faith so that I could remove mountains and have no charity I am nothing 3. And tho I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and tho I give my body to be burn'd and have not charity it profiteth me nothing Love therefore is above all these for all these without love are nothing 5. Love makes us most like to God for God is love 1 Joh. 4.8 And God loveth Christ above all the men on earth and above all the Angels in Heaven therefore calls him his Beloved Son Mat. 3.17 God loveth All men with a Common Love John 3.16 Tit. 3.4 Holy men with a Special Love Angels with an Higher Love Christ most of all who is the Son of his Love Col. 1.13 So our Love is gradual we ought to love all men with some degrees of Love Holy men and Angels with an higher Love and Christ with the highest Love And when we love as God loves our Love makes us most like to God 6. Love is the highest improvement of the faculties of our Souls 1. We have Vnderstandings to know God and Christ And Love to God and Christ is the highest improvement of all our knowledg for if we know him and not love him the more we know of him the more our knowledge doth increase our sin and will aggravate our condemnation 2. We have Wills to chuse the Lord Jesus Christ and when we chuse him Love is the improvement of our Wills in taking complacency in him who is the Object of our choice 3. We have Consciences that do dictate to us that Christ is best and best for us and then we improve those dictates when we love him else all those dictates of Conscience are lost and come to nothing 4. We have Memories wherein the Sayings of Christ to us the Sufferings of Christ for us and the Benefits of Christ bestowed upon us should be lodged and laid up and when we love him we shall love to remember all these things that we have by him and from him and himself that is Purchaser and the Donor of them But if our Love is predominantly placed upon any thing below Christ all the Powers of the Soul are debased the Reason of man is degraded in contriving the getting of such ignoble and fordid enjoyments as his highest end the Will is debased in chusing of them and the Memory in being stuffed with the remembrance of them forgetting God and Christ and better things so that a man is more a brute than a man without sincere Love to Christ 7. Love is the end of all other Graces and in which they terminate their Operations Our knowledge of Christ endeth in our loving of Christ our believing on him hoping in him trusting to him like so many streams at last run into the Love of Christ 8. Love is the Everlasting Grace that shall abide and be in use and exercise when the actings of other Graces shall cease There are some Graces suitable especially to our state of imperfection in this world To live by Faith to Repent and Mourn for sin to live in hope of the glory that is to be revealed to wait till we be possessed of the Mansions that are above to desire all the good that is promised to us but not yet conferred upon us But hereafter Faith shall be turned into Vision Hope into Fruition Desires into Possession waiting into Obtaining And then we shall thus believe no more nor hope nor desire nor wait but then we shall love still yea more than ever more abundantly yea perfectly without diminution continually without intermission and eternally without cessation in which respect among the three Cardinal Graces Love hath the preheminence 1 Cor. 13.13 Now abideth faith hope charity these three but the greatest of these is charity because it is the longest in duration So that those that love Christ sincerely here shall love him perfectly hereafter and be for ever blessed in that love But those that love him not on earth cannot love him in the other world and for want of such Love shall be accursed for ever CHAP. VI. The Application of the Doctrine THE last thing propounded in the method of this Subject is the Vse and Application of it to bring it down to our own hearts to work this truth upon our Minds Consciences and Affections And now O that God would help me and Christ would help me and the blessed Spirit of God and Christ would so help me and give me lively words a lively Heart lively and inflamed Love to blessed Jesus and your immortal precions Souls that I might speak and apply this great Truth as becomes a man that deth believe every one of you before God in this Congregation this day must be Anathema when Maran-atha if you live and die void of love to Jesus Christ as becomes a man that doth believe you must be blessed or cursed damned or saved for ever as you are prevailed with or not prevailed with to give Christ your Hearts and hearty love as becomes a man that doth believe your Everlasting Stare is much concerned in this one point that now is before us Alas Methinks I do foresee the great multitudes that this Anathema will fall upon Methinks I see the Lord a-coming methinks I hear the Trumpet sounding and the Voice calling to the Dead Arise and come to judgment Come ye cursed Souls that have been in the Infernal Lake and appear before my Bar come ye cursed Bodies awake arise and stand before my Judgment-Seat and let those cursed Souls be again united to those cursed Bodies and now be both cursed together and cursed for ever and let both be inseparably linked together to endure this Curse to all eternity Methinks I see them coming but unwillingly they come but with fear and trembling with horrour and amazement Now what is to do now now Maran-atha and now every one of us that loved not that Lord that now is come must be Anathema O woful Souls O miserable Sinners O cursed Caitifs What shall we now do and whither shall we now go do that we should have asked before this day that the Lord is come Do We should have done that which we did not do and now must go thither whither we would not go O that we might rather cease to be than to be what we must for ever be and go from whence we never must return and feel what will make us cry and roar toss and throw and be for ever restless and the more restless because hopeless and remediless O Sirs my Heart is pained my Bowels roul within me my Joints do shake with trembling for fear lest any of you that pray in this place and hear in this place should fall under this Curse when the Lord shall come The Uses of this Doctrine shall be 1. By way of Inference or Instruction what things from hence may be deduced and learned 2. For Reprehension or Reproof aggravating the Charge against such as love not the
in the rain that cometh oft upon it and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed receiveth blessing from God 8. But that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected and is nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burned and when you come to that end will you not then acknowledge your selves to be Anathema Arg. 2. He that loveth not Christ is under the curses of the Law therefore he that loveth not Christ is accursed For if all the Curses of the Law lighting and abiding upon a man will prove a man an accursed man the man that hath no sincere love to Christ must be the man For tho the Law as a Covenant be not in force so that we are not to seek Salvation by it yet the penalty and threatnings of the Law are in full power against that man that submitteth not to Christ according to the Covenant of Grace for though Christ was made a Curse to redeem us from the Curse yet those only have the saving Benefits of that Redemption that have sound-Faith in and unfeigned sincere love to Jesus Christ If by the Law you would escape the Curse threatned by the Law you must do every thing contained in the Law Gal. 3.10 Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them You cannot do any one thing required in the Law as prescribed by the Law and yet so slight Christ that you will not so much as love him and still think you are exempted from the Curse of the Law God will convince you to the contrary and except you hasten to love Christ before you die the Flames of Hell will convince you to the contrary but it would be your safer way now by the Word of God to be convinced to the contrary Arg. 3. He that loveth not Jesus Christ sincerely is under condemnation by the Gospel Therefore he that loveth not Christ is accursed The Gospel taken for the whole Doctrine of Christ hath its terrible tidings as well as comfortable Threatnings as well as Promises a Sentence of Damnation as well as of Absolution and more dreadful and intolerable than those of the Law And to whom do they belong and upon whom shall they be inflicted if not upon the Contemners of the Message of the Gospel and who contemn the Gospel-message more than they that will not be persuaded to love the Lord Jesus Christ Doth not the Gospel set forth Christ in his Excellency and Beauty to you Doth it not declare what he hath suffered for you Doth it not tell you what he hath purchased for you and will bestow upon you and is not all this to gain your Love to win your Hearts and Affections to Christ yet after all you slight him and for his Love and for his Sufferings you will not so much as love him Consider seriously what Christ saith concerning such John 3.19 And this is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil If the Law condemn you you might have recourse to the Gospel but if the Gospel condemn you whither will you go for succour Arg. 4. There is no way ordained by God for Final-Non-Lovers of Christâ— to escape the punishment of Sin and the Torments of Hell therefore such are in an accursed damnable Condition When man had broken the Covenant of Works God sent his Son to die and satisfy for the breach of that Covenant so that Salvation is not impossible and the escaping of the threatned Curse is not impossible And though you have sinned against the Gospel by not loving of Christ hitherto yet Christ hath so far satisfied for sins against the Gospel that upon your acceptance of Christ you might have Remission and Salvation but if you die without Love to Christ and Faith in him Christ did not satisfy for that Sin nor die for the expiating of the final violation of the Covenant of Grace or for the final-non-performance of the Conditions thereof So that you sin against the very remedy prepared to help Sinners out of their Misery and can you be saved that finally refuse the Saviour Can you escape the Curse that to the last gasp reject the only Remedy for besides this there is no other Heb. 10.26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin 27. But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation that shall devour the Adversaries 28. He that despised Moses's law died without mercy under two or three witnesses 29. Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despight to the spirit of grace Arg. 5. He that hath no love to Christ hath no faith in Christ he that hath no faith in Christ is condemned he that is condemned is in a miserable cursed condition therefore he that doth not love Christ is so Sound Faith and sincere Love are inseparable Graces Those that are Non-Lovers of Christ are Unbelievers and Unbelievers are condemned men Joh. 3.18 he that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God Oh pity your Children your Parents your Friends and Neighbours that love not Christ for being destitute of Love they are void of that Faith that is a condition of Salvation and being void of that are condemned Persons Arg. 6. Those that have not sincere love to Christ are in the same condition in which they were born and you all say that is an accursed damnable condition For by nature all are children of wrath Eph. 2.3 and Children of wrath are cursed Children Some are so ignorant as to say they have loved Christ ever since they were born as if they were born with love in their hearts to Christ whereas love to Christ is not in us by the First Birth but by the Second not by the Natural but by the Spiritual Birth Our State by Nature is a State of bitterness and bonds as bitter as gaul Act. 8.23 And while you are in a State of Nature the World hath your Love and Sin hath your Love therefore Christ is not the Object of it for the World and Christ Sin and Christ cannot at the same time by the same man be superlatively loved It must then be granted that you were born without love to Christ and being in the same condition in which you were born you have lived hitherto without love to Christ and add but a third that you die without love to Christ and then the next moment after death you will see and say your Condition is accursed Arg. 7. Deceivers in the Worship of God are accursed those
this Phrase is used in Scripture a man cannot be at the same time So that such as shall then be so cursed as to be shut out of doors are past recovery past hopes of Mercy past a possibility of being blessed And therefore 10. To be Anathema when Maran-atha will be to be accursed with an Eternal Curse For be they must for ever dye they cannot shake off the Curse they cannot therefore cursed they must be for ever For a man to be accursed all his days would be a sore judgment but for a man to be accursed to all Eternity is beyond conception heavy and grievous To live for ever and to be accursed for ever is worse than never to have been or to have their being turned into nothing All the Curses that men void of the Love of Christ do lye under in this world they make light of If they are cast out of God's Favour it is a great Curse but now they are merry under it If they have no Grace it is a great Curse but they do account it no Curse they have none and they desire none But there are Curses waiting for them and shall be poured out upon them at the coming of Christ which in the other world shall be heavy indeed and intolerable and under them shall have a merry heart no more for ever For to be Anathema when Maran-atha Is to be Cursed Dreadfully because Totally Bitterly Publickly Positively Privatively Finally Therefore Uncontroulably Therefore Irrevocably Therefore Eternally CHAP. V. Eight Reasons why Love is so strictly required that Christ must be Loved or the Sinner accursed THE Fourth general Head in the Method propounded is Why there is such a flat necessity of our sincere Love to Christ for the escaping of this described Curse Why God doth so much insist upon our Love unto his Son that whosoever doth not love him shall be Anathema This is not to be understood exclusively as if other Graces and Conditions were not also necessary for in other Texts we find that for want of Faith this Curse will overtake many Mar. 16.16 He that believeth not shall be damned John 3.36 He that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him And for want of Repentance Luke 13.3 Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish And for want of Conversion Mat. 18.3 Verily I say unto you Except ye be converted and become as little children ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven Joh. 3.3 Jesus answered and said unto him Verily verily I say unto thee Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God And for want of Obedience Heb. 3.18 And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but to them that were disobedient translated believed not Sometimes the condition is expressed by the term of a new creature Gal. 6.15 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new creature Sometimes Faith and Love are put together Gal. 5.6 For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but faith which worketh by love And indeed all these are requisite and are found together in the same person for he that hath Faith hath also Love and he that hath Love doth also Repent and he that Repents doth also obey and he that doth Believe Love Repent and Obey is a New Creature Yet Love is thus insisted on for such Reasons as these 1. Love commands the whole man for it is in the Will which is the commanding Faculty Love 1. Commands and sets on work all the other affections If a man love Christ it sets Desires on work if he be absent it sets Joy on work if he be present if Christ be absent and the Soul doth see a probability of obtaining him Love sets Hope on work If there be any impediments that hinders a man in his prosecution it sets Anger on work for the removal of them 2. Love commands the thoughts and mind For love to Christ sets the mind on thinking on Christ and meditating upon him The mind doth muse upon what the heart doth love Where love is fixt the thoughts do dwell Psal 119.97 O how I love thy law it is my meditation all the day 3. Love commands all the outward members of the body Love to Christ doth set the Tongue to speak of Christ and for him the Ear on hearing of his Word the Eyes in seeing the tokens of his Love and Goodness the Hands in acting and the Feet in walking to those places and duties where Christ is to be found and enjoyment of him to be had 2. If Christ hath our love he hath our all And Christ never hath his own from us till he hath our Love Love withholdeth nothing from Christ when it is sincerely set upon him Then he shall have our time and he shall have our service and he shall have the use of all our Parts and Gifts and Graces yea then he shall have our Estates Liberty and our very Lives when he calleth for them As when God loveth any of us he will withhold nothing from us that is good for us no not his own only begotten Son Rom. 8.32 And when Christ loveth us he giveth all unto us his Merits to justifie us his Spirit to sanctifie us his Grace to adorn us his Glory to crown us so when any of us love Christ sincerely we lay all down at his feet and give up all to be at his command and service Rev. 12.11 And they loved not their lives unto the death 3. Love gives the denomination to a man according as the Object is which he superlatively loveth For as is the Love such is the man and as is the Love such might you boldly call the man If he be a lover of Honour he is an Ambitious man a lover of Pleasure a Voluptuous man and if he chiefly love the World he is a Covetous man if he love Holiness he is a Religious man if the things above an Heavenly-minded man and if he love Christ with a predominant love he is a Sincere man Cant. 1.4 The upright love thee 4. Without Love all other things tho never so many great and excellent in themselves are not acceptable unto God He regardeth not your Prayers if you do not love him He matters not your Hearing if you do not love him all your Almsdeeds are poor things in his esteem if you do not love him yea all your Suffering for Religion and for Christ are nothing if you do not love him If a man could Preach like an Angel and yet not love him he should not be accepted by him 1 Cor. 13.1 Tho I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal 2. And tho I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and tho I have all
that sinned but cast them down to Hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment And Epistle of Jude ver 6. The Angels which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day Not a word of a Saviour for them but of Mankind the Scripture speaks of abundance of love and mercy Joh. 3.16 God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life Tit. 3.4 But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared and denieth that concerning Angels which it doth affirm concerning Man Heb. 2.16 For verily he took not upon him the nature of Angels but he took upon him the seed of Abraham Hath he done that for you which he hath not done for Devils and is not then want of love in you to him a greater evil than it is in Devils Let this shame you that ye are not lovers of Christ XII Not love Christ What do ye make of this but the beginning of Hell By the same reason as love to Christ is the beginning of Heaven Love to Christ is the employment of the Saints in Glory and to be without love to Christ is the frame of the Damned in misery So much of hatred to Christ is in you so much of Hell is in you before you be in Hell XIII Want of love to Christ Is not this the Daughter and the Off-spring of many foul abominations that are reigning in thy heart Doth it not suppose the predominancy of many other sins As 1. Doth it not suppose Ignorance of thy misery Sins deformity and of Christs beauty excellency and necessity 2. Doth it not suppose preceding Infidelity That thou dost not believe what God saith concerning Christ nor what shall be thy portion and thy everlasting miserable condition without Christ 3. Doth it not suppose a conceit of thy own Righteousness which if thou sawest to be insufficient would Christ be thus slighted and disregarded by thee 4. Doth it not suppose Self-willedness Thou wilt love what thou wilt love and not him thou shouldst love come on it what will Is it not plain wilfulness when thou canst give no reason why thou wilt not love Christ But because thou wilt not 5. Doth it not suppose predominancy of sinful Self love Carual Self thou wilt love and because this in dominion is inconsistent with the love of Christ thou dost omit the loving of him 6. Doth it not suppose fearlesness of God and of his Indignation If this did awe thee could Christ be thus neglected by thee 7. Doth it not suppose forgetfulness of Death and Judgment Of Heaven and Hell Couldst thou without horror think of dying without love to Christ When to dye so once would be to dye for ever Without trembling couldst thou think of Judgment when for want of love to Christ thou shalt certainly be damned whenever thou appearest at his Judgment-bar Or of Heaven when thou must never enter into it Or of Hell when thou must certainly be cast into it for want of love to Christ 8. Doth it not suppose great carelesness of thine own Soul For canst thou love thy Soul and not love Christ the Saviour of the Soul Canst thou take care of the Salvation of thy Soul and take no care to love him that is the purchaser and the donor of eternal Salvation Is such a litter of sins in the heart void of the love of Christ And wilt thou after this make so light a matter of it XIV Want of love to Christ Is it not the Mother of many horrid transgressions and the Nurse Maintainer and Fomenter of them Love to Christ shuts the door of the heart against the temptations of Satan the inticements of Sinners and the allurements of the World but the want of it sets it open unto all Love to Christ would be a Dam to the stream of Sin but the want of it is the plucking up the Floodgates thereof that Sin might run out of the heart into the life with a swift current Is not the absence of love to Christ the cause of many commissions of Evil Would it not bridle thy Tongue restrain thine Hands shut thy Eyes stop thy Ears and keep all these from being defiled with finful actings upon sinful objects Is it not the cause of the omission of good Of praying hearing meditation holy discourse What goeth before and what followeth after the want of love to Christ as flowing and proceeding from it maketh it a sin exceeding sinful XV. Love not Christ Have not then all the Ordinances of God been ineffectual as to thee Have not Ministers preached in vain and spent their labour for nought And hast not thou heard in vain And followed the means of Grace in vain when by all the means thou hast not got this Grace of Love What though thou hast obtained knowledge is not that knowledge without love to Christ vain knowledge What though thou art able to discourse of God and Christ and Heaven and the workings of the Spirit without love to Christ is it not though concerning such great and weighty matters yet vain discourse Have not all the calls of Mercy the workings of Conscience the wooings of Grace the pleadings of Ministers the intreaties of Love the knocking 's of Christ the strivings of the Spirit the waitings of Patience been all slighted and disregarded by thee Are not all thy Prayers lost and will not all thy Profession come to nothing and thy hopes of Heaven perish when for want of love to Christ thy Soul shall never enter into Heaven but perish everlastingly XVI Want of love to Christ Is it not a mark and brand of a graceless Man Is not the absence of love to Christ inconsistent with the presence of any other saving Grace Psal 31.23 O love the Lord all ye his Saints No love no Saint No Saint no Grace in thee If Loveless altogether Graceless for then 1. Thou art faithless for didst thou believe on him thou wouldst have sincere love unto him for where there is Faith it worketh by love Gal. 5.6 2. Thou art fearless of God Love and fear of God do sweetly concur Love is afraid to offend 3. Thou art sorrowless that is as to any holy godly sorrow For love to Christ would make thee sorrow for thy sin for the absence of Christ and love would cause thee to sorrow that thou lovest no more 4. Thou art also hopeless for there can be no solid ground of hope in him when there is no love unto him He that hopes for Heaven by the merits of Christ without love to the person of Christ his hope is a Fabrick without a foundation the Fools Paradise It is hope without a warrant and in the end when he misseth of the end of his expectation will be found to be no
not troubled because we do not love him For my own part I do complain I cannot love this Blessed Jesus with that strength of Love I ought and earnestly do desire and endeavour to grieve more because I love him no more and to loath my self so much the more by how much I fall short of that Love I ought to have to him Oh that others may make up what I do want and might be enlarged and abound in that love wherein I am straitned and defective that what degrees of Love I cannot reach others on Earth might attain unto that while I mourn for the smalness of my own Love I might rejoyce in the greatness of the Love of others unto this lovely Jesus and yet when all this is less than he is worthy of let it be some joy unto my grieved Soul that saved Souls above and Angels in Glory do love him with a perfect and eternal Love that though I cannot love him as they do yet I may rejoyce on Earth that there are Ten Thousand times Ten Thousands and Thousands of Thousands in Heaven rejoycing in the fullness of Love which is in them to him when Thousands upon Earth never will and Millions in Hell never can love this most lovely Lord Jesus Christ But still I must grieve and groan that when my Lord doth ask me Lovest thou me more than these sometimes I doubt and dare not say Lord thou that knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee but my Heart doth pant my Soul doth long that my love to him might be inflamed that the Actings of it might be more vigorous and the Workings of it so sensible that they may put me into pleasant Pangs and sweetest Pains of Love Lord I shall not account my self to be well till I am sick of love to thee that so I might from what I feel and find in my own Soul recommend the sweetest Delights the Rational Pleasures and the Spiritual Comforts to the Lovers of Vanity to allure and draw their Love to Christ that I may speak more of the unspeakable Joy that fills the Breast of a strong Lover of Christ and more pathetically Perswade more effectually Plead till God powerfully prevail with them to turn the Stream of their Love which now runs waste into the right Channel and glide along till it empty it self into that Sea of Love which Saints and Angels flow in unto Christ I have made a small Attempt in this little Treatise of the Necessity of Sincere Love to Christ whether God by Me might move the Hearts of any to fix their Love upon him in which I have not studied Words and Phrases to recommend Christ to wanton Wits in their Dress but with as much plainness and Gospel simplicity as I could in the very Words in which it was Preached to a People that love plain Preaching and easie to be understood If any for this shall dislike it when they have took it up and look'd into it and see it to be such may as easily lay it down and slight it as they please I sought not my Self in it but the love of Men to Christ by it I can be willing to be accounted a Fool for Christ and I doubt not but I shall have more Comfort on a Dying-Bed when I shall reflect I aimed not at vain Applause of Dying men but to gain the Hearts and hearty Love of once the Hearers and now the Readers of these Sermons and if God will please to own them in mens Reading as he did in the Hearing of them by many when not I but the Grace of God did so much affect their Hearts that they did desire it might be Preached to them some time after the second time which I did and did Work and had as great Success as at the first Not that I was any thing but God did all both first and last Many very many that did confess they loved not Christ but World and Vanity and Sin before did desire all in the Congregation earnestly to Pray That God would give them this love unto his Son which I hope they have and are increasing and growing therein and that God may so Bless it to any Poor plain Country People whom my voice cannot reach and to whom I cannot go where this may shall be the fervent Prayers that one so mean can put up to Heaven Where let the Prayers of all true Lovers of Christ meet that the Number of such may be increased Amen Tho. Doolittle THE Contents THE Introduction pag. 1 2 Anathema explained p. 3 to 9 Maranatha explained p. 3 to 9 The parts of the Text p. 9 A Paraphrase upon the Text p. 10 to 14 The Doctrine and Method p. 14 15 Twelve Requisites in sincere Love to Christ p. 15 to 41 Delighting Love p. 41 42 Desiring Love p. 41 42 Mourning Love p. 41 42 A Description of Love to Christ p. 43 The Necessity of sincere Love to Christ to escape the Curse proved by ten Arguments p. 44 to 55 Ten Properties of the Curse due to Non-Lovers of Christ p. 56 to 69 Eight Reasons why Love is so strictly required that Christ must be Loved or the Sinner Accursed p. 69. to 75 The Uses to be made of this Subject p. 75 76 Ten Inferences deduced from it p. 78 to 96 Twenty Aggravations of want of Love to Christ p. 96 to 124 The Case Resolved how a Man may know he hath or wants sincere Love to Christ p. 124 to 143 An Attempt to gain Sinners Consent to Love Christ p. 143 to 151 Twenty Motives or Pleas that Christ might have the Love of Mens Hearts p. 151 to 176 Ten Directions to get sincere Love to Christ p. 176 to 197 Ten Springs of Spiritual Comfort flowing into the Hearts of the Lovers of Christ p. 197 to 210 The Conclusion and Blessing p. 210 to the end LOVE to CHRIST NECESSARY TO ESCAPE the CURSE At His COMING 1 COR. XVI 22. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maran-atha CHAP. I. SECT I. The Introduction HOW Not love the Lord Hellish Sin How Not love Jesus Stupendous Wickedness What! Not love Christ Monstrous Impiety Not love him that is both Lord and Jesus and Christ What name might we call him by A Man or a Beast A Man or a Devil That doth not love the Lord Jesus Christ Do you confess him to be Lord and Jesus and Christ and love Sin and not Him Love the World and not Him Love Relations and not Him This may be the Astonishment of the Heavens the Amazement of the Earth the Wonder of Angels the Joy of Devils the Burthen of the Creation of God The Earth doth groan to bear them the Sun is grieved to give light unto them the Air laments its putrefaction to be suck'd into such filthy bodies wherein are more filthy souls because void of the Love of Christ Yea all this world looks more like Hell than Heaven because of
shall all the Non-Lovers of Christ at his coming be excluded and stand excommunicated from the favourable Presence of the Glorious God and of Christ the Gracious only Saviour from the Company of all the Holy Angels and Society of the Blessed Saints from the Holy Place above and from all the Joys and Happiness thereof The manner how the Jews excommunicated the Samaritans was very solemn and dreadful They brought Three hundred Priests and Three hundred Trumpets and Three hundred Books of the Law and Three hundred Boys and they blew with Trumpets and the Levites singing accursed the Cutthaeans in the Name of Tetragrammaton or Jehovah and with the Curses both of the Superior and Inferior House of Judgment and they said Cursed is he that eateth the bread of the Cutthaeans hence is that saying of theirs He that eateth the bread of the Cutthaean or Samaritan is as he who eats swines flesh and let no Cutthaean be a Prosâ—lite in Israel neither have any part in the resurrection of the just These Curses they wrote upon Tables and sealed them and sent them through all Israel who multiplied also this great Anathema or Curse upon them But the Excommunication of all the Non-Lovers of Christ will be inconceivably more terrible when the Lord himself shall come with Millions of his Holy Angels and with Ten Thousands yea Thousands of thousands of his Saints and the Trumpet sounding the Saints singing and the Air ringing Christ and all shall say Now cursed for ever be every man that did not love the Lord Jesus Let them never come into the Kingdom of Heaven nor have a share in the Happiness that God hath prepared for them that love him and all the Saints and Angels shall say Amen Amen There is another Text setting forth the contrary good condition of those that love Christ Ephes 6.24 Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity Amen Paul standing one while upon Mount Ebal denounceth a Curse against those that do not love the Lord Jesus another while upon Mount Gerizzim pronouncing a Blessing upon them that do Deut. 27.11 And Moses charged the people the same day saying 12. These shall stand upon Mount Gerizzim to bless the people when ye are come over Jordan Simeon and Levi and Judah and Issachar and Joseph and Benjamin 13. And these shall stand upon Mount Ebal to curse Reuben Gad and Asher and Zebulun Dan and Napthali 14. And the Levites shall speak and say unto all the men of Israel with a loud voice 15. Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image an abomination to the Lord the work of the hands of the craftsmen and putteth it in a secret place and all the people shall answer and say Amen 16. Cursed be he that setteth light by his father or his mother and all the people shall say Amen 17. Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour's land-mark and all the people shall say Amen 18 Cursed be he that maketh the blind to wander out of the way and all the people shall say Amen 19. Cursed be he that perverteth the judgment of the stranger fatherless and widow and all the people shall say Amen Six Tribes stood upon Mount Gerizzim and six upon Mount Ebal and in a little Valley between these two Mountains the Priests stood one while pronouncing a Blessing upon the Observers of the Law and then the Tribes upon Mount Gerizzim sounded out Amen Another while denouncing Curses against the Transgressors of the Law then the Tribes upon Mount Ebal founded out Amen But now though you are not unjust towards men no Drunkards no Swearers yet if Non-Lovers of Christ the Curse lies upon you and at the coming of the Lord it will be in vain to plead your praying hearing receiving your moral Conversation if void of the Love of Christ for Christ shall declare you accursed and all that shall attend him at his coming shall say Amen SECT III. A Division and Paraphrase of the Text. The whole Text consists of these seven parts 1. The Grace to be obtained the Duty to be performed or Act to be exerted viz. Love Sweet pleasant and delightful 2. The Object of this Act or Person to be loved called the Lord and Jesus and Christ 3. The Subject of this Act or who should do this Duty Man Beasts cannot Devils will not Man ought 4. A Supposition if a man love not and it is indeed to be supposed that many will not 5. An heavy Imprecation or solemn denunciation of Vengeance Anathema if he will not be a Lover of Christ let him be accursed 6. A determination of the time when this at furthest shall be executed and poured forth upon him Maran-atha when the Lord comes tho he prosper in the mean time yet when Maran-atha then Anathema 7. The Extent of this Curse If any man let him be he what he will a Scholar a Preacher a Professor an Emperor and yet not a Christ-Lover the Plagues of God at the coming of Christ shall light and lie upon him and if this any be never so many Vengeance and Damnation shall overtake and seize them all I cannot yet get off the words of the Text without another view of each term one by one 1. If This if joined to the not loving of Christ is one of the saddest ifs you can suppose if you should be poor if you should be cast into Prison if you should be banished if you should suffer the loss of liberty and life it is not so bad as if you should not love the Lord Jesus Christ For if you be cast to Hell if you should be damned for ever it will be if you love not Christ If you be ever saved if you never love Christ God is not true and Christ is not true and this Word of God is not true if you pray till you wear the skin from off your knees if you cry for mercy till you waste your Tongue if you confess sin and weep your selves blind if you go as far towards Heaven as ever glozing Hypocrite did and all this while have no sincere love to Christ you never shall escape the Damnation of Hell if you do say I am a Lyer say I preached falshood and deceitful words unto you What! will you drive us to despair yes that I would with all my heart into this despair of ever getting to Heaven without sincere unfeigned love to Christ for despair you must of having Happiness and eternal Glory any other way than God hath prescribed in his Word and Love to Christ is one qualification of that man that shall be saved And to this if relating to your not loving of Christ I will shew you another if relating to your not entring into Heaven Heb. 4.3 I have sworn in my wrath If they shall enter into my rest 5. And in this place again If they shall enter into my rest Here God useth an Oath but concealeth the Imprecation when
the Lord pronounceth his Oath negatively then it is to be understood as an affirmation as Isa 14.24 The Lord of hosts hath sworn if not so it shall come to pass that is it shall certainly come to pass But when he setteth it down affirmatively then it is to be understood negatively as Psal 95.11 If they shall enter into my rest that is they shall never enter into my rest When God sweareth thus by himself he mentioneth not the Curse because no Execration or Curse can fall upon him that is God necessarily infinitely and eternally blessed and therefore not to be expressed because it cannot come upon him neither should such a form of speech be supplied as some do prophanely use then let me not be God or such like It is sufficient to alarm Sinners that God doth swear if they continue to the death without love to and saith in Christ they shall not enter into his rest 1. A man loves not Christ that hath 1. an understanding to know the excellencies of Christ the necessity of Christ the danger of being without Christ and the everlasting good and benefits that are to be had by Christ 2. A man that hath a Will to be guided by the Understanding a Will to chuse good and refuse evil 3. A man that hath Affections of love desire and delight and shall not place them upon their proper primary principal Object 4. A man that hath a Conscience to walk and act by to accuse and condemn him when his Affections are not rightly fixed and to comfort him and to testify for him when they tend to and rest in their proper Object 5. A man that is capable of knowing loving and enjoying the best good 6. A man that hath heard of Christ that professeth Christ and hath frequently and earnestly been intreated to give Christ his love 7. A man that is a sinful man a lost man a diseased polluted man that stands in need of washing cleansing and recovering healing Grace Shew me the man that needs not Christ and let him deny him his love 8. A man that is a dying man a man leaving this World going out of Time and entring into Eternity that must shortly be a damned or saved man within a few years months weeks days or houts be eternally happy or everlastingly miserable 3. Any man especially where the Gospel is preached where the joyful sound is heard to whom the tydings of a Saviour and Eternal Life are brought The Heathen cannot love him because they do not know him because they hear not of him but any man especially that lives under the means of Grace any mean man any noble man any ignorant man any learned man any man of any sort of any age of any calling of any place or Nation where they have so often and so long heard of Christ that his blessed name is become too common in their prophane polluted mouths If any such man 4. Love not tho he often talk of him tho he pray to God mentioning his Name tho he profess him hear daily from him suffer or dye for him and not love him that is 5. The Lord the Lord of Lords the only Potentate the Lord that hath the power of Life and Death able to take up to Heaven and cast down to Hell to damn and save that reigns over Men and Devils that hath all Power committed to him that is 6. Jesus the only mighty alsufficient Saviour that came from Heaven to Earth to get and purchase for men a passage from Earth to Heaven that suffered bled and died to save Sinners from Sin from Hell from Everlasting Burnings when there is no other Name under Heaven by which Sinners can be saved than the Name of Jesus who is also 7. Christ anointed of the Father designed from all Eternity and sent in the fulness of time to bring about and accomplish the work of man's Redemption that was furnished with all manner of qualifications to bring Souls to Eternal Glory and yet those that have their Names from him called Christians from Christ and yet not love him shall be 8. Anathema cursed Wretches miserable Caitiffs devoted to damnation separated from God cast to Devils when 9. Maran-atha the Lord comes to be Anathema when Maran-atha is to be accursed indeed and for ever then cursed Men must be with cursed Devils to all eternity CHAP. II. SECT I. The Doctrine and Method FRom this Text thus explained Doct. this Doctrine clearly resulteth That whatsoever man hath not sincere love to the Lord Jesus Christ is in a deplorable condition and shall be accursed when the Lord comes For his Sin is great his Mind is blind his Will perverse his Heart is hard and carnal his Affections corrupt and base and vile and his Soul and Body shall then be doomed down to blackness of darkness to extremity and eternity of misery to pains and punishment that no Tongue can express no Heart conceive no Pen can write how great how terrible how intolerable it will be found to be The method in treating on this Subject is cast into these five general Heads 1. What is the nature of this love to Christ what kind or manner of Love it is without which if man be found he is Anathema and shall be plagued with this heavy Curse at the coming of the Lord 2. That whosoever is without this love to Christ is in such a miserable condition and dying without it shall be damned when Christ shall come is to be demonstrated 3. What are the properties of this Curse that will make it so exceeding grievous and intolerable 4. Why so great a stress is put upon such Love why the Lord insists so much upon the love of man unto his Son that whosoever wants it shall be thus accursed 5. The improving of this Doctrine by practical application In opening of the nature of this Love to Christ I shall not only mention the formal reason of it but also what is presupposed and necessarily requisite to the raising or producing of it in the heart of man my Apprehensions concerning it I shall give you in these twelve following Particulars which being taking up and laid together will contain a description of this Love 1. This Love supposeth the goodness of the Object 2. It includes or implies the illumination of the Understanding to see and discern this incomparable goodness in Christ 3. It includes a discovery of the suitableness of Christ unto the Soul in all respects 4. As also a sight of the communicability of that good that is discerned to be so suitable 5. Highest valuation of Christ greatest estimation of him which is called appretiating Love 6. It contains the permanent volition of the Will the setled inclination of the heart towards the Lord Jesus Christ 7. It includes the prevailing and predominant degrees of our love to be to Christ more than to any thing else whatsoever 8. In this Love is the election of the Will choosing Christ
Thou art not come to offer us any terms of Mercy or to make any Propositions of Peace betwixt God and us and therefore our recovery is impossible and therefore being fallen do lie down in utter despair of any communication of the Benefits of thy Death and Sufferings unto us and having no hope of merciful Redemption by Thee we neither have nor will nor can have any love unto Thee 2. The same is now the condition of Damned Souls as that of Damned Devils Men on Earth might have love to Christ but in Hell they cannot for on earth Christ had to do with them and they with Christ and Mercy had to do with them and Grace and Patience had to do with them but when once in Hell Christ hath done with them and the Spirit hath done with them Grace Mercy and Patience of God hath done with them no offer of Grace no tender of Peace and Reconciliation no overtures of Mercy more to all Eternity But now Wrath hath to do with them and vindictive punishing Justice hath to do with them and they are fallen into the hands of the Living God and being past all possibility of benefit and advantage by Christ they cannot love him but have more rooted hatred to him than ever By the way let me note That ye should with fear and trembling diligently labour fervently pray speedily repent and turn from sin sincerely believe that ye might not at death be doom'd down to Hell because by damn'd Souls Christ cannot be loved 3. But the case is otherwise with men on earth with the worst of you in this Congregation this day The Swearer might yet have benefit Pardon by Christ the vilest the greatest sinner that stands here before God this day may yet be saved if he will hearken to the Voice of Mercy to the Commands and Invitations of the only Saviour to the Calls of Grace and answer to those Calls Christ hath dyed for you for every one of you so far that Salvation yet is possible to you and God reconcilable to you and Christ and his Benefits upon the conditions of the Gospel communicable to you For who dare say there is no difference between the state of the damned in Hell and the worst of men upon earth or that there is no more hope or possibility of Salvation by Christ for the greatest sinners upon the earth than of the Devils themselves or that God is no more reconcilable and the Benefits of Christ no more communicable to them than to these while to sinners on earth Commands are given to repent and believe and turn to God in hopes of Mercy and Conditional Promises of Life and a conditional Grant of Pardon is given to them which is not the case of Devils or damned Souls and therefore we Study in hope and Pray in hope and Preach in hope of your Conversion and Salvation when there is no hope of them that are gone down to death and utter and eternal darkness Methinks this considered should win thy Love to Christ and cause thee to break forth into such Language as this and say O my Soul as yet through the Mercy and Patience of God to thee there is a wide difference betwixt thy state and the state of damned souls for tho thou hitherto hast not loved Christ which is thy hainous sin yet thou mayest which is God's great Mercy to thee For tho now thou art without Christ which is thy misery yet thou mightest have Christ which will be thy remedy when the Damned love not Christ nor can love him for they have not Christ nor can have him Thou art yet in the land of hope and under the means of hope and thy remedy is at hand if by thy wilful refusals of recovering Grace thou dost not dash this hope when those poor wretched Souls that are passed out of Time into Eternity from Earth to Hell from Hearing in this world to Howling in the next are now and there Christless and because now and there Christless are therefore there now and for ever hopeless and remediless O then my Soul look towards this Christ that thou mayest have Behold This Christ and all his Benefits upon Gospel-Conditions are yet communicable unto thee for thine Everlasting Good Dost thou not hear the Offers of Pardon Peace and Glory made to thee in his name Dost thou not perceive him yet standing at thy door and knocking crying calling there Open to me and I will save thee Dost thou not feel his Spirit yet striving with thee Dost thou not see Mercy hath not yet delivered thee into the hands of Justice and to God's fiery Indignation Here thou standest while others are lying rowling in a Lake of burning Brimstone Doth not his Grace still woo thee for thy Love Doth not his Goodness still intreat thee and his Patience still wait upon thee If thou wilt be holy yet thou mayest if thou wilt have Mercy Mercy thou mayest have and if thou wilt have the fruit and benefits of Christ's Death as yet it is not too late Is not this enough to melt an heart of stone To break an heart as hard as adamant To dissolve thee into tears to kindle and inflame thy love And with admiration cause thee to cry out and say Is this thy Mercy Lord to me to me to me that have so long abused thy Grace despised thy Mercy and slighted thy Love To me that have lived so long and never loved thee To me that might have been damned before this day and so have been shut up under an impossibility of Salvation by thy Blood and bloody Sufferings Yea have had the hatred of my heart fixed upon thee and Love never bent towards thee But forasmuch as thou art pleased to this day to follow me with thy Calls of Mercy with the Entreaties of thy Grace and still the voice of Love is sounding in my ears and thou sayest to me If thou wilt love me I will pardon thee if thou at last wilt give me thy heart I will be thy Saviour it is long that I have waited but if now thou wilt hearken and consent all shall be thine own my Righteousness shall be thine my Merits shall be thine my Spirit shall be thine and Heaven shall be thine O Blessed Lord I cannot withstand this pleading Love I can no longer gainsay this expostulating Grace I have but now I cannot I have but now I will not Thou sayest that Thou wilt yet be mine and the Blessings of the Covenant may yet be mine and Heaven it self may yet be mine Dearest Lord thou hast won my heart thou hast got my Love and lo I give it all to thee I place it all upon thee SECT VI. The Fifth Requisite of Love to Christ FIfthly This Love to Christ includes highest Valuation of him greatest estimation which is appretiating Love for can we love him and not prize him Or can we love him most and not prize him most Or do you use to despise
a thing or person and yet love him To have mean low and undervaluing thoughts of one and yet love him more than another whom you do more highly esteem and value Doth not the Worldling that loves his Money more than other things value it above other things Doth not the Ambitious person that loves his Honour and his Credit more than other things stand upon it and esteem it more than other things And will it not be so with him that loveth Christ Or is not he a Cursed man that valueth any thing above Christ and esteems it more than Christ As Christ is precious to him that doth Believe 1 Pet. 2.7 so he is to him that Loves Pearls are valued but as Pebbles and Diamonds as Dirt and Diadems as Dung by a man that loveth Christ when they stand in competition for our Love with Christ In the practical judgment of a sincere Lover of Christ Christ cannot be valued with the Gold of Ophir with the precious Onyx or the Saphire the Gold and the Chrystal cannot equal him and he would not exchange him for Jewels of fine Gold With him no mention shall be made of Coral or of Pearl for the Worth of Christ is above Rubies The Topaz of Ethiopia doth not equal him neither shall the purest Gold or the most refined Silver be weighed in the balance of his judgment to be preferred before Christ For to him he is more precious than Rubies And all the things the heart of man can desire besides him are not to be compared with him For Christ is that Treasure hid in a field which when this Lover hath found for joy thereof he goeth and selleth all that he hath and buyeth that field He is that goodly Pearl of great Price which when found all shall be left or lost and parted with that this might be obtained Mat. 13.44 45 46. And what a man gives all for he values that more than all he giveth for it Can that man be judged to love Christ that values his corruptible Silver above the incomparable Saviour That esteemeth Earth above Heaven And the Creature more than God Or is not he deservedly to be reckoned an Anathema that shall esteem the Dross of this World above the Darling of God Or thick Clay above him that doth excel the clearest Chrystal Or the things of Time which are only for Time above that Christ that is a Good for all Eternity SECT VII The Sixth Requisite of Love to Christ SIxthly This Love to Christ takes in the Permanent Volition of the Will the setled Inclination of the heart towards the Lord Jesus Christ For what else is Love but the Volition of the rational Appetite Or the Will 's Volition of Good apprehended by the Understanding Or the Will 's chusing of him and adhering to him Aversation of the Will from Christ is no better than hating of him For as Volition and Complacency is Love so Nolition and Displicency is hatred Can a man Love Christ and yet not Will him Can he love him and yet not chuse him Can he love him and the Will refuse him Was Nilling ever accounted loving or turning of the Heart from an Object ever taken for the closing with it or is it not a contradiction will not and love not is all one John 5.40 Ye will not come to me 42. I know you that ye have not the love of God in you What is the Object of the love of the Heart is the Object of the choice of the Will and such as is the choice of your Wills such are ye If thy Will chuse the World before Christ I dare boldly call thee a worldly man or Pleasures before Christ I dare confidently declare thee a voluptuous man but if Christ before all other things I may term thee a truly gracious man Suppose then the World and the Riches thereof the Honours and the Pleasures of it were set on the one hand and Christ on the other which would you really chuse It is an easie thing to think and say you would chuse Christ and not the world but my question is Which you would really chuse Canst thou say and appeal to God that knows thy heart Lord thou that knowest all things thou knowest that I chuse Christ before Riches Christ before Pleasures Liberty Life or any thing that is dear unto me in this world Thou knowest that I would rather have Christ without the World than the World without Christ I would rather have the Lord Jesus with Disgrace with Poverty and with the Cross than all the Treasures of the world This must be a man's Will and this must be a man's Choice or cannot be said to have sincere Love to Jesus Christ SECT VIII The Seventh Requisite in Love to Christ or the Sincerity of it SEventhly This Love consists in the prevailing and predominant degrees of Affections unto Christ For if he be not loved above all he is not sincerely loved at all There might be love of other things subordinate with the Love of Christ but not co-ordinate or equal with it much less superior to it You might love your Friends and love your Enjoyments and love the Comforts of your life but you must love Christ more The love of these must be swallowed up in the love of Christ and be subordinate unto it But you may say This is that offensive Doctrine that 〈◊〉 the difference betwixt common and special Grace to be only gradual and not specifical and God forbid that we should think that God will damn a man for want of further degrees of Grace when he hath it in truth and kind and the degrees do not vary the kind 1. The degrees do not vary nor alter the kind in things natural but they may and do in things moral For Example The degrees of Reason acuteness of Wit solidity of Judgment that one man might have more than another man doth not make him more a man as to his Species or kind than another man that is in those respects inferior to him for both quoad Speciem as to Kind are men have the Human Nature and the specifical difference whereby they are distinguished from things of any other kind but yet degrees might make a specifical difference in morals where the act as natural is still of the same kind For instance In eating and drinking little or much the natural act of both is still the same but in morality if a man eat and drink for quantity and quality according to the rules and guidance of Prudence and no more this is a virtue called Temperance but if in degrees he doth exceed and eateth more and drinketh more than that Mediocrity quoad nos prescribed by Prudence in which the nature of this Virtue doth consist doth admit of then though eating and drinking considered Physically be of the same kind yet in a moral respect it alters the kind and is called quite by another name viz. Intemperance Gluttony and Drunkenness 2. The
degrees of Love might be considered in a twofold respect 1. In respect of other Lovers of Christ of which one might have degrees of Love that is sincere more and above what another man might have whose Love is yet sincere And of this More or degree of Love is Christ's question to Peter to be understood John 21.15 Simon son of Jonas Lovest thou me more than these viz. Other Disciples love me where the comparative More respects THESE as other Agents in Love or Lovers and therefore Peter answers in the Positive I love thee not in the Comparative More than they all do love thee But the Comparative More doth not respect THESE as the Object of Peter's Love as if Christ had asked Lovest thou me more than thou lovest these To which doubtless Peter could have readily replied Yea Lord I love thee more than I love these or all men or things in this world And in this sense God doth not damn any for want of more degrees of Love or other Graces 2. Degrees of Love might be considered in respect of the things loved or the object of our Love That the word More means Do you love Christ more than the World Sin Self or do you love These more than Christ And then I say this Doctrine is so far from being offensive that I judge it is of great concernment and necessary for every man that hath a Soul that must be damned or saved to know and understand For I do not fear to say for want of these degrees of Love whereby a man's Love is less to Christ than to the World and Sin and carnal Self God will surely damn him Doth this grate upon any Christian ears That a man that loveth not Christ more than Sin and more than Pleasures and Profits hath no sincere Love to Christ nor shall be saved by him Surely such a man would judge in another case if he had a Wife that loves him yet loves another man more than himself she had not sincere Conjugal Love to him 3. The plainest fullest and I hope no offensive Answer shall be the Words of Christ himself shewing wherein sincerity of Love to him doth consist Mat. 10.37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me 38. And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me 39. He that findeth his life shall lose it and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it And all the love to all inferior things in comparison of the degrees of love we should have to Christ more than unto these is rather Hatred than Love Luke 14.26 If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters yea and his own life also he cannot be my disciple What Interpretation can these words bear This That no real Disciple of Christ may or ought to have true love to Father or Mother Brother or Sister Wife and Children or to his own Life Absurd and irreligious sense being contrary to the Law of Nature and Christ's constant Doctrine in his Word What then This That a true Disciple of Christ must and ought to love these things less than Christ and Christ with more till they be prevailing degrees and Love in the heart to Christ be like the Biass to the Bowl that make it incline more to Christ than to all other things This is that which is asserted and being the sense of Christ's Words I hope will not offend any that have more Love to Christ than to all these things and for the rest that love these things more than Christ they shall find that for this very thing Christ with them will be offended SECT IX The Eighth Requisite in Love to Christ EIghthly This Love chuseth Christ for himself and for the Excellency of his own Person tho not with the exclusion of our own Benefit and Salvation by him Our own Benefits by Christ might be looked at by the returning soul at first as ordine prima but not quoad dignitatem praecipua ultima The Soul might first be allured and drawn to look after Christ and to love him by the consideration of the matchless Good and Benefits it might have by him which the convinced sinner seeth he can find in no other but in process of time and in his progress in the way to Heaven he learns and sees that Excellency and Beauty in Christ that he is in himself more amiable than all the Objects of his former Love To ask therefore Whether we are to love Christ for himself or for his Benefits we have by him is to propound a question which yet I have not observed in the Scripture nor disjunctively answered therein for one is subordinate to the other and subordinata non sunt opposita nec pugnant I am to love Christ for himself and for the Goodness Excellency and Amiableness of his own Person and I am to love Christ for the good I have received by him and for the benefits I hope further for his sake to be made partaker of and the one is an help unto the other Though I am to love Christ more for himself than for my advantage by him yet in loving of him I do not conceive I am to cast away the consideration of the benefits by him As we should not put the seeking of God's Glory and our own Salvation in opposition but in subordination tho God's Glory and the pleasing of his Will be the ultimate end and our Salvation to be sought by us in order thereunto Wherefore in seeking after an evidence of Grace and Title to Heaven I think it is a needless and unwarrantable puzzling of our selves and that which hath sorely afflicted some gracious persons and filled them with unnecessary doubts and fears and torments of mind to demand of our selves Whether we could be content to be damn'd to go to Hell to suffer everlasting Torments and the burning fiery flaming Wrath of God poured out upon the damned so that God may be thereby glorified I shall forbear to judge the state of my Soul by this as a Character of Grace and Preaching of it unto others till some shall shew me this is propounded in the Gospel as a Condition of the Pardon of my Sin and the Salvation of my Soul which hitherto I have not observed For how can I earnestly desire to be Saved and yet be willing and content to be Damned Long to be with him and yet content to be for ever separated from him I do find God threatens men with Hell to awaken them to look after Heaven and deliverance from Hell but I do not find God propounding as a condition of Salvation to be content to go to Hell that we might be received up to Heaven That I leave and loathe my sin repent and turn to God believe and love him
above all thankfully accept him for my Lord and Saviour is plainly required from me and upon the sincere performance of these conditions and persevering therein unto the end of my life for Christ's sake beloved and believed on I may comfortably well-groundedly hope wait for and expect through the Riches and Freeness of his Grace Everlasting Happiness In like manner I judge it a perplexing question Whether we should love Christ for himself or for the Benefits by him Lord help me to love Christ for himself and for all the good I have and hope for by him but the one subordinately the other ultimately for such love I read there was in David Psal 116.1 I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice and my supplications SECT X. The Ninth Requisite in Love to Christ NInthly Sincere Love to Jesus Christ doth respect him and is placed upon him as he is Prophet Priest and King In which respect the love of Hypocrites and carnal Gospellers doth fail and come short Most will profess love to Christ as he is Jesus a Saviour to deliver them from the Guilt of Sin and Punishment of Hell and the Wrath that is to come but will not love him nor have him as a Teacher and a Ruler As if a woman should love her husband as he makes provision for her and doth protect her from wrongs and injuries but as he is her Head to guide to rule and govern her so she cannot endure him Would you not in such a case cry out against such love and say this is but partial and pretended love And do not you see you deal as deceitfully and hypocritically with Christ when in one respect you say you like and love him but indeed in other respects you do dislike and hate him And do you think that Christ will save you from Hell if he do not save you from your sins That he will make you happy if you be never holy Or do you hope that he will bring you to Heaven without your being made meet and fit for Heaven Doth not your own Reason and Conscience if you consult them condemn such hopes of happiness that is built upon such partial Love Must Sin be loved as a Lord and Christ loved as a Saviour Do you think if Sin be your Lord Christ will be your Saviour What is the meaning then that the Object of such love that you must have if you would not be Anathema in the Text is set down the Lord Jesus Christ What meaneth then that slaughter at the last day among them that never would submit to Christ as Lord and Ruler nor love him in that relation Whom Christ looks upon not as Lovers of him but as Enemies to him and will deal with them not as Lovers but as Enemies Luk. 19.27 But those mine enemies which would not that I should reign over them bring hither and slay them before me What is the meaning then that Lord and Saviour so often in Scripture with a Conjunction Copulative are put together if as the Object of your Love they are to be parted asunder Rom. 8.39 and 7.25 1 Cor. 1.2 1 Cor. 15.57 2 Cor. 1.2 Gal. 1.3 Eph. 1.2 3. Phil. 1.2 Col. 1.2 1 Thes 1.1 and 2.1 2. 1 Tim. 1.2 and 2.1 2. Tit. 1.4 Jam. 1.1 1 Pet. 1.3 and 2 Pet. 1.1 2. In these Texts and many more Lord and Saviour Lord and Jesus Lord Jesus Christ are set together and in all these respects propounded to us to be loved and received by us if we would have Grace Mercy and Peace from God and Salvation by him And as he is offered so he must be loved and accepted or you must go without him and his benefits for ever SECT XI The Tenth Requisite to Love to Christ or the Worker of it TEnthly This Love to Christ is wrought by the Powerful Operation of the Spirit of God upon the heart For tho there is Affection of Love naturally in all men yet there is not the Grace of Love naturally in any man There is love to sin and to the world and there might be love of man to man and some common love in man to God by some common workings of the Spirit but there can be no special Saving Love to Jesus Christ but by the special Operations of the Holy Ghost It is a Flower that doth not grow in Natures Garden but is planted by the Spirit of God Therefore spiritual holy Love is said to be a fruit of the Spirit Gal. 5.22 And if any such surely is sincere and saving Love to Christ SECT XII The Eleventh Thing required in it ELeventhly This Love includes a Resignation of a man's self to Christ without reservation of any thing he is or hath unto himself A Lover of Christ doth so devote dedicate and give up himself unfeignedly to Christ as to his rightful Owner and bountiful Benefactor that he looks upon himself to be Christ's more than his own to live to Christ and not to himself and to seek Christ in all and not himself As in Conjugal Love there is a mutual giving each to other the one I give my self to thee the other and I give my self to thee so in this holy Spiritual Love between Christ and the Soul Christ gives himself unto the Soul and says I am thine my Righteousness is thine my Merits are thine and all my Benefits shall be thine So the Soul in love with Christ saith Lord I give my self to thee my Understanding shall be thine my Will my Heart my Estate my All shall be thine at thy Command at thy Disposal for me to have to use to leave or lose as thou shalt please Cant. 2.16 My beloved is mine and I am his Hos 2.23 I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy and I will say to them which were not my people Thou art my people and they shall say Thou art my God SECT XIII The Workings of this Love as it is Delighting Desiring or Mourning Love TWelfthly When all this is done the Soul doth Delight in Christ if present Desireth after him if absent or mourneth for him if it cannot find him One of these Three ways Love will discover it self There are Three sorts of Love First Delighting Love If a man finds Christ's gracious quickning Presence in his Soul discovering and manifesting himself and Love unto him he rejoiceth in it more than in all Riches and saith My Life is a Pleasure my Heart is filled with Comfor my Soul with Heavenly Delights Psal 4.6 There be many that say Who will shew us any good Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us 7. Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased Cant. 2.3 As the apple-trees among the trees of the wood so is my beloved among the sons I sate down under his shadow with great delight and his fruit was sweet unto my taste 4. He brought me
into the banquetting-house and his banner over me was love John 20.16 Jesus saith unto her Mary she turned her self and saith unto him Rabboni which is to say Master 18. Mary Magdalen came and told the disciples That she had seen the Lord and that he had spoken these things unto her 20. And when he had so said Peace be unto you he shewed unto them his hands and his side Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. Secondly Desiring Love If Christ be withdrawn the Soul doth long doth pant doth thirst and cannot rest till Christ returns O whither is my Beloved gone where shall I seek him when shall I find him how long how long will it be Oh stay me with flagons comfort me with apples for I am sick of love Cant. 2.5 And Psal 42.1 As the heart panteth after the water-brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God 2. My soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before God Psal 63.1 O God thou art my God early will I seek thee my soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee Psal 84.2 My soul longeth yea even fainteth for the courts of the Lord my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first word is the Radex or primitive word from whence cometh a word that signifieth Silver Whence I note that as a man that loveth Silver desireth Silver so a man that loveth Christ desireth Christ Oh blessed Love whereby a man loveth Christ and desireth Christ with that earnest ardent continual love as a Lover of the World loveth and desireth the Silver and Gold and the Riches of the World the other word translated sainteth signifieth to be consumed anxiously to expect q. d. My soul desireth yea also desireth is consumed with desires after God Thirdly Mourning Love The Soul doth grieve and is filled with sorrow when it hath not the thing that it doth desire Alas that I should go from Duty to Duty to look for Christ and cannot find him to seek him but cannot see him Alas it grieves it groans and weeps for the absence of its beloved Lord. In company you might see his tears in secret were you near him you might hear his groans and bitter sorrowful complaints My Lord â—s gone my Love the dearly beloved of my Soul carrieth himself as a stranger to me Like Mary John 20.13 They said unto her Woman why weepest thou she saith unto them Because they have taken away my Lord and I know not where they have laid him The sum of all these Particulars opening the nature of this Love being contracted and laid together make up this Description SECT XIV The Description of Love to Christ LOVE to Christ is a special Grace wrought in the heart by the Spirit of God inlightning the mind whereby the Soul discenring the incomparable goodness suitableness and communicability of Christ unto him and in his judgment having a superlative valuation of him the Will doth chuse him before all primarily for himself and secondarily for his Benefits and giving to him the predominant degrees of his Affections resigneth himself to Christ in all his Offices delighting in him if present desiring after him if absent or mourning for him if he cannot find him This is the Love you must have to Christ if you would not be Anathema accursed when the Lord shall come CHAP. III. Ten Arguments that prove the Necessity of this Love to Christ for the avoiding of the Curse DOTH it need any further proof than the Text it self what other construction can you make of it If you believe that this is the Word of God and that God's Word is true how can you question whether a Non-Lover of Christ shall be a cursed Wretch at the coming of the Lord but you love not Christ and yet you hope to be blessed when he comes you have no sincere love to him and yet perswade your selves your Condition is good for the present and shall escape the Curse hereafter What! against the plain Assertions of the Word of God Will not you only bear me down that you shall be blessed but will you also bear down Paul nay and God himself too that it is well with you now and shall go well with you at the coming of the Lord and after that for ever Miserable men that have no other hopes that they shall escape the Curse but that God should not be true and his Word should not be true and all his Servants that come and preach to them in his Name and warn them of this Curse do not deliver the very truth unto them But whether you will hear or whether you will forbear I will proceed to evidence this truth to you by these following Arguments Arg. 1. He that loves not Christ is not in Christ he that is not in Christ is in his sins he that is in his sins is accursed therefore he that loves not Christ is accursed And being found so when he comes shall be cursed at his coming He that hath no sincere love to Christ hath still his old Heart and his old Love remaining in him and he that hath his old Heart is not in Christ 2 Cor. 5.17 If any man be in Christ he is a new creature old things are past away behold all things are become new Can you be in Christ and not the love of Christ be in you Can you be in Christ and your heart turn away from Christ Can you be in Christ while your heart is set against Christ and is not your heart against him while you have no love for him can there be any Union where there is no liking Affection doth not hatred keep at the greatest distance and maintain the widest separation If you be not in Christ can you bring forth any Fruit pleasing unto God Joh. 15.4 As the branch cannot bear fruit of it self except it abide in the vine no more can ye except ye abide in me And if you bring forth no fruit shall you not be cast into the fire Joh. 15.6 If a man abide not in me he is cast forth as a branch and is withered and men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burnt And are you such as shall be cast into the fire and flames of Hell and are you not in a cursed dangerous and miserable Condition Can a bad Tree bring forth good Fruit and if it do not is it not for the fire Mat. 3.10 And now also the ax is laid to the root of the trees therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewen down and cast into the fire Hath not the rain of heavenly Doctrine dropped upon you and yet do you bring forth any thing but Briars and Thorns when you have no love to Christ and are you not then rejected and your end to be burned and is then the Curse far from you Heb. 6.7 The earth which drinketh
of Souls which Christ died to procure Will God be reconciled to that man that doth not love him Or can that man that loves not him be reconciled unto God Or doth not Reconciliation without Renewals of Love sound like a contradiction Or shall Remission and Salvation be vouchsafed to them that never love him Behold then the greatness of this sin in its thwarting the wonderful Undertakings of Christ for man's Redemption III. Not love Christ What is this but an opposing and withstanding all the Operations of the Spirit For do not all tend to this That you should Love the Lord Jesus What do all Convictions tend to in shewing thee thy lost estate the vanity of the world the emptiness of the creature the impossibility of Salvation by any other but that thou mightest look after him and make him the Object of thy Love What meaneth the Illumination of the Spirit in enlightning of thy mind in the knowledge of Christ to see and discern the Fulness and Sufficiency of Christ the Fitness and Suitableness of Christ the Freeness and the Willingness of Christ but that thou shouldst fix thy Love upon him What do all the Persuasions Strivings and Wooings of the Spirit-tend to but Love to Christ Was ever any more solicitous for the love of another than the Spirit hath been that Christ might have thine And shall all and thine only Answer be I cannot love him I will not love him No Why not Canst thou better place thy Love Canst thou find in Heaven or Earth a more suitable Object Yet art thou resolved to give no other answer but that in Jer. 2.25 I have loved strangers and after them will I go I have loved the world and I will love it I have loved my pleasures and I will love them I have loved my sin and so I will still Why so resolved poor sinner Why so resolute Should not the world be a stranger to thee and thou to the world Should not sin be a stranger to thee and thou to sin What though I have loved these strangers and after them my heart and love shall go Indeed then let all men judge God and Angels judge what an opposer thou art to all the Workings of the Spirit to the contrary IV. Not love Jesus What is this but fearful sinning against the most gracious Attributes of God 1. Was it not love in God to give his Son to be a Saviour And wilt thou sin against this Love in not loving him that by Love was given for thee Was it not so infinite so great so wonderful that no mortal man can comprehend it John 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son Is it not such manifest love that all the Devils in Hell cannot deny it to be love 1 John 4.9 In this was manifested the love of God towards us because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him Was it not preventing Love in God to give his Son for thee before thou gavest or couldst give thy love to him 1 John 4.10 Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins And is it not a great sin against such great love and a manifest sin against such manifest love not to love him with a following love that so far loved thee with a preventing love 2. Was it not Infinite Wisdom in God to find out such a way that Justice might be fully satisfied and free Mercy might be richly manifested That sin might be punished to the uttermost and yet the sinner saved to the uttermost Sin punished and the sinner pardoned If all the Angels in Heaven that excel in Wisdom and Knowledge had been called to Councel they could never have thought of this way for fallen man's recovery which is the product of the Infinite Wisdom of God and by the Church made known to Angels Eph. 3.10 To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God What greater folly then can there be than to sin against such Wisdom 3. Was it not Goodness in God to accept of Christ's Sufferings for thy Sinnings Of Christ's Death instead of thy Damnation if thou wouldst believe on him and love him And wilt thou slight this Goodness by withholding thy love from him 4. Was it not patience in God to wait so long for thy Love Might he not have damned thee for thy first refusal And have taken thy first denial for thy final answer And have scorned thy love after thou hadst so long given it to the world and sin and denied it unto his Son And when in thy wicked heart thou hadst once said Thou wilt not love him God in his righteous judgment might have said I have thine answer and for this Thou shalt not love him If God had been thus quick and short with thee who hast been so slow to love his Son what a deplorable condition would thy Soul have been in this day and to all Eternity But if God hath waited so many years and doth still wait if perhaps thou wilt change thy mind return unto thy wits and give a wiser answer Wilt thou still abuse his Patience by persisting in the denial of thy love to Christ Take heed lest his Patience towards thee should end before thy Love to Christ begin for then when thy Punishment for not loving of him doth once begin it shall never end The longest Patience turned into Wrath thou shalt find the longest and the hottest Wrath and most fiery Indignation V. Not love Jesus What is this but an utter subverting of the whole design of the Gospel and refusing life and salvation by the Covenant of Grace God gave to innocent man a Law and Covenant of Works but he quickly transgressed that Law and thereby by that Covenant Happiness became impossible to man After that God gave a Law and Covenant of Grace to fallen man and established the same in the Blood of his Son and will you also refuse Life and Happiness by going on in your sin of not loving Christ For hereby 1. The Conditions of the Gospel are Neglected 2. The Threatnings of the Gospel are Slighted 3. The Commands of the Gospel are Disobeyed 4. The Promises of the Gospel are Undervalued 1. The Conditions of the Gospel and Covenant of Grace are neglected The great Article the Sum and Summary whereof is I will be your God and ye shall be my people Heb. 8.10 I will love you and you shall love me my heart shall be towards you and your heart shall be towards me I will love none like you and you shall love none like me How is this done Can you love him while you do not love him Hath God and Christ your hearts while the world and sin have your hearts 2 Cor. 6.18 I will be a father unto you and ye
better than rash confidence bold and damnable presumption For the greatest Professor without love to Christ is a Self-deluding Hypocrite whose hope shall be cut off and prove as weak though spun as fine as a Spiders web Job 8.13 And shall be as the giving up of the ghost Job 11.20 And is the want of all Grace no evil in thine Eyes when it brings punishment that shall be endless easeless and remediless upon all that were totally and finally Graceless XVII Not love Christ Gods own Son How then is God thy Father Joh. 8.42 Jesus said unto them if God were your father ye would love me If ye be his creatures and not love him it is an aggravation of your sin not to have love to him that gave Being to you but though ye are his Creatures without love yet ye are not his Children but better never had been his Creatures if not his Children for though ye should every day with great confidence say Our Father without love to Christ God will never own you as Children nor give you Childrens Portions XVIII Not love Christ How canst thou then excuse all the love thou hast to other things from being sinful Love So that the more thou lovedst the more thou sinnest because thy love to others is not subordinate to the love of Christ but separate from it To love other things and persons in Subordination to the love of Christ is not a Sin but Duty to love other things and persons and not Christ or more than Christ is not a Duty but a Sin and thus the love of your Estates is sinful Love And the love of Husband Wife Children and of your Selves is therefore sinful Love because it is above the love of Christ for these should be loved in Christ and for Christ but you love them without Christ and more than Christ therefore all your love without love to Christ though materially good is sinful love Mat. 10.37 XIX Not love Christ Art thou not all this while treasuring up terrible Accusations in Conscience against the hour of Death and day of Judgment The time will come and is at hand when thou and all thou lovedst besides Christ must be separated Thou hast loved the World and thou must leave it thou hast loved thy Pleasures and thou must bid adieu unto them thou hast loved thy Relations and thou must take thy sarewel of them and then oh then if conscience be awakened if thou dost not go blindfold and hood wink'd by the Devil out of this World wilt in the bitterness of thy Soul lament thy woful case and say Oh! What have I done What is this that I have done to love what I must leave I loved my Riches and now Death will take me from them I have set my heart more upon my earthly Relations than upon Christ and now Death is come to tear and carry me away from them I have loved my life more than Christ and now Death will put an end unto my life And all these things that I have loved now must lose Oh! Had I loved Christ as I have loved them Christ would not have left me Death could not have separated him from me but should have removed me nearer unto him But this I did not woe is me that this I never did for now all my love proves vexatious love to think and find that what I have loved in one moment I have for ever lost XX. Want of love to Christ Doth not this make Damnation unavoidable and the escaping of Hell to be impossible For when thou dyest whither wouldst thou have thy Soul to go To one whom thou never lovedst While thou didst live thou didst not wouldst not love him and after Death canst not Canst not love him Is Heaven a place for them that cannot love Christ Heaven is a place of Love the Imployment of Heaven is to love and praise him whom they do love Without love to Christ thou wouldst not find imployment there and the life of Heaven will be no idle life where all shall live and love and love as long as they shall live therefore such as do not now and hereafter cannot love shall never enter to live in that place of Love Now Sirs What do ye think Is the want of love to Christ so small a sin as ye have hitherto supposed it to be when you have spent and past the greatest part of your lives without love to Christ and without sorrow for want of that love What do ye mean To cease to live before ye do begin to love What shift have ye made to live in mirth and joy when the love of Christ hath not liv'd nor reign'd in your hearts Let Conscience be Judge between God and you but if Conscience be dead and will not give its judgment let God himself be Judge have ye done well to love that which ye should have hated and hated him whom ye should have loved Done well God knows it is not well done and Devils themselves know you have not well done and ye your selves sooner or later God grant before it be too late shall know in this ye have not done well Done well No ye have done foolishly ye have done wickedly nay in this ye have done Devilishly in what ye have done call to mind the things that have been said ponder them in your hearts weigh them in the ballance of right reason and it will tell you ye have done abominably in what ye have done But I suspect this thought is rising in your hearts If we had not loved Christ we should yield we had done so great an evil as this is aggravated in it self and by its circumstances to be But God forbid that we should live without love to Christ we think it is pity that Man should live that doth not love Christ This supposed love I fear will keep you off from repenting for want of real love to Christ and make you set light by all these aggravations of this Sin because ye think and hope ye do love Christ and some are so ignorant of their sinful state by Nature and so vainly confident of the goodness of their hearts that they bless God they have loved Christ ever since they were born and will be ready to spit in that mans face that shall question their love to Christ Come then ye that are so confident that ye love him come unto the Trial bring it to the Touchstone of the Word of God and try of what Mettal is your Love What if it should prove but counterfeit instead of real Or suppose in some sense it should be real and not counterfeit yet should not be sincere and saving love for the discovery whereof I shall neâ—â— proceed to the third Use CHAP. IX Ten Questions by way of Conviction that many very many have no sincere Love to Christ from whence also Characters of sincere love to him by the right resolving of these Questions might be gathered and our
thereof Doth that Woman love her Husband that is gone a Journey and the tidings of his coming back is sorrowful News unto her The loving of the coming of Christ is a character of such as shall be crowned when he comes 2 Tim. 4.8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto all them also that love his appearing And the Spouse that was inflamed with Love concludeth that Song of Love with this Request Cant. 8.14 Make haste my beloved and be thou like to a Roe or to a young Hart upon the mountains of spices And when in the last words save one verse of all the Book of God Christ promiseth his last and speedy coming the Church that loveth Christ catcheth the promise out of his mouth and turns it into a Prayer Rev. 22.20 He which testifieth these things saith Surely I come quickly Amen Even so come Lord Jesus But your heart saith rather Oh not so Lord Jesus great love in the mean time in your heart Yet one that truly loveth Christ might be sometimes filled with fear at the thoughts of Christs coming not because he doth not love and desire it but because he thinks he is not prepared for his coming lest Christ should find him unfitted and unready at his coming to enter with him into his glory but while he doth defer his coming the loving Soul is hasting in his preparations for it As a Woman that is told her Suiter is coming is greatly troubled not because he is coming but because she fears he might come before she he adorned as she doth desire What say ye now Sirs Do ye love Christ or do ye not Upon the laying these things to your heart by examination of your heart by them can ye upon mature deliberation say that ye find the love of Christ is there Then I shall shew in the close of this subject what cause of joy in God ye have what comfort for the present and what ground of expectation of better greater things for the future and for ever this love to Christ might be unto you But is this the case of all you in this Congregation I would to God it were Is love to Christ in every heart among you I wish it were but I fear it is not I hope some of you do love Christ but can I hope so of you all If I would never so fain I cannot while some are ignorant and some are prophane and too many are excluded by the former characters of Love from having for the present the Grace of Love Oh that I my self had more love to Christ that I might grieve more that blessed Jesus is not loved by more among you Oh that for Jesus sake I had more love to your Souls that I could weep abundantly over you that neither for Jesus sake nor your own have hitherto loved the Lord Jesus What then Have ye not Good God pardon it Will ye not Good God forbid it What shall I do Take it for granted that many of you do not love the Lord Jesus Yea I have proved that ye do not And oh how bitter are these thoughts to me that so many of you do not love the sweetest Jesus Shall I take it for granted that ye will not This were enough if my heart were not a stone to break it to pieces Shall I let you alone without this Love I dare not Shall I try to gain your Love not to me but to my Lord I am afraid ye will deny me Deny me In this that is of everlasting concernment to your Souls shall I take a denial and be gone At your first denial I will not be gone I know ye must have love unto him or be cursed by him how then can I acquiesce in a denial from you I know the Sinner doth not know what he saith when he doth deny to give Christ his love and therefore in hopes he might come to a better understanding of himself and what makes for his own eternal good I will proceed to the fourth Use by which I hope God will change some of your hearts and minds and win the love of some of you for Christ that all you that yet do not love him will not give this as your final answer That ye will not love him CHAP. X. Where the fourth Vse is an attempt of gaining Sinners consent to love Christ a serious wish for good success OH then be perswaded as ye love your Souls as ye would escape the Damnation of Hell as ye would obtain the Happiness of Heaven as ye would avoid the punishment of Devils as ye would dye in a good condition and after Death give a good account of the Wooings of Grace this day and not be Anathema when Maranatha be perswaded to set your hearts and love upon Jesus Christ for he must be loved by you or ye must be cursed by him Abraham Gen. 24. sent his Servant bound with an Oath to seek a Wife for his Son Isaac with this proviâ—o If the Womâ—n would nor be willing he should be clear from his Oath ver 1. to 10th The Servant prepares to go on this Message and Prays O Lord God of my master Abraham I pray thee send me good speed this day and shew kindness to my master Abraham ver 10.11 12. He meets with Rebekah by the Well of Water enquireth whose Daughter she was and whether there were room in her Fathers House for him to Lodge in he is invited by her Brother Laban saying Come in thou blessed of the Lord wherefore standest thou without for I have prepared the house and room for the camels to ver 32. There was Meat set before him to eat but he said I will not eat till I have told my errand And he was desired to speak on and he said I am Abrahams servant and the Lord hath blessed my master greatly and he is become great and he hath a Son and he hath given him all that he hath and my master made me swear saying Thou shalt go unto my fathers house and to my kindred and take a wife unto my son and now if ye will deal kindly and truly with my master tell me and if not tell me that I may turn to the right hand or to the left Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said The thing proceedeth from the Lord we cannot speak unto thee bad or good behold Rebekah is before thee take her and go and let her be thy masters sons wife as the Lord hath spoken And the servant brought forth Jewels of silver and Jewels of gold and raiment and gave them to Rebekah and they said to Rebekah Wilt thou go with this man and she said I will go O that I might have such success with Souls this Day for the Lord my Master hath sent me bound with the obligation of a Woe to seek the love and
consent of lost Souls to become the Spouse of his Son Jesus with this relief That if Sinners be not willing nor will accept the motion I shall be released from the Woe I have made preparation though less and weaker than such a weighty matter doth require and have Prayed that the Lord God would send me good speed this day And now I am standing by the Well of the Water of Life and some of the City are come to draw Water out of the Well of Salvation and upon enquiry made I find they are the Children of the Kindred of Jesus who forasmuch as the Children were partakers of flesh and blood himself also took part of the same to whom my message is so important that I can willingly forbear to eat till I have told my errand and therefore in your Audience desire to speak on saying I am the Lords Servant who is not made great or blessed by any other for he is great and blessed above all and over all for ever the earth and all that therein is is his the Sea and all therein is his the Heavens and all therein is also his And he hath a Son one only Son Jesus and he hath given him all that he hath even all power in Heaven and in Earth and hath set him at his own right hand far above all Principalities and Powers and Might and Dominion and every Name that is named not only in this World but that which is to come and hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be Head over all things the Judge of all the World And this great Lord hath sent me to ask and beg your Hearts and Love in order to an indissoluble Marriage to his own only Son and now if ye will deal truly with my Master tell me if not tell me Oh now who saith the thing is of the Lord and proceedeth from his grace and mercy we cannot gainsay we will not refuse this Message And when you are asked who will have this Jesus Who will love this Jesus methinks one should say I will another should say and I will One and Another What! no more Methinks every one should say I will that there should not be another that should say but I will not Let who will but I will not No Why Because no better a Servant is sent to gain thy consent Or doth manage this great affair with no more zeal and skill Do thou pray for the pardon of my weakness and folly and I will pray that thou mightst have more wisdom to discern when a good proposal is made unto thee but whether thou regardest me or not regardest me I regard not so thou wouldst but have regard to Jesus Christ and to thine own immortal Soul If thou dost despise me do not despise my Master nor his Son for though I am not so good as Abrahams Servant yet my Lord and Master is better infinitely better and greater than Abraham to whom he was Servant and my Masters Son Jesus is better incomparably better than Isaac Abrahams Son and would certainly prove a richer match to thy Soul than Isaac was to Rebekah Consider therefore again before thou dost again deny him thy love for hast thou not denied him thy heart long enough already but wilt thou do so still Hath not thy love run waste upon the Creature to this day And shall it do so still Art thou not weary yet in loving of the World Art thou not yet tired in setting thy heart upon Vanity Hath it answered thine expectation Hast thou found that sweetness in the Creature which thou lookedst for when thou didst first set thy heart and love upon it Thou hast tried what is the love of the Creature oh now try what is the love of Christ and if thou dost not find it better if thou dost not find it sweeter than all thy former love provided thou lovest him sincerely return to it again Behold whose cause do I plead this day Christs or mine own For whom do I ask your Love for my self or for Christ Slight me as you will but do not slight Christ Vilifie me but do not undervalue Christ Count me unworthy of your love or look but do not so by the blessed Son of the most glorious God Say I am not fit to be regarded I bless God I have learnt to bear it but I beseech you say not so of Christ Revile and hate me if you will if you will but love that Jesus that out of Love did dye for you If you would but love him that then would certainly save you and bring you to eternal Glory and Happiness for ever If you love the World never so much can the World do so much for you If you love your Honours your Pleasures your Relations never so much can they bless you as Christ will bless you Nay the more you love them the more miserable the love of them will make you Should I call you to love the World you would do it or your Pleasures Self or Sin you would do it Nay when I or any more skilful than I am have called to you to wean your Love from these yet still in love you cleave unto them What! Is Christ the only unlovely object in your Eyes Can you find Love for any thing but Christ What is it in Christ that doth displease you What do you see in him that is offensive to you Either love him or give a reason why you will not Do you blame me for my Importunity I thought since I began this Use you did refuse because I was not urgent enough with you You will not love except you be entreated if that were it that you love to be entreated to Love and would love Christ after much intreating I would study Night and Day to think how I might entreat you and what Arguments to use to prevail and obtain your love for Christ But why should you look for such long entreaties Do you know who it is that doth entreat you Is it I or God himself by me I pray you view one Text and then let him that doth entreat you wait no longer for your answer and for shame put him not to entreat you longer What place is that It is 2 Cor. 5.20 Now then we are Embassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God What say you now I from God and God by me beseech you A Minister of God stands among you in Christs stead to beg entreat beseech that from you which if Christ stood in this place this day he would Preach unto you and desire and command from you that ye would be reconciled unto God after the enmity to him you would love him God Christ by his Servant doth beseech entreat pray you to love him Oh the astonishing condescention of the holy God! That he will iâ—treat Oh the amazing stupidity and folly of the sinful Sinner that
For 1. Love to Christ will be the sweetest Love He that loveth other things and not Christ loves nothing but Vanity and to love Vanity will prove vexation He that loveth Riches hath vexing sorrow with his love fretting fears and perplexing cutting cares When thou lovest thy Relations if they be bad the more thou lovest the more thou art Wounded If they be good the more evil befalls them the more thou art grieved There cannot be love to other things without love to Christ but it will be bitter Love for thou wilt repent of that love or thou wilt not If thou dost then thou wilt find more forrow for it more bitterness in it than ever thou didst find delight and say Oh now it doth repent me that ever I loved the World as I have done my Pleasures my Sin as I have done But thou wilt never have cause to say I repent that ever I loved Christ Never was such a Word heard from the mouth of a sincere Lover of Christ if thou dost never repent of thy Love to the World and Sin that Love will certainly end in sorrow and with bitterness of Soul be fruitlesly lamented in Hell But what content satisfaction delight comfort joy there is in loving of Christ none can tell so well as he that loves him 2. Love to Christ is the safest Love No fear of Sinning in this Love except it be in the smalness of the measure of it but that is not to Sin in loving but not loving more You might fear and tremble in loving other things and say Do not I sin in this Is there not sinning in my loving 3. Love to Christ is the surest Love to other things is often turned into hatred Love to day and hate to morrow but this remaineth firm The Object is the surest Object neither Men nor Death nor Devils can take away the Object of this Love It is surest in the Habit and Principle the Power of God the Prayer of Christ the promise of both secure the preservation of it It is surest in the Act for if we be careful our selves no Men nor Devils can hinder our acting of this Love they might keep us from hearing of his Word but not from loving of his Person 4. Love to Christ is the Noblest Love Love to Pleasures to the World to Sin is base polluted Love this most sublime and raised it hath the noblest and the highest Object it carrieth the Soul in his Thoughts and Meditations after him into the highest Heavens and hath complacency in the highest Degree and shall have for ever the highest Reward 5. Love to Christ is the longest Love that shall never end Sirs ere long you will have done loving this World even ye that love it most and have your hearts most set upon it Ye that now have your hearts full of Earth when ye shall have your mouths full too and your Corps lye rotting in the Earth you shall have done loving of it Death that ends your life in the World shall end your love to the World which Grace never did Ye shall also have done ere long loving your Relations ye shall have done loving Father and Mother Brother and Sister and Husband and Wife and Children as now in that relation but the gracious Soul the Lover of Christ shall never have done loving of Christ It is sweet to have it but this doth make it more sweet to think he shall always have it Have it in Life have it at Death and have it after Death O blessed Love that shall never be lost but ever last While I was Musing upon this it came into my mind to consider what those that never love Christ in this World can love in the next and I could not imagine any thing that Damned Souls in Hell can Love If it be that I understand not nor am acquainted with the acting of their Souls nor State God grant I never may as they do I thought can they love God Christ the holy Spirit Angels Saints Their hatred to all these is and shall be more deeply radicated that is Rooted in them than ever upon Earth Can they love the place of Hell They wish they never had come thither Can they love the pains of Hell They grieve and groan under them and are weary to bear them Can they love the Devils in Hell They curse them for tempting them to Sin that brought them to that place Can they love their Companions in Hell They are an aggravation of one anothers misery Can they love their Sin in Hell Alas all that was pleasurable in it is gone and the pain and sting only doth remain Can they love their Beings in Hell They had rather dye than live and cease to be at all than to continue to be there I know not what it is that they can love O loathsome place where there is and can be no love O lovely Heaven where Love doth Reign where Love doth Live and the Life of them therein shall be for ever a Life of Love And in this World where Love is wanting so far it looks like Hell Where Love and that which is the best which is that which is to Christ doth prevail so far it looks like Heaven Dear Lord save me from Hell because there there is no love to thee nor to any thing that is good Sweet Saviour lead me in thy way to Heaven and bring me thither where Love to thee shall live and last for ever IV. Is it not great folly to love other things and not Christ For love ye will There is such an affection as Love in all your Hearts and something it will be set upon in this World what e're it be with Damned Souls in the next Now if Christ have it not the World will If Christ hath it not Sin will And do ye act as Rational Creatures as Men endued with Reason to deny your Love to Christ and give it to the World and Sin Set one over against the other and then tell me 1. Is it not great folly to love that which is worse than your selves and not that which is infinitely better Do ye think your Silver and your Gold is better than your selves as much as ye love it That your Houses and your Lands as bad as ye are are better than your selves But ye are not yet so good nor yet so bad but I hope ye will say and ackdowledge that Christ is better 2. Is it not great folly to love that which cannot love you again and not him that would Ye love your Gold but that cannot love you again The Cloaths upon your back the Furniture in your Houses ye love but these can make no returns of Love Ye give your love to them but ye receive no love from them Are ye not vexed when ye love a Man that doth not love you again nor return love for love And why are ye so well pleased and are so well contented in placing the very
but you can if you would for have you not the means to help you to love him Is not he Preached to you Is not the Spirit striving with you Will you say you cannot love him though you would That I utterly deny for if you were really willing to love him you could love him nay if you do unfeignedly Will to love him you do love him for what is Willing but Loving And what hinders you from Loving but your not willing to love him Will you say you want power What power do you mean The Natural faculty or power of the Will That you have how else do you Will any thing you do Will you say you want a power of Willing to love Christ What is that but that you are unwilling to love him And if you cannot because you will not the more you plead your Cannot the more you aggravate your Will not A Natural Power God hath given you that is a Will if you lye under a Moral Impotency that is your Sin and what is this Moral Cannot or Impotency but the averseness of the Will from Christ Therefore though without the powerful workings of the Grace and Spirit of God you cannot love Christ sincerely yet this Cannot is your Will not for if by the Grace of God you were enabled to Will you could and if you were as willing to love Christ as some now are that once were as unwilling as now you be you could love him as well as they Why should you stand off and say If it were possible for me to love Christ I would How Possible What! Is there no difference betwixt you and a Devil Betwixt you and the Damned in Hell You can love the World can you do that You can love your Self can you do that Yes And I suppose you can love Sin too can you not To our Grief and your Shame we find it But why can you love World and Self and Sin Is it not because you will Do you do it against your Will I wish you did then there might be more hopes you would be perswaded to love Christ You can and do love Sin because you are willing have but as great willingness to love Christ as the World and Sin and then it may be said Not only that you can but do love Christ However though I am no Asserter of the Liberty and Power of the Will in things Supernatural nor an opposer of the necessity of the workings of the Spirit to enable a Sinner to love Christ yet it is most manifest that your unwillingness is the hinderance of such Love and this unwillingness is your weakness since then your unwillingness certainly by Grace might be removed your Love is possible therefore cease not till it be actual Are ye at length convinced of the Necessity of love to Christ And are ye at length perswaded to seek it and willing to get love to him I shall then next proceed to the Directions whereby ye might through Grace fall in love with Jesus Christ CHAP. XII Ten Directions to get sincere Love to Christ shewing the way of Love to him I. CLearly understand and be throughly convinced of thy lost Estate and miserable Condition for Conviction sight and sense of Sin and of our lost Estate thereby usually goes before the setting of the Heart and Love upon Jesus Christ though God doth not deal with all Sinners in all circumstances alike in working and begetting in them consent and love unto his Son in divers persons the measure of Conviction is different as in the Natural Birth some are born after more pangs and throws than others are so in the Spiritual Birth in which the Love is turned unto and set upon Christ the day of this Birth being the day of Espousals some God dealeth with more gently with some more roughly Some he melts like Wax and some he hews like knotty Wood some he carrieth by the Gates of Hell to the Door of Heaven and some he brings to Christ and leads to Heaven with lesser Terrors To gain your love to Christ he expresly threatens Damnation that is so great it cannot be fully expressed and lets the Sinner know that Consent and Love he must or be Damned he must He doth let in such light into the Mind that the Soul doth see there is is no way to escape the darkness of Hell than by consenting to Christ that came from Heaven and Christ presseth hard upon the Conscience of the Sinner whom he Wooeth for his Love saying Poor Sinner What dost thou mean To be Damned rather than to have me for thy Saviour To go to Hell with thy Lusts than to Heaven with me the Lord What wilt thou do Shall I have thy Love or No Wilt thou at last consent or wilt thou still refuse I tell thee plainly if I and thou part Hell and thou must meet I have been Wooing long and Waiting long but now it is come to a parting or a closing point and it is time for thee to come to a resolution This is the Case Deny my Suit and God will Damn thy Soul If thou hear not me thou shalt howl in Hell If I leave thee God will leave thee and Mercy will leave thee and all Misery will come upon thee Poor Sinner Consider the issue of thy final refusal of me and of denying thy love to me 1. Will it not be thy being cast into pain of greatest extremity And how wilt thou do to bear it If God do but touch thee with his Finger thou dost sigh and sob thou dost cry and roar and canst not rest O how wilt thou rest when God shall lay on blows with his Almighty Arm If pain in thy Head or sickness at thy Heart or Gripings in thy Bowels make thee cry out like a Distracted Man what wilt thou do to bear the wrath of God in a place prepared on purpose to shew his indignation against Christ-refusing Sinners When the sorest affliction in this Life is but as the pricking of a Pin to the piercing of a Sword if compared to the Torments of the Damned 2. Will it not be Misery joined with endless Eternity And hadst thou rather bear pains extream and eternal too than Love me that would deliver thee from them Doth not a small affliction make one Day or Night seem long much more if it be heavy Then in the Night thou askest Is it not Day Thou countest the Clock thou numberest the Hours and think'st that Time doth pass but slowly on Would it were but break-a-day that I might rise But all the time between the Creation and the Dissolution of the World is but a moment to Eternity Where there is no striking of Clocks no telling of Hours no returns of Night and Day but always Night and never Day never shall be break-a-day A thousand years shall pass and never the less to come Nay nothing past and nothing to come and yet more to come than is already past an everlasting
Instant Now there is hope and yet thou wilt not give me thy Love and Heart then there will be no hope and that might even break thy Heart Besides 3. Will it not be universal pain All over no part free Here if thou art pained in thy Head thy Heart may not be sick if pained in more yet not in all but then thou wilt be all over Tormented Thy Vnderstanding will torment thee when thou shalt know the God the Heaven the Happiness thou hast lost and all for want of Love to me and the misery thou hast found Thy Memory will increase the vexation of thy Heart in calling to mind thine opportunities upon Earth how Mercy did intreat thee how Grace did Wooe thee how I called my Spirit strived and Patience long waited for thy Love and yet I could not obtain it of thee Thy Conscience will sting and gnaw thee saying Did not I tell thee this would be the end of thy Refusals Did not I forewarn thee Did not I say it would be thy wisest only way to hearken unto Christ and to set thy Love upon him But thou wouldst not didst not hearken to my voice nor to the voice of Christ intreating of thee for thy Love And at the Resurrection thy Body will be sharer of punishment with thy Soul and all thy Senses be tormented with afflicting Obects Thine Ears in hearing doleful Lamentations â—hine Eyes in seeing a cursed Crew of Damnâ—d Creatures thy Smell afflicted with the stench of burning Brimstone thy Taste in continual drinking of the Cup of Wrath full of Dregs without mixture of Mercy thy Touch in feeling the Fire burning but never consuming of thee It was a Wonder unto Moses that the Bush did burn and not consume on Earth and these brambles shall burn in Hell and not consume which will be a greater Wonder Now tell me poor Sinner saith Christ what is thine Answer Hadst thou rather endure all this than love me Hadst thou rather love the World and thy present Pleasures and hereafter lye in these extream eternal and universal pains than love me and be delivered from them One of these must be be wise therefore in thy choice As Christ takes this course to gain thy Love so do thou join in with Christ by serious consideration for thine own Conviction that thou maist give thy love to him Urge thy self and work it on thy Heart that thou art under the Curse and Threatnings of God which are true terrible intolerable and eternal thou art the Man that art threatned by God with the forest Punishments Plagues Judgments in this Life and in the Life to come thou art the Man that Law and Gospel will condemn if thou finally deny thy love to Christ Think seriously with thy self that thou art under the Wrath of God which is great Wrath Jer. 21.5 Whole Treasures of it Rom. 2.5 Abiding Wrath. Joh. 3.36 Tearing and destroying Wrath. Amos 1.11 Psal 50.22 Ezek. 43.8 Intolerable Nah. 1.6 Most of it to come Mat. 3.7 And Eternal Rev. 14.10 11. Endeavour to get thine Heart affected that while thou lovest not Christ thou hast no Title to Heaven no Actual Hope no Promise no Pledge nor Earnest no Plea no Interest no Warrant to expect Salvation that Hell is thy due Torments thy desert Hell is appointed for thy Lodging Dwelling place The Place is prepared the Fire is kindled Devils are waiting and all Hell is moved to meet thee at thy coming Oh think what manner of Hell it is that thou art every moment in danger of it is hot long large dark deep a restless and remediless Hell When thou hast got a sight and sense of thy Sin and that thou art lost in thy self then II. Consider there is no help for thee in any meer Creature among all the Creation of God none such can prevent thy Damnation set thee in Gods favour bring thee to his Kingdom If thou lookest upwards Angels cannot or downwards Devils neither can nor will Look round about thee all Creatures say There is no help in us for Wrath must be pacified and that cannot be till Justice is satisfied and how shall any meer finite Creature satisfie Infinite-offended-Justice Tears Prayers Reformation cannot satisfie God so that as all other Creatures cannot give relief unto thee so thou thy self canst not help thy self Then III. By serious thoughts dwell upon thy own Mortality and on the consideration of Judgment Heaven and Hell Ponder upon the certainty and the nearness of approaching Death thou mightest dye this Year before the next this Week this Day this Hour before the next and say Oh what will become of me then Where shall I be then What shall I do Nay What shall I suffer then Am I under the Curse and Death at my back Is God angry with me and Death at my heels Have I no Title to Heaven no Reason to hope for it and yet do not know how soon Death might come Am I in danger of Hell and might drop into it any day in the Week any hour in the Day Oh woful case that I am in Wrath is over my head and Hell is under my feet Wrath is ready to fall upon me and I am in danger of falling into Hell I never thought my Heart for want of love had been so bad my danger so great my Soul so black my Self so near to Hell Torments Woe is me that all my Life I have loved loathsom Sin A very Monster Even Sin which is a provocation to the Majesty of God a contradiction to the Will of God an opposition to the Nature of God a rejection of the Son of God a vexation to the Spirit of God and Damnation to my own Soul surely this Love was blind Oh! Will God bear such slightings of his Son Such abusings of his Grace Such contemning of his Mercy Woe is me Can I live without Life And be saved without a Saviour Oh what shall I do And where must I have help By whom may I be relieved restored saved Oh in this distress that I am in if I could but hear of one that could and would relieve and save me of one that could take off the Curse and make me Blessed that could turn away Gods wrath and reconcile me unto him that would save me from Hell and bring me to Heaven then What then distressed Soul Oh then him would I love Love Yea with all my Heart with all my Soul as surely I should have cause to do Love him Did I know such a one his very Name would be precious unto my Soul it should be Engraven on my Heart and I should think I could never love such a one enough Saist thou so Sinner I will tell thee there is one and but one that can and that is full and fit and free to help thee and to save and succour thee in this distress that thou art in Oh good Sir what is his Name that I might apply my self unto him and place
cause of all this good to thee And should not Love in thee to Christ be the fruit and return of all this good from Christ to thee As the goodness and long-suffering of God should lead us to repentance for sin so also to love unto his Son Doth not the kindness of a man shewn to another beget love from him that receives it to him that doth confer it And shall not the kindness God for Christ's sake hath shewn to thee far surpassing the kindness of men allure and draw thy love to him Dost thou ask What shall I return to Christ that died to satisfie God's Justice to make Salvation possible to me I answer Love And what for the tenders of mercy and the offers of Grace made to me I answer Love And what must I return for his patient bearing with me that I am not dead and damned I answer Love Love Love And what must I return to Christ for my hopes of Heaven or eternal happiness Or if I have not well-grounded actual hope that yet I am not past hope but live in hope that by the use of means I may have a lively hope of an incorruptible Crown I answer still Love Unfeigned Love sincere and hearty Love So love and then hope love strongly and then thy hope will be lively Love him thus and then in the next and last Use I will tell thee what comfort and joy this love may bring into thy heart CHAP. XIII Ten Springs of Spiritual Comfort flowing into the Hearts of the Lovers of Christ LOvest thou the Lord Jesus Blessed Soul Lovest thou Christ Happy Man Lovest thou him that is Lord and Jesus and Christ Joy in thy Love For great is the difference between the Lovers of Pleasures and the Lovers of Christ betwixt the Lovers of the World and the Lovers of Christ betwixt the Lovers of Sin and the Lovers of Christ For the Lovers of Pleasures shall be filled with pain when their Pleasures are gone but so shall not the Lovers of Christ for their eternal Love to Christ will be eternal Pleasure to them 2. The Lovers of the World shall lose all they love though they do not love to lose yet they shall certainly lose all they love but so shall not the Lovers of Christ for they love and long to see him and in seeing him for ever shall have and love him for ever 3. The Lovers of Sin shall be condemned for their Love must to their Lodgings in Hell where Love is a stranger but so shall not the Lovers of Christ but shall be taken up to their Mansions in Heaven and shall dwell in Light and Life and Love for ever Where Light shall be the Life of Love and their Life shall be the Love of Light and Love shall shine and sparkle in Light and Life for evermore Now we believe but do not see Christ nor ever have for we walk by faith and not by sight though we have not seen him yet believing we love him believing and loving without seeing brings rejoycing unspeakable and full of Glory Oh what will that Joy then be when believing shall be turned into seeing when we shall not believe and love but see and love That Joy that now proceeds from Believing and Loving is unspeakable but that Joy that shall flow from Seeing and Loving is unconceivable 1 Pet. 1.18 Whom having not seen ye love in whom though now ye see him not yet believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory I promised to shew you the Comfort the Blessings the Joy that Love to Christ will bring unto you but I confess plainly I am posed It is above my shallow understanding here is a Depth I cannot sound it here is an Height I cannot reach it here is a Length and Breadth I cannot compass it As in the love of Christ unto the believing Soul so in the love and joy that proceeds from the love of the believing Soul to Christ The one is without measure the other is above my measure How shall I speak that which is unspeakable and utter that which is unutterable Will ye excuse me then if I do not what I did purpose to do And will ye loose me from my Promise when what I did promise I find upon the attempt of performance it is above my Power Or will ye tye me to do because I promised what I am not able If so will ye pardon my Weakness wherein I shall come short if I tell you a way whereby ye your selves shall be able to supply my defect That is Do ye so believe and love that ye might feel what I cannot speak and find that by Experience which cannot be uttered by Expressions and taste that in your selves which I cannot declare with my Tongue The Tongue is the Instrument of Taste as well as of Speech and if ye would know the sweetness of Honey ye might do it better with the tasting of your own Tongue than by the telling of mine But yet that ye may see my Will to attempt where I want Power I will not be altogether silent concerning these unspeakable things For as we should labour to know the love of Christ to us which passeth knowledge Eph. 3.19 so we may endeavour to declare things that be unspeakable To speak things that be unspeakable is impossible but to speak something of or concerning things unspeakable wherein I must acquiesce is feasible Tho' I do not undertake to bring you all things speakable concerning these unspeakable things but these few follow I. Love to Christ is an evidence of the sincerity of your Hearts and of the truth of your Conversion He that loves the World is a worldâ—y man and he that loves his Pleasure most is a voluptuous man and he that loves Christ with a predominant Love is a gracious upright man Cant. 1.4 The upright love thee Such love to the second Adam is not sound in any man that is still growing upon the old stock of the first Adam This love to Christ was not born with us but wrought in us when we were born again This new Love only is in the new Creature Love to Christ is an evidence of your Interest in Christ Such predominant Love to the Lord Jesus so Spiritual was never found in any Heart that is only carnal The Proof therefore of this predominant Affection will be a demonstration of your Spiritual Renovation Christ sifting Peter concerning his sincerity after his Fall when sifted by Satan enquires after his Love to him John 21.15 16 17. Rom. 8.28 II. All the Promises of the Covenant of Grace shall be made good to all those that sincerely love the Lord Jesus These Promises are many great precious and all suâ—e to the Lovers of Christ God in the Covenant hath promised he will be your God and all that is contained in that Promise is unspeakable for it is more than that he will be your Friend your Father or bountiful Benefactor or however
Inexplicable for Glory Vnutterable for Sweetness Vnconceiveable for Sureness Vnquestionable for Fulness Vnmeasurable for Firmness Vnmoveable for Lastingness Vnchangeable 1. For God hath prepared and promised such as love him a Kingdom Jam. 2.5 Hearken my beloved brethren hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him A Kingdom is the top of Worldly Honour and when those that love Christ shall be in Heaven they shall be in their Kingdom far surpassing all other Kingdoms for it is the Kingdom of God Mat. 6.33 1 Cor. 6.9 10. others are but the Kingdoms of Men Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven others the best but the Kingdoms of this World 2 Tim. 4.18 Theirs is an everlasting Kingdom 2 Pet. 1.11 others in their greatest flourishing are near to withering and that which lasteth longest will have an end 2. God hath prepared for his Lovers a Crown of Life Jam. 1.12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation for when he is tried he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him A crown of glory 1 Pet. 5.4 A crown of righteousness 2 Tim. 4.8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto all them also that love his appearing 3. Such as have sincere Love have lively hope of an Inheritance all Christ-lovers are Heirs and their Inheritance is Incorruptible no end of it and they live to enjoy it for ever It is Vndefiled no spot nor stain in it no Sin nor Sorrow no Grief nor Groans no Troubles nor Terrors to mosest and disquiet them It fadeth not it is always in the Flower it doth always blossom there is Summer without Winter Spring without Autumn It is safe in it self it is reserved in a sure Hand in Gods own keeping It is sure to us we are kept by the power of God the Inheritance is reserved for us we are preserved by God that no sorce nor fraud shall make his sincere Lovers come short of it It is in Heaven The place where an Inheritance doth lye addeth to the valuation of it no place like Heaven no Inheritance like that which lyes in Heaven 4. God hath prepared Glory for the Lovers of his Son Glory that now is a Mystery and is to be revealed Rom. 8.18 Eternal glory 1 Pet. 5.10 Eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4.17 X. The Grace of God shall be with the sincere Lovers of Christ Grace signifies sometimes the favour of God and sometimes the good things that do proceed from his Grace and Favour so that both the good will and kindness of God and all manner of good that is the Fruit of Gods special favour necessary to the life of Grace and Glory shall be to the Lovers of Christ Eph. 6.24 Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity Amen CHAP. XIV The CONCLVSION AND now beloved Hearers what is the issue of all that I have said and ye have heard upon this Subject Have I gained any of your love to Christ Or are ye still in love with the World and Pleasures and Profits and Honours thereof Are ye in love with Sin and Self more than with Christ after all the Arguments and Pleadings of Grace and Mercy for your Hearts and hearty Love to be placed on the blessed Son of the most blessed God Did ye love Sin and will ye love it still Did ye love the World and will ye do so still Did ye not love Christ and do ye not yet and will ye not is this the answer I must return to him that sent me Lord I cannot gain their love unto thy Son fain I would but I cannot I have asked them in thy Name but they will not I have studied for this purpose and Prayed and Preached for this purpose but I have studied in vain and my Labour with so many is lost Labour I have delivered my Message but they will not hearken I have entreated for their Love not for my Self but for thy Son but many will not consent Why Sirs Did I find you full of Love to Self and Sin and World and after all must I leave you so I found you void of the Love of Christ and must I leave you so Why then did I Preach and why did ye Hear Did ye come day after day resolved Say what I could ye would do what ye list Shall that blessed Jesus that hath been set forth before you be still thus despised and set at naught by you Did I find the Anathema upon you and must I leave it upon you till Maranatha What if God should say he that after all these Entreaties Calls Invitations to love Christ yet loveth the World Let him love the World and he that loveth Sin Let him love his Sin Let him love his Pleasures Let him love what he will since he will not be perswaded to love whom he oshuld Oh dreadful Curse Oh heavy Wrath Oh sad presage of the Curse that shall fall upon such Souls when Christ shall come and after that lye and abide upon them for ever Speak therefore in thy Heart Sinner and return thine Answer for it may be this might be to thee the last time of Asking Wilt thou give Christ thy Love or wilt thou not Thy sincere not thy pretended Love Wilt thou consent and promise before thou stirrest out of this place to love Christ more than all beyond all and above all Or wilt thou deny him such love and keep it for and place it still upon thy old beloved sinful Objects Sayst thou so What must I to my Sorrow and thy Woe as to thee end as I did begin I had hoped I might have bid thee joy of thy new Love and matchless Match in thy consenting to Love and accept of this Blessed Jesus for thy Lord and Husband but if thou wilt not I must say what I would not Lord I am loth to say it but it is what thou dost say and I cannot alter it yet if I must say it let it be with a pained and a sorrowful Heart and as my Mouth shall drop the Word let mine Eyes drop so many Tears whilst at thy command I must pronounce If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha But must this be the Sentence I must leave upon you all that at the beginning of this Text had no love to Jesus Christ What is there not one amongst you all that can say Before I did love my Pleasures but now I love Christ I did love my Sin but now I love my Lord and Saviour My love is turned into another Channel I have found another object for my love I would not for a thousand Worlds have died before I had sincere love to Christ Not only one but many of you can say
so or else ye have basely dissembled both with God and this Congregation Many of you that did not love the Lord Jesus Christ now do or ye have been wretched Hypocrites while ye have been Hearers of these Sermons for what did ye mean by all those Bills that ye did give in day after day ten or twenty in a day acknowledging your former Sin till now in loving other things and not Christ Why did ye say Ye never were convinced of the necessity of loving Christ before I beseech you Why have ye so many and so often with such earnest Requests even for Jesus sake and as we had any love for your Souls desire Me and the Congregation to beg with Importunity that God would give you such an Heart now that ye might love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity above all with a Superlative Love with a Predominant Love with all your Heart and with all your Soul that you might not be Anathema when Maranatha Were not these your own Words Did not the Congregation hear them Read When I reviewed your Papers at Home did not I sind these Words and such like whereby ye did express the former Condition and the present Desires of your Souls Tell me then were ye in good earnest or did ye jest with God and Men in desiring Prayers that ye might so love the Lord Jesus If so repent of your Hypocrisie lament your double Dealings bitterly bewail such cursed Dissemblings If ye were in earnest and your Hearts as well as your Hands did guide your Pens in Writing such Desires and ye have indeed changed your Love or rather God hath turned your Love from Sin unto his Son from the World unto himself I shall have cause to bless God that I Preached and ye heard what was spoken of this subject then are ye my Joy and Crown and Rejoycing both now and at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ And to you that have this love wrought in your Hearts so lately and to all the rest that had like love to him before I wish all the Blessings that are contained in that Prayer of the Apostle with which he concludeth his Epistle and I this subject Eph. 6.24 Grace be with all them that love the Lord Jesus in sincerity Amen The BLESSING to the Lovers of CHRIST THE Psalm being Sung all the People as is usual stood up I kept my Seat longer than ordinarily I was wont which caused their Eyes to be the more towards me Then I stood up and said Why stand ye gazing Why are your Eyes so intent upon me What can I say more What more do ye expect The Blessing What! All of you What! Whether ye love Christ or no Alas If God Curse how can I Bless I have day after day set Life and Death a Blessing and a Curse before you and must it not be with you according to your own Choice If ye will be blest indeed ye must love Christ if ye will not love Christ the Curse and not a Blessing waiteth for you though ye here wait for the Blessing If ye would not go without the pronouncing of the Blessing from hence to your Homes love Christ oh love Christ Oh at last be perswaded to love Christ that ye might not go from Christs Bar to the Flames of Hell without his Blessing for ever I have done for this time and Text when I have said the Words of my Text If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha and let all the People that dare least they should wish a Curse upon themselves say Amen And for you that have set your Hearts on Christ above all I beg from the Father of Mercies that Grace might be with all them that love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and let all the People say Amen What lively Countenances what Affections what Tears and Cryings with the Spirits working were caused do not expect that I should tell FINIS Books Printed for and Sold by Thomas Cockerill at the Three Legs in the Poultrey THere is now in the Press and will suddenly be Published An Exposition of the Assemblies Shorter Catechism with Practical Inferences from each Question By John Flavell Minister of the Gospel Charnock's Works in Two Vol. Fol. Rushworth's Historical Collections 3d Part never before Printed containing the Principal Matters which happened from the Meeting of the Parliament 1640. to the end of the Parliament 1644. in 2 Vol. Fol. Geography Rectified or Description of all the World in all its Kingdoms Provinces Countreys c. Also Government Commodities Coins Weights c. Illustrated with about 80 Maps By Robert Morden 4 to The Morning Exercise at Cripplegate or several Cases of Conscience Resolved by sundry Ministers In 4 to A Supplement to the Morning Exercise at Cripplegate 8vo Specculum Theologiae in Christo Or a view of some Divine Truths which are either Practically Exemplified in Jesus Christ set forth in the Gospel or may be reasonably reduced from thence 8vo Christus in Corde Or the Mystical Union between Christ and Believers Precious Faith considered in its Nature Workings and Growth These three by Edward Polhill of Barwash in Essex Esq