Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	creature_n	goodness_n	love_v	2,618	5	6.7571	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96661	Mount Ebal levell'd or Redemption from the curse. Wherein are discovered, 1. The wofull condition of sinners under the curse of the law. 2. The nature of the curse, what it is, with the symptomes of it, in its properties, and effects. 3. That wonderful dispensation of Christs becoming a curse for us. 4. The grace of redemption, wherein it stands, in opposition to some gross errors of the times, which darken the truth of it. 5. The excellent benefits, priviledges, comforts, and engagements to duty, which flow from it. By Elkanah Wales, M.A. preacher of the Gospel at Pudsey in York-shire.	Wales, Elkanah, 1588-1669.	1658 (1658)	Wing W294; Thomason E1923_1; ESTC R209971	189,248	382

and longs to be more nearly united to him He desires not to be delivered from the curse and so to be righteous and holy that he may have an interest in Christ That is not his method But contra he desires to have real interest in Christ that he may be freed from the Curse and so be clothed with his righteousness and conformed to him in holiness Bona tua non nisi tecum Domine If thy heart can say yea to this thou hast an evidence of sincere love to Christ but if thou lovest him onely for lumps for the benefits which thou gettest by him deliverance from hell and the glory of heaven thy love is mercenary 2. Superlative It transcends and overtops all the Love of the creature The redeemed soul loveth wife children friends his own life and the good things of this world according to their several degrees of goodness and he loves them not fainedly and in shew but truly and indeed within due limits and in such proportion as they are capable of but yet he loves Jesus Christ farre and farre above them all This love leaves all other loves many thousand miles behinde it so that none of them can come near it He is precious singularly precious to them that believe 1 Pet. 2.7 he is an honour to them they have a very high esteem of him His interest prevailes in their soules infinitely above all other interests in the world Christ disownes yea rejects all love tendred to him which is inferiour to the love of our dearest relations Matth. 10.37 yea we must hate these in comparison of him Luke 14.26 Ask thy soul what it can answer to this Doth thy soul set an high price on thy Redeemer Doth thy heart embrace him as incomparably excellent dost thou finde the enjoyment of him more sweet and contenting than all other enjoyments and his absence hiding of his face and restraint of his gracious influences from thy spirit more bitter and grievous then all other wants or burthens which thou mayest meet with But if thy heart set up any thing above him so that Christ and his partie when they stand in competition with some other partie which hath gotten the chair in thy soul are slighted and must sit at its footstool or be thrust out of doors Oh this is a base beggarly love which will not stand thee in stead 3. Invincible To clear this the love of Christ in an elect person actually redeemed may possibly be overcome by the prevailing of the contrary corruption It is not simply impossible being a created quality and therefore no more able to stand of it self without divine support than Adam's love to his Creatour which was so easily mastered by the suggestions of the serpent to the ruine of himself and his posterity yet notwithstanding this possibility it shall never be totally vanquished and lost in the soul It may be greatly decayed and driven into a corner so that the godly Christian may want the sence of it and may verily think that the love of Christ dwelleth not in him at all yet it is there and shall abide in him for ever This fire as that on the Altar shall never be wholly extinguished Because the Spirit of God which first kindled it is still present blowing it up less or more that it cannot die It 's a part of the seed of God which abides in the saints and preserves them from sinning unto death which they must needs do if the love of the Redeemer be totally routed 1 Joh. 3.9 It 's a stream flowing from the well of water which springs up in the believer unto everlasting life John 4.14 The world thrusts sore at this love that it may fall Prosperity on one side presents the beautiful and pleasing objects of riches honours eternal delights Gen. 49.24 to draw the love of the soul to themselves Adversity on the other hand will endeavour to affright the soul from the love of Christ by the sterne and unwelcome shapes of troubles afflictions persecutions and death it self yet it 's bow abides in strength by the hand of ●he mighty God as Joseph's did The Saints love not their lives to the death Rom. 12.11 because they love the Lord Jesus as Jonathan loved David not onely as their own soules 1 Sam. 20.17 but also with a wonderfull Love 2 Sam. 1.26 Jonathan's Love to David was admirable in this that it could not be taken off either by the frowns threats and violence of his Father Saul against David and against himself for adhering to David or by the consideration of his own interest which was deeply concerned in this business he being heir apparent to the Crown and David standing in his light so the love of the right Christian to Christ cannot be wholly overcomed by temptations on the right hand or the left it can envie and despise both the sweet inchanting of pleasure and the bitter affronts of danger and keeps its ground in some good measure against them all Love is strong as death the coales of this fire make a most vehement flame many waters cannot quench it nor the floods drown it Can. 8.6 7. Trie thy self if this be thy temper thy love is right bred but canst thou give way to any thing in the world to take off the edge of thy love to Christ This fire which is so soon put out came not down from heaven Yea minde it thou lovest Christ but thou feelest not a return of love from him to thy soul yet if thy love be incorrupt thou wilt still hold on in prison as well as Liberty in death as well as life it will not be quite tyred out by long delay of comfort but the hope of an answer of peace will keep it acting in thee and the dayes of thy waiting and serving him will seem to thee but a few for the love thou hast to him as Gen. 29.20 4. Accompanied with self-jealousie Although the love of the godly soul to his Redeemer be thus divinely qualified yet he hath keeps up within himself an holy suspicion concerning himself that he may work out his own salvation now actually begun with fear and trembling Phil. 2.13 Look as it is with a poor maid who is deeply in love with some young man of Eminent parts She considers the great worth and excellencie of the person and her own means and unworthiness She sees a vast distance betwixt her self and him so that she shall never be able to answer him according to his condition hence she apprehends some danger of miscarrying least he should reject her and her love should be lost yet still her affection goes out freely towards him and he hath her whole heart only she sees cause to fear least some undue or uncomely carriage of hers should displease him and provoke him to distaste her and this fear makes her the more cautelous and helps her to endeavour to give him all possible contentment that she may

must lye by it for ever Let us work this meditation on our hearts for our deeper humiliation 3 It presents unto us the exactness and impartialness of the justice of God against sinners in that he will let the curse fall even on the head of his onely begotten Son if he finde sin upon him Tribulation and anguish must be upon every soul of man that doth evill without respect of persons Rom. 2.9 11. An unquestionable Maxime for we see tribulation and anguish have fallen heavy upon the soul of the Man-Christ though he did no evil himself onely because he was numbred with the Transgressors and bare the sins of many by imputation We may look upon it as a miracle of Justice and stand wondring at the Lords proceedings against Christ how the curse was inflicted on him in all the punishments of it yea the most grievous and piercing that can be imagined If any might have escaped who more likely than the Son of his bosome the Son of his delights but he might not be spared Justice will not suffer it but puts in its plea and saith I expect reparation for the transgression of my righteous Law If therefore Jesus Christ hath undertaken to pay this debt for sinners let him look to it I must and will be satisfied to the uttermost farthing He is willing to be their Surety and to stand in their room let him therefore bear the whole burden I will not acquit him till he hath discharged the whole debt No no his loud crying and tears his bloody and painful sweats his fervent and heaven-piercing prayers his often renewed petitions that this cup might pass away from him not any one of these nor all these could prevail to stay the hand of Divine justice but he must take off this cup of the Curse and drink it even to the bottome Oh that our secure sinners in Sion would weigh these things sadly and take the measure of the Lords severity against sin by his dealing with his own Son and think thus If these things be done in the green tree what shall be done in the dry Luke 23.31 If he was so strict with his Son what will he be to his slave If he dealt so sharply with his darling how will he deal with his enemy If his righteous servant escape thus hardly where shall the ungodly and sinner appear Prov. 11.31 4 It commends unto us the unspeakableness of the love of the Lord Jesus to poor undone sinners Behold here the Son of God the only begotten of the Father who is the image of the invisible God the first-born of every creature the brightness of his Fathers glory and the dearly beloved of his soul who is cloathed with honour and majesty and whom all the Angels worship even he is come down from heaven hath laid aside his Majesty put off the robes of his glory and abased himself to the lower parts of the earth to become not onely a worm and a reproach of men but also a curse for Adam his wretched posterity to take off the curse of the Law from their shoulders and to stand accursed in their stead Listen and hear 〈…〉 Dien Carth. how sweetly he bespeaks the Lord on our behalf Holy Father here is a company of poor miserable debtors very bankrupts wretched malefactors which lye under thy heavy displeasure and are the children of death but I appear here as their Surety I have taken all upon me require no debt inflict no punishment on them put it all on mine accounts I will discharge all their scores I will answer whatsoever can be laid to their charge Oh incomparable love surpassing all that can be found in the creature the highest pitch whereof reacheth but to friends Joh. 15.13 that is to such as are friendly kinde beneficial to us from whom we have received such good turns as do oblige us to a return of thankfulness and yet even this love is very rare To dare to dye for a good man that is a kinde man that hath been good to us is but a peradventure So much doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 import in some places as in Mat. 20.15 Eph. 4.29 Rom. 5.7 But God commends his love to us in that while we were sinners and therefore enemies Christ dyed for us vers 8.10 So then here is unparalleld loving kindness for who would stoop thus low Who would become contemptible yea abominable for others who would bee content to lye under the extremest miseries for enemies traitors and the worst of creatures Who would entertain and imbrace a curse upon any tearms and not rather shun and avoid it yet this hath the Lord Jesus done for us Oh that we had hearts to admire this miracle of mercy Sect. 5. Use 2. Exhortation in two branches SEcondly Hence we may also draw wholesome matter of Exhortation Hath Christ undergone the Curse Was he made a Curse in our stead who lye under the curse of the Law Oh that all the sons and daughters of Adam would take this into their serious thoughts that thereby they may be excited to learn and to practise two very necessary lessons 1 Of wisdome for themselves 2 Of duty to the Lord Jesus 1 Such poor sinners as have been convinced by the former doctrine of their accursed condition should now be wise for themselves even to give free way to him to take the curse from off them that he may bear it and not to take it to themselves Art thou now sensible of thy sinfull condition Dost thou hear the Law cursing thee aloud in thy conscience And dost thou feel the sting and venome of it drinking up thy spirit Then take to thy self the boldness to send it to Christ tell it Jesus Christ hath removed the curse from thee and laid it on his own shoulders Say Indeed I am a great sinner deeply implunged in transgression mine own iniquities have prevailed against me and are gone over my head and therefore the curse doth justly lye upon me and might presse me down into the nethermost hell but the Lord Jesus blessed be his name for ever is become a curse for me he hath born it in my stead it lyes not now on me but on him If thou hast ought to say against me go to him he will answer thee to the full This might be very seasonable if well digested to such convinced humbled sinners as are of so little faith that they dare not reckon of any good by Jesus Christ Oh saith the poor broken soul Wo is me I am undone for I am a vile accursed wretch I hear indeed that the Lord Jesus is becomed a curse for sinners but as for my self I fear the news are too good to be true I cannot be perswaded that he is made a curse for me What the Son of God made a curse for me for such a base sinful worthless creature as I am It is not probable I cannot beleeve it No no I must

begins at the house of God 1 Pet. 4.17 Say then Is this thy case Thou hast sinned and now thou sufferest I advise thee to be humbled for it yet not to be discomforted The Redeemer hath born the heat and burthen of Gods wrath for thy sin and these punishments are not the effects of indignation steeled with hatred but anger meekned with love Minde it good Christian the Lord hath annexed this proviso to the Covenant of grace If you transgress you must expect to be visited with the rod yet the Covenant shall stand fast Psa 89.30 c. As poyson duely mixed and ordered by the art of the skilful P●ysi●ian doth not kill but help to bring health So the wise God will temper the punishments which he layes on thee for sin that they should not hinder but further the fruit of thy Redemption Thy Saviour learned obedience by the things which he had suffered for thy sin Heb. 5.8 Take thou out the same lesson I might here take occasion to start and dispute this question Whether those which are actually made partakers of the grace of Redemption be so fully freed from the curse of the Law in this life that the evills which they suffer for sin have nothing of the curse in them nor can be truly so called But I look upon it as a strife about words the controversie may be thus decided 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The curse may be considered either materially as it is a thing contrary to the good and welfare of the creature and so unwelcome or formally as it the sinners liableness to the avenging wrath of God for sin Or it may be taken either largely for any evill whatsoever which is the reward of sin or strictly for that great evil of evils which stands in the separation of the sinner from God and his eternal perdition Take it materially or in the largest sense and both Scripture and experience speak it aloud that beleevers are not fully delivered from the whole curse in this life But take it formally and str●ctly and thus the elect sinner is wholly set free from it at the instant of his conversion The terrible tempest that would overwhelme him and render him utterly and everlastingly miserable is pass●d by and sh●ll not fall upon his head onely some drops and sprinklings may dash him but they shall not hurt him yea the nature of them is so altered Med●●inales 〈◊〉 A●g 〈◊〉 corr●●●●nes● 〈…〉 ●nes fabr●●● lo●●s ●●siones ●●●●t●on●s candidat●●●es Guil P●●is apud Ames Bell. Enerv. that they do him good as the Lords Warning-peeces to bring him to repentance after his falls and a Physical receits which though they be not toothsome yet are wholesome to the soul Heb. 12.10 11. Jer. 24.5 If thou be well advised thou wilt not look upon them as eff●cts of revenging justice but as fatherly chastisements and medicines to cure thy folly and helps to promote vertue as hammering or squarings and knocking 's or washings and whitenings Dan. 11.35 And this may minister sweet refreshing to thee under the ro●● even when thou hast the greatest cause of humiliation for thy sin CHAP. VIII Use 4. Examination Sect. 1. The first mark of actual interest in Redemption 4. BUt now lest some bold sinner should snatch at this Consolation under pretence of an interest in the grace of Redemption and the benefits and priviledges thereof it is requisite to adde something for Examination that every one may know whether he be actual partaker of them or no. If this was the great design of Jesus Christ in taking upon him the curse to buy poor sinners out of the hands of the Law and to deliver us from the Curse then it concernes us all to search our hearts and to try our wayes that upon due consideration we may be able to give a true satisfying answer in our own souls to this weighty case of conscience Whether am I indeed and truth redeemed from the curse of the Law For what shall it avail thee to claime that as thy right which upon due search will be found to be none of thine Shall not the Lord judge thee an Usurper and a Theefe in so doing Therefore judge thy selfe by inquiring how thy heart can answer to these markes and evidences of a redeemed soul 1. Dear love of the Redeemer Suppose a poor guiltie-slave tugging and sweating in an hard service under a cruel Lord and readie to breath out his soul for very anguish by reason of his bondage if now some happie man shall in meer compassion disburse a great summe for his ransome and set him at liberty how doth this engage the silly captives heart to his Deliverer How doth the esteem of him and commend him Oh! saith he had it not been for such a man I had lien by it for ever I even owe him my self and all that I am and I shall love him dearly as long as I live This is thy case if thou hast left Christ actually redeeming thee from the Curse Thou canst look upon him and consider both those depths of misery from which he hath rescued thee and that height of felicity whereinto he hath ensta●ed thee and also the desperate hazzards which he was constrained to runne for the perfecting of this great work and thou canst seriously profess and say with David I will love thee dearly O Lord my strength and my deliverer Psal 18.1 2. and 116.1 2 c. Thou canst now speak it in the uprightness of thy heart Oh my soul is exceedingly indeared unto the Lord Jesus for looking upon such a miserable creature I was as a dead dog before the Lord the curse of the Law was ready to wearie mee but Christ hath taken it off and delivered me from it Therefore I love him he hath my heart and shall have it for ever well then saith every pretender I doubt not but I am redeemed for I love Jesus Christ else I were not worthy to live But alas there is much false unsound Properties of sincere love of the Redeemer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quae ad splendorem solis examen sustinere potest Pasor Lexic dissembling love in the world onely that which is pure sound and uncorrupt will evidence your interest in Redemption Eph. 6.24 Let us therefore hold up this Eagle before the Sun that we may trie whether it be right bred or a bastard True love to Christ the Redeemer is 1. Single carried to the person of Christ in a direct line the eye looks straight towards Christ so that he loves him primarily for himself and the good things which he enjoyes by him but at the second hand I grant that the benefit of Redemption applied is both a meanes to produce and an help to advance this love but when the soul begins to know Christ somewhat experimentally then he sees that beautie and excellency in him which renders him altogether lovely Can. 5.16 now he loves him intirely

not fail of her desires Thus it is with a poor son of Adam now made partaker of Redemption by Christ he is greatly in love with his Redeemer but considering the great inequality betwixt them and his proneness to offend he is jealous over his own base heart least some unworthy walking should give his love the lie and Christ the dearly beloved of his soul should turn him over to Sathan again and leave him to be a slave to sin and the curse or lest his love should decay or cool and Christ his onely one should be displeased at him and frown upon him The Gentiles grafted into the Olive-tree must not be high-minded but fear Rom. 11.20 Such are pronounced blessed Prov. 28.14 If Paul was jealous over the Corinthians much more might they themselves 2 Cor. 11.2 3. If this jealousie be a stranger to thee thy love may well be suspected By these signes thou mayest trie the truth of thy love to Christ and if thou findest this frame of spirit thou mayest conclude that thou art redeemed A love thus qualified is a sure evidence of thy Redemption For none can possibly love the Redeemer at this height but those which are actually partakers of the benefit By nature we do not we cannot love him onely the banner of his love in the work of Redemption displayed to the sinner by the spirit of God drawes his heart to love him It may be thou hast no assurance of any interest in this benefit but if thou findest in thy soul such an high estimation of Christ and grace and such an advised complacency of spirit in him as inclines thee to fix the dearest love of thy heart upon him notwithstanding the contrary struglings of the flesh within thee though it certainly draw after it the loss of all worldly interests whatsoever I say if this be thy frame thou hast no cause to fear thy condition Sect. 2. The second and third mark of interest in Redemption 2. WEariness under the bondage of sinne both that which is past and present 1. The remembrance of his late wofull thraldome under the guilt and power of sin doth sometimes sadden his spirit he cannot think of it without some degree of regret and sorrow The misery of his former slavery under sinne is his wormwood and gall when he hath it in remembrance his soul is humbled in him Yea although he hath good hope through grace that he hath escaped the danger of it yet that doth not damme or drie up the spring of sorrow in his soul but rather renders it now spiritual and kindly Now he saith in the language of the Prophet Oh let me never return into the house of this prison again lest I die there Trie thy self Iere. 37.20 It 's no sure signe of a good estate if upon supposal of thy interest in this benefit thy soule be lifted up to such an height of joy as drownes all thoughts of thy old sinfull condition and leaves thee altogether unaffected If the Apostle had judged this a commendable disposition he would never have exhorted the saints of Ephesus to remember in what a pitifull condition they had formerly been while they were farre off and in the flesh Ephes 2.11 12. 2. The sence of that heavie clogg which lies upon him the bodie of death with the lusts thereof which as fetters on his leggs are continually pinching him makes him to sigh and crie out Oh wretched man who shall deliver me and that not onely when he is in the dark about his spiritual estate but also in the day of his choisest assurance when he can heartily thank God in the view of his full deliverance to come Rom. 7.24 25. I conceive S. Paul doth there represent the temper of every right Christian as to this particular in his own example Suppose the armes leggs and other parcels of a dead carkass were chained to the body of a living man although the trunk of that carkass were taken quite away yet Oh how noisome would it be It would make a man wearie of himself Thus it is with the ransomed soul The bulk of the flesh as I may call it is destroyed by the cross of Christ the life of it is in a great measure laid in the dust when he is set free from the Law that is the commanding over-ruling masterfull power of sin yet still the members of this carkass the affections and lusts of the flesh are sprawling and stirring and working in him and these are as troublesome to a gracious heart as the stinking members of a dead body would be to a living body if they were coupled to it Consider thy self now and see how it is with thee Art thou as Rebekah weary of thy life Gen. 27.46 because of those daughters of Heth Canst thou say with all thine heart Oh that I were altogether freed from them oh that this vexatious Inmate with all her unwelcome train might be once pack'd out of doors that I might see it no more When shall it once be This is a sweet signe that thou art actually redeemed But now Art thou a stranger to this frame Is the bodie of sin no burthen nor grief of heart to thee Canst thou go under it without stooping Dost thou not rather bless thy self in thy civil carriage before men or at the best in thy religious outside profession and performances before God wondering at the preciseness of some persons which make so much adoe in sighing and lamenting under that pressing bondage of corruption which thou art not acquainted with nor knowest what it means This is a clear evidence that thou art still a wretched slave a meer stranger to the grace of Redemption 3 A sincere consolation and real endeavour to abandon all iniquity and for ever to relinquish a vain conversation Hee that hath laid a long time in iron fetters for his misdemeanours if he be wise for himself will utterly renounce those courses which hath brought him into that misery and he that hath felt the iron curse of the Law pinching his soul and is set free by the Lord Jesus the grace of God will effectually teach him to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts Tit. 2.12 When the Lord hath found a ransome for an humbled soul whose life was drawing near to the destroyers and hath sent his Commission to the Minister of the Gospel to deliver him the poor soul forthwith reflects upon himself and saith I have sinned and perverted that which is right and it profited me not that is I have gotten nothing by the trade of sin but woe and sorrow therefore I will follow it no longer Job 33 23.-27 I will not offend I will do no more Job 34.31 32. The Apostle Peter writing to the dispersed Jews tells them that they are redeemed from their vain conversation which they had received by tradition from their Fathers 1 Pet. 1.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They had sundry idle needless unprofitable customes both

not my mountain stands strong I can manage all things my self my welfare is in mine own hands When thy soul is filled with comfort by the light of Gods countenance lifted up upon it do not now trust thy self with thy spiritual happiness say not I shall carve so for my self as it shall be ever thus with me but lean upon thy Redeemer as the soveraign disposer of all thy concernments Psal 138.8 Especially look to this in the dayes of adversitie or danger by afflictions of soul or body then thou shalt be put to it thrust thy self under the wings of thy Saviour and deliver up all thine interests into his hands who hath bought thee for himself and will not see thee miscarry Is there any person or creature in heaven or earth whom you can betrust with them in assurance of safetie None besides him The Apostle Peter gives this savourie counsel to suffering Christians 1 Pet. 4.19 and we have two choice examples pertinent to this purpose The former of the Psalmist Psal 49 5-15 who in the dayes of evil when the iniquity of his heels should compass him about that is when he shall be exercised with afflictions and chastisements for his sinfull strayings and uneven walking yet resolves that he will not be afraid because he hath committed his soule unto God being assured that he would redeem it from the power of the grave in the morning of the resurrection while the men of the world whose trust is onely in the broken staffe of the creature shall fall short of their hopes and be miserably devoured by death eternal The latter example is the Apostle Paul 2 Tim. 1.12 who beares up courageously in the midst of his sufferings for the Gospel upon this ground He hath deposited his soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vide Bezam and the glory prepared for him in the hands of Christ and he was perswaded that he was able and willing too that is implyed to keep that which he had committed to him against that day 4. When the summons of death come to arrest thee and call thee hence then commit and commend tby spirit into the hands of the Lord God thy Redeemer Thus did David when Saul and his men hemmed him in on every side so that there was no way of escape open but he said he was cut off a gone man Psal 31.5 22. Some interpreters do probably take this See Mollerus and Piscator to be the occasion of his penning that Psalm The story is 1 Sam. 23.26 Jesus Christ thy Redeemer being readie to give up the Ghost on the Cross uttereth the same words Luke 23.46 and in this commending his soul into the hands of his father He hath respect to his members and thereby undertakes the safe keeping of all their soules Omnes suorum animas custod●endas suscep●t Calvin So that thou needest not fear to commit thy spirit at death unto him as he committed his to his Father Some of the most precious servants of God are recorded in Scripture as Presidents herein That expression of holy Jacob breathed out in the midst of his solemne speech to his sonnes on his death bed doth clearly imply this gracious practise Gen. 49.18 and Stephen the first Gospel-martyr followed the example of his master Jesus herein Acts 7.59 Go thou and learn that lesson that thou mayest have it in readiness on the day that thou shalt go hence and be no more Say thus Oh Lord here I am an unworthy creature but thou hast in pure love to my soul bought me out from the Curse and so delivered me from the pit of corruption Isa 38.17 and now that I must lay down this earthly Tabernacle I do freely render thee thine own I am thine save me Psal 119.94 I humbly wait for that Crown of righteousness the full possession of glory in perfect union with thy blessed self which thou hast purchased with so dear a price and is laid up for me and many poor soules in heaven 2 Tim. 4.8 Thus much of the Fifth Use which was for exhortation CHAP. XII Use 6. Admonition 6. LAstly I would improve this Truth by way of Admonition and from this as a new ground briefly whet upon your hearts that inference which I drew from the first Conclusion concerning Cursing that it is both irrational and irreligious So shall the just condemnation of that wicked practise be established in the mouth of two approved witnesses Deut. 17.6 As it is madness to wish a curse to our selves or others seeing we are all under the stroak of it by nature So truly it is a double madness to do it now that we are redeemed from it by grace Your own reason may disswade you from it on the former ground unless you be so desperate as to continue still under the curse and to implunge your selves deeper into the gulf and Religion may take you off on the latter ground unless you will resolve thus Christ indeed hath delivered sinners from the Curse but we are content to tamper with it still and so make your selves a thousand times more the children of wrath than you were before Yet alas how common is this miscarriage even among them that profess themselves to be redeemed by Christ It is too usual with some men to wish a curse to their own souls thereby either to confirm the truth of something or to binde themselves to do that which they have purposed in their hearts to do It is true we have examples of the best men in Scripture which have so done as Job chap. 31.7 8. c. and David Psal 7.3 4 5. but these were for the most part rather necessitated than voluntary for the clearing of their innocency alwayes advised and weighty with solemn reverence in the presence of God from whom they did certainly expect the accomplishment of their wish against themselves in case they should bee found faulty And thus they may be lawfull being used very sparingly But this cannot justifie the too frequent use of them without necessity upon trivial occasions rashly headily brutishly when the fear of God in the heart doth not manage the business to render it accepted As for the cursing and banning of others Oh how rife is it How easily do the common people fall into that base language If they be but a little provoked if passion get the upper hand in a small measure their tongues are forthwith all on a flame in bitter imprecations It is true also that some holy men are reported in Scripture to have cursed others It is commanded Jud. 5.23 It was practised by David Psal 69.22 c. By Elisha 2 King 2.24 By Nehemiah chap. 13.25 and Jeremy chap. 18.20 21. But these are meerly extraordinary being predictions of evill against others uttered by the Spirit of Prophesie which cannot warrant us to do the like And I suppose we shall scarcely meet with one approved example in the Book of God which will bear us