or in the aime of Election We take up the profession of his Gospel and yet we will not take up the Lord Jesus Christ that he may make us Christians His owne received him not those that were baptized and had received the Sacrament The Lord Jesus comes and knockes at each mans doore but few entertaine him Nay I would not outspeake the truth for they are the words of sobriety and it grieveth me to speake it The most men upon earth hate Christ more than sinne I had almost said it and yet I had almost thought it unfit to be spoken though they are the words of our Saviour Wicked men hate the Lord Jesus more than either sinne or the Divel himselfe Good Lord be mercifull to us what a misery is this that ever any man should be created by him and receive mercy from him and yet love the Divel and sinne more than him But some will say as Hazael did to the Prophet 2 King 8.12 Doe you thinke we are such dogges that having received such mercy from the Lord Jesus we should doe so Yes for so saith Elisha to him I know the evill that thou wilt doe to the children of Israel their strong holds wilt thou set on fire and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword and wilt dash their children and rip up their women with child So I say and the Spirit knowes it is so in the hearts of most men this day You know it not you thinke it not but your hearts are more vile than you can imagine Wee know the greatest evill of all is sinne for the Divell himselfe is not to be loathed but for sinne and for it onely This is the condemnation saith our Saviour in John 3.19 that light is come into the world and men loved darknesse rather than light because their deeds were evill That men loved darknesse more than light and more than Christ nay more than mercy and grace that was tendered the case is cleare it was so and is so will be so I say it is most certaine that they love their lusts and corruptions more then Christ and the temptations and delusions of Satan more than the good motions of the Spirit Now we have laid the indictment therefore in the second place let us plead it And the severall sorts of them 2. Secondly who are they that hate Christ We must name the men therfore we refer them to three rankes First all open enemies to Christ Secondly all glozing Neuters of the world Thirdly all fawning hypocrites 1. First the open enemies of Christ and they are many such as Saint Steven spake of Act. 7.51 saying Yee stiffe-necked and uncircumcised in heart and cares ye doe alwaies resist the holy Ghost as your fathers did so doe yee They that set their mouthes against heaven and stand in open defiance against the Lord Jesus and the power of his grace may be referred to two heads First those whom our Saviour mentions Mat. 21.34 speaking of the Vineyard Open enemies of Christs two sorts When the time of the fruit drew neere he sent his servants to the husbandmen that they might receive the fruits of it And the husbandmen tooke his servants and beat one and killed another and stoned another But last of all he sent unto them his son saying They will reverence my sonne But when the husbandmen saw the sonne they said among themselves This is the heire come let us kill him This is an intimation of the Scribes and Pharisees The Church was the vineyard the servants sent out were the Ministers and Prophets and the Sonne is Christ Jesus now when Christ came they said with one consent and voice This is the heire come let us kill him Doe you thinke that these kind of men are all dead that have such a kind of spirit Surely no there are many Leaders of the Divels camp aswell Ministers as others But if you aske me what entertainement their lusts have I say they have all the welcome that can be occasions come not corruptions within their hearts stirre not and the Divels temptations allure not so soone but these miserable sinfull wretches give all the kinde welcome that can be unto them nay they invite their villanies they provide for them yea and seeke for all occasions that they may sinne the Adulterer loves the twilight and the coveteous man his money their mindes are ever puffing and their affections labouring to contrive all occasions that may give all possible contentment to their vile corruptions and it is no marvell though they have so long continued in their sins seeing they give such good entertainment to them But if you aske mee how they entertaine Christ Enmity against Christ shewed three wayes let me shew it by two things you shall see them up in armes and at deadly hate with him For first they oppose the word of God the ministry of the word is the ministery of the truth it would open the eyes and come home to the conscience and take away their sinnes but they contemne it and marke upon this what an uproare there is they take up armes striving to put out the light that would shew them their sinnes beating backe the truth and labouring that it may not rule their lives They are such as our Saviour speaks of Luk. 19.27 Bring hither those mine enemies that would not have me rule over them and slay them before my face They oppose themselves against that truth that would plucke the cup from the Drunkards mouth and the whore from the Adulterers armes their hearts swell for anger and they scorne to bee under the power thereof Nay they not onely withdraw themselves from yeelding obedience to the holinesse of the word but they will not so much as acknowledge the truth of it which the Divels themselves did Act. 16.16 17. when Paul and Silas were preaching the word of truth the Divels sayd These men are the servants of the most high God which shew unto us the way of salvation The Divels could doe all this yet these men will neither be informed