I have taken up armes against Almightie God If I had but gone to the top of Hell it had beene infinite mercy and if I had been in a dungeon all my dayes and had another world to live and lived it all in miserie it had beene infinite mercie for the Lord to send downe Christ to looke upon me a poore wretch in the dungeon and to speake to me out of the gates of hell and to tell me of this mercie oh it had beene an infinite mercie but to send a Sonne to save me it is incomparable I could not conceive to doe so much evill against him as he hath done good to me oh the breadth of that mercy beyond all limits oh the length of that mercie beyond all time oh the depth of that mercie below a mans miserie oh the height of that mercy above the height of mine understanding If mine hands were all of love that I could worke nothing but love and if mine eyes were able to see nothing but love and my mind thinke of nothing but love and if I had a thousand bodies it were all too little to love that God that hath unmeasurably loved mee a poore sinfull hel-hound Psal 18.1 I will love thee dearely O Lord my strength Oh have I gotten the Lord Iesus Christ to bee my comfort my buckler my shield If I have any good he gives it and if any good bee continued it is he that doth it and if I have any comfort in it it is hee that blesseth it to me therefore I will love thee dearely Oh Lord my strength Thus the point is cleare and stands upon his right bottome Now I come to the Application of it that wee may reape some good and comfort to our owne soules And the use of the point is fourefold for Instruction for Consolation Nature breeds no love to Christ for Reprehension for Exhortation Vse 1. First for Instruction which I desire a little to commend to you because it is seasonable Is it so that the Spirit of the Father kindles this love in the heart truly humbled and enlightned c then conclude this undeniably That there is no power in nature or in a naturall heart I say there is no sufficiencie in the power of nature to bee carried to any love towards Christ we have not this before God gives it nay wee cannot move our selves in love to God before the Lord let in the sparkes of love into our soules True it is we find it by wofull experience it is in our power to love the world and to delight in base lusts and being but naturall men it cannot be but that we should love our selves and the things of this world there is enough of these wilde fires and of this base worldly lust in every naturall soule to expresse it selfe but to love the Lord Iesus Christ and to have a heart inlarged towards him it is a worke of grace that growes not in our hearts I say there is not one sparke of holy love and of this holy fire of love in our hearts at any time neither can we buy or borrow it at the hands of any under heaven further than the Spirit of the Lord is pleased to kindle it and to inflame this grace of love to the Lord Iesus and further than the Lord by the power of his merits is pleased to feed this in our soules It is an unconceiveable misery that any man should bee so farre deluded as to thinke that he can do it by his owne strength and power Saint Paul expresseth it in discovering the vilenesse of himselfe by nature and the freenesse of Gods grace 1 Tim. 1.13 14. I was before a blasphemer and a persecutor but I obtained mercy I wronged Iesus Christ and was malicious against him and opposed against his children Paul could doe this of himselfe so thou canst be malicious against the Lord and against the power of his grace and truth this a naturall man can doe but for him to love the Lord Iesus Christ and to beleeve in him how came Saint Paul by that Why the grace of God was exceeding abundant towards mee with faith and love which is in Iesus Christ As if he had said it was abundant grace that over-powred my unfaithfull heart and made me beleeve and it was abundant grace that over-powred my injurious heart and made me love Christ But how was this it was by the grace of Christ from Christ this faith was wrought and in Christ this love was kindled As if hee had said I thought to cast off the Lord and his grace I was a persecuter and a villaine indeed but that I should beleeve the Lord and love him this was from Christ it was in grace and not in Paul The ball must first fall to the ground before it can rebound backe againe so the Lord Iesus must first dart in his love into the soule before the soule can rebound in love and joy to him againe wee must receive from grace before wee can rebound backe any love to God as 1 Tim. 1.7 God hath not given us the spirit of bondage but of power of love and of a sound minde See what the Lord spake in some case of the Iewes Iohn 5.40 42. speaking home to their hearts hee saith I know you that yee have not the love of God in you Verse 40. he saith Yee will not come to mee and in the 42. verse I know you that yee have not the love of God in you As if hee had said I know it you know it not your selves and though you thinke you have this love to mee yet you are deceived you know not what you are nor what you know but I know and it is as true of every corrupt heart under heaven the love of God cannot bee in the heart of any naturall man whatsoever The reason why I presse this point so much is this it is for these two ends you shall see a double benefit by it Carnall men conceive no difficulty to love Christ First this confutes and overthrowes the conceits of a company of carnal Gospellers that say they fast not nor pray not nor professe not so much as such and such but for the truth of their love to Christ they defie all the world they find no difficulty in the matter and they make no doubt therof and therefore if any Christian man or any faithfull Minister of God shall begin to challenge them with the want of love to Christ and grace they will answer What not loue the Lord Iesus it is pitty that euer that man should live they have loved him and will loue him for ever and all the world shall not perswade them to the contrary Oh poore deluded creatures it is an undoubted argument that thou never hadst the loue of God in thee because thou thinkest it such an easie matter to love him Many men make nothing of it they make it but an holy-day taske and say Who cannot
thou the hope of Israel why dost thou depart In Gen. 19.2 when the two Angels came to Lot in Sodome the one was Christ Lot compelled them to go in Christ is not now unwilling but hee knockes and calls and saith Open to me my love my dove my undefiled he entreats the loose person to forsake his base practises and the covetous person to leave his oppression and to receive mercy but you suffer Christ to lye in the street and despise that word of his and will bee at your owne carving This especially falls foule upon two sorts of persons The first sort is all carnal profane opposers of the Lord Iesus The carnall Gospeller is content that Christ should undertake for him and bee his Protectort to defend him from the plague of sin but he is not content that Christ should rule in him He doth as the Inne-keeeper that receives a guest into his house to make an advantage of him for as the Inne-keeper will come to his guest and pretend great matters to him not because he would have his guest to possesse him but because hee would bee possessor of his money so the carnall Gospeller would have Christ for his owne turne hee would dispose of Christ and mercy for his owne purpose and hence come all those speeches God is mercifull and Hath the Lord Christ created men to damne them Oh but mercy is sweet and pardon is good This is thus much you would have Christ to pardon sinne that you might commit it with lesse feare and more freedome If you did see no Saviour but that you must needs be damned for it you would startle at it But you would have Christ to stand by you that you might sinne the more freely Oh be not deceived doe you thinke that Christ will come to be an underling to your lusts and a drudge to your base distempers whose condemnation is iust saith the Apostle No you are deceived you shall not have Christ a servant to carry your lusts and pleasures to heaven with you The truth is the Lord Iesus will never bring comfort nor consolation to thee that wilt not bee possessed of him either haue both or neither chuse whether you will The second sort to be reproved are a company of slie hypocrites that would part stakes with Christ and part houses with him they could bee content that hee should have some roome in the house but they will dispose of all themselues as a man that lets some roomes in his house Simile upon this condition that he may have them when he lists You willl pray against sinne provided that now and then Christ will give you leaue to practise it and you will cry out against it provided that you may have a privy seale or some secret licence for it and you will professe bitterly against base courses so you may haue some backe doore and inward lust still The Lord Iesus doth not share with any man can he have a part and the Divell a part nay hee will have either all or none It was the tricke of an adulterous heart for when there was contention for the children the harlot said 1 King 3.26 Let it be neither thine nor mine but divide it Nay saith the mother let her have all Shee was the harlot that would have the child devided So it is with an adulterous and dissembling heart that saith Let Christ have a part and the world a part let lusts and pompe have a part and Christ a part this is dissimulation with GOD and shall receive condemnation there must bee no sharing If your hearts be guilty of this I charge you in the name of the Lord Iesus consider it the Lord never came into your soules you must resigne all to him and then he will saue all he will pardon all sin and give power against it What a fearfull thing were it if the Lord should deale with you as you deale with him Suppose thou couldst be halfe damned wouldst thou be content to have thy heart go to hell and thine eye to heaven or thy body to hell and thy soule to heaven therefore that thy body and soule may both be saved resigne up up all into the hands of thy Saviour and let him dispose of all here in the kingdome of grace and then he will take all to himselfe in glory for ever Vse 2. If the Lord Iesus be the possessor of all the house then let every one haue his owne Give all to Christ whose it is doe not with draw from Christ that which is his Whose image and superscription hath the soule Christ Iesus hath the protection of it therefore let him have all Let thine eye see his works and wonder and admire at them let thy minde know Iesus Christ whom to know is eternal life but do not withdraw any thing from the true owner therof that hath purchased it full deare 1 Cor. 5.15 Shall I take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot God forbid Thine eye and thy tongue and thy hand and thy heart they are all Christs members he hath bought all with his blood and thou hast nothing to do with that which Christ hath bought therefore whensoever thy corruptions stirre and Satan tempts and begges for the use of thy mind or heart make answer and say Shall I take that heart that is Christs and thinke basely God forbid Shall I take the hand of Christ and worke wickednesse with it The holy Apostle is marvellous peremptory in this case as 1 Cor. 6.19 Glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are Gods and hee hath bought you with a price your bodies and soules are the Lords hee undertakes for both therefore glorifie God in both If a man did come to your house and take the meat and drinke that you have provided and rob you of your money you would take it very hardly and say It is my owne So you are not your owne Therefore if the Divell or the world would prevaile with you and enter into the use of your heart or minde tell him they are not thy owne they are the Lords IESVS CHRIST hath come into thy heart and minde in mercy and therefore say it is the Lords let him doe what hee will with it â‚ SPIRITVALL LOVE AND IOY Gal. 5.22 The fruit of the Spirit is love ioy goodnes faith c. THE sure mercies of David which faith beleeveth love embraceth And who so getteth this field and treasure must needs go away rejoycing in so good a bargain All this and all other graces and comforts worketh one and the same Spirit directing the heart to God uniting it unto Christ and thereby comforting it abundantly All is his fruit in us At this time of loue and joy The point of Doctrine is this Love and joy by the spirit wrought in a broken heart for embracing mercy as it deserves Doct. The Spirit of the Father kindles in the soule of
thing so there must be a beam of Gods love to fall upon the soule before it can love God againe as in Hosea 11.4 I drew them with the cords of a man even with the bands of love God lets in the cords of love into the soule and that drawes love againe to God But above all that place Cant. 2.4 marke the manner how Gods Spirit expresseth himselfe to the soule He brought me into the banquetting house Cant. 2.4 opened and his banner over me was love stay me with flaggons and comfort me with apples for I am sicke of love And so when the banner of Christs love is spread over the soule the soule comes to be sicke in love to Christ As it is in war when the Commander displayes the banner these three things are signified by it First that there is the presence of the Commander Secondly the displaying of the banner commands all to come to it Thirdly while it is held out all keepe to it Now see the excellencie of the Spirit of God in the Scripture The Church was then in some trouble but the Lord Christ brings the Spouse into his chamber nay into the wine-celler and the banner that was displayed over her was love and first Christ came as a Commander to redeeme her and to save her from all troubles and afflictions Secondly it commands the soule to come to the banner Thirdly when God displayes his love in the beautie of it in any measure then all the company of poore sinners come in unto it and so they love the Lord because the Lord hath loved them This love of God doth beget our loves in three particulars First Gods love to us begets love in us towards him and how there is a sweetnesse and a relish which Gods love le ts into the soule and warmes the heart with you shall see how the fire is kindled by and by As when a man is fainting we give him Aqua-vitae so a fainting sinner is cold at the heart and therefore the lets in a drop of his loving kindnesse and this warmes the heart and the soule is even filled with the sappinesse of the mercy of God as Cant. 1.1 2. where the Spouse saith Let him kisse me with the kisses of his mouth for his love is better than wine The poore soule though hee drinke water yet he drinkes better wine than any carnall man under Heaven the kisses of his mouth are the comforts of his Word and Spirit The soule saith Oh let the Lord refresh me with the kisses of his mouth that is of his Word and Spirit let the Lord speak comfort to the heart and this is better than wine For the Lord must doe it before hee can be apprehensive of his love yea let the Lord expresse the comfort of his precious promises in Iesus Christ to me And againe in the second verse Because of the savour of thy garments thy name is as an ointment poured forth therefore the virgins love thee Christ was the oyntment Christs oyntment is his graces and the savour or the communication of this is the expression of his love to the soule the virgins are the soules truly humbled that love the Lord. Secondly as this warmes the heart so the freenesse of the love of God thus let in and thus intimated begins even to kindle this love in the soule that it sparkles againe Rom. 5 8. see how God sets out his love to us Seeing saith the Apostle that while wee were sinners Christ died for us This commends the love of God the Lord sends to poore miserable sinfull broken-hearted sinners and saith Commend my mercie to such a one and tell him that though hee hath beene an enemy to me yet I am a friend to him and though hee have beene rebellious against me yet I am a God and a Father to him and let him not thinke that because he hath offended me therefore hee shall not receive mercie from me but here is my love and it is worth the commendation Christ died for poore sinners when they were enemies therefore if God so loved us as to dye for us when wee were sinners and enemies how ought we then to love one another But much more how ought wee to love the Lord What was it that kindled that frozen and vile and stubborne and wicked heart of wretched Saul who had a heart as hard as ice 1 Sam. 24.19 when David had him upon the hippe and might have slaine him but would not even this wrought upon the heart of Saul and kindled a fire of affections of love towards him and made him say Come againe my son David Thou art more righteous than I for thou hast rewarded me good whereas I have rewarded thee evill And thou hast shewed mee this day how that thou hast dealt well with mee forasmuch as when the Lord hath delivered me into thine hand thou killedst me not For who ever slew not his enemie when he found him at such an advantage wherefore the Lord reward thee good for that which thou hast done unto mee this day Sauls heart is all on fire with this kindnesse So when the poore sinner considers this with himselfe and saith Is the Lord so mercifull to mee who ever thus found his enemie and slew him not I that loved my sins and continued in them had it not beene just that I should have perished in them But will the Lord not only not slay his enemie but give his Sonne for mee Oh let my soule for ever rejoyce in this unconceivable goodnesse of God! Bee thy heart neuer so hard if it have but the sense of this it cannot but stirre thee to humiliation Lastly the greatnesse of the freenesse of this mercie of God being setled upon the heart enflames it This sweetnesse warmes the heart this freenesse kindles the fire and when the greatnesse of the sweetnesse comes to be valued this sets the heart all upon a fire In Eph. 3.17 18. the Apostle desires that Christ might dwell in their hearts and that they might be rooted in love but how shall we come to this that we may bee able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height of the love of God in Christ As if the Apostle had said If I once come to see the unmeasurablenesse of Gods mercy this will blow up the soule and enflame the heart with admirable love againe to the Lord and make the soule say I that have done all that I could against the good God it breakes my heart to thinke it there was no name under Heaven that I did more blaspheme and teare in peeces more than this I have despised no command so much as the command of God and of Christ and I have grieved no spirit so much as the good Spirit of the Lord against those sweet motions that God hath let into my soule and struggled with me to plucke me from my company and to contend with me
Christ will say Oh that love pleaseth me They cannot welcome the Lord better than with this love but the other love and joy pleaseth him not Canst thou say I love the Lord because hee hath loved mee then thy love is of a right mettall and know it for ever that that God which cannot but love himselfe hee cannot but like that love which came from himselfe who is the God of all love and which comes from his owne divine nature Is thy soule affected and enlarged in love to the Lord because thou hast felt and received the rellish and sweetnesse of his grace Dost thou love and joy in God upon this ground namely upon a grounded affection of Gods loue to thee setled and sealed to thy selfe so that thou canst say The Lord hath let in the glimpse of his favour and the Lord hath said it in his truth hee lookes to him that trembles at his word the Minister said it and the Spirit saith it that my mercy is registred in heaven and my desires are received and granted Oh how shall I love the Lord My sinnes are many which I have bewailed and my sighes and sobs I have put up to heaven and at last the Lord hath given mee a gracious answer O how may I love the Lord my strength dearly Lord thou hast looked downe from heaven in love and mercy upon me and therefore my soule shall ever looke up to heaven to thee in love If it be thus with thee thy love is sound and will never faile thee but if any mans love comes from himselfe and therefore loves God that love will onely bring all to himselfe and there is the end of it A man hath a love to his parts and abilities and prayer and preaching and reading and conference and understanding and policy hee loveth these and therefore he would fain be beholden to Iesus Christ to helpe him to honour and to glorifie these parts of his This love was from his parts and brought to his parts and in the meane time the Lord Iesus lay in the dust and his glory was not regarded whereas the love that is wrought by God it alwayes doth draw the love of the soule againe to God and so love from him draws love to him This is the excellencie of this love and this is love of the right kind But if the love of parts and profits draw me to honour and glorifie parts and profits then I love my profits and not Christ Thinke of this often this is certaine this will bee the mainest difference betweene all the love of carnall hypocrites and of the Saints of God I would expresse my selfe to you thus As it is with meat which a man takes downe inwardly and digests it this breeds good bloud but that meate which a man eates and spits out againe and tarries not long with him this breeds no bloud at all So it is in the heart of a poore humbled sinner truely wrought upon to receive Christ in the worth of him and with the hypocrite A heart truely wrought upon by Gods Spirit it takes downe the promise and feeds upon it and it breeds good bloud and complexion True love is like this good bloud and true joy is like this complexion Marke this the promise of God settled upon the heart nourisheth and feedeth the heart and it breeds good bloud but the foolish hypocrite that hath a kind of flattering sweetnes this tickles the heart with vaine conceits but they never goe downe And hence it is that that love which comes from hence it is but a fading love and there is no good bloud nor no good complexion comes from it but rather corruptions and overture Secondly 2. Triall as the root of this love must be from the kindling of the Spirit so if thou entertaine thy Saviour as it beseemes him True love of Christ entertains him as a King thou must entertaine him as a King and that is thus give up all to him and entertaine none with him upon termes of honour but such as retaine to him or be attendants unto him this is the manner of receiving great Princes Love all in a Christ and for a Christ but expresse thy love and thy joy to a Christ above all he is as the King and all the rest are but as retainers and all his servants are as servants to him He that loves any thing equall with a Christ it is certaine he did never love a Christ but he that sets up any thing cheeke by joll with Christ he despiseth him and never receives him It is all one as if a man did put a slave into the same chamber with the King which is all one as to drive him away So if thou dost set up any thing with Christ thou dost drive him away with such base behaviour As in Iames 4.4 O yee adulterers and adulteresses know yee not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is an enemy of God A man cannot retaine fellowship with Christ Iesus and with the world too upon point of honour Simile As the woman that loves her husband she loveth other men as friends and neighbours and will give them very courteous entertainment and welcome them kindly but if they come to claime the love of a wife she abhorres and detests them So a loving heart that loves Iesus Christ as the Bridegroome he loves Christ onely and all for Christ and the rest as friends c. The soule wil love honors or profits or credit or parts and priviledges that they may be friends to speake for a man and to give a man occasion to speake with a Saviour as the wife loves the husband firstly and all the rest she regards onely as they may further the match this way so the Lord Christ and his grace is chiefe to the soule but the world and ease and credit these are meerely as friends to leade him to a Saviour and make him acquainted with a Saviour The soule loves the word and prayer and all Gods ordinances to speake a good word to a Saviour for him but all the rest are despised by him and if any of them come to claime the love of a soule from a Christ it hates them deadly as Luke 14.26 If any man come to mee and hate not father and mother in comparison of me he is not worthy of mee that is if father and mother stand betweene thee and Christ and would have thy soule married to them again the soule hates them This is a plaine difference betweene a sound heart and a false heart in the receiving of Christ the sound heart receives him as a favorite receives a Prince he gives up all to him Simile and lets him have the command of all but now an Inne-keeper entertains him that comes next to him he will take any mans money and will give welcome to any man if it bee the best man
Sam. 23.17 When Saul had made a cunning search for David and he was fled Jonathan comes to him and chears him saying I know that my father shall not prevaile against thee but that thou shalt be King over Israel and I shall be next thee Jonathan was Sauls Sonne and he might have said I am my fathers heire and why may not I bee his successor in the kingdome but he loved David and rejoiced in his good and therefore he said Thou shalt be King over Israel and I shall bee next unto thee As if hee should say I am more glad that the Crowne shall be set upon thy head than if it were set upon mine owne for my soule is thereby comforted and refreshed So it is with a good heart that loves Jesus Christ and his grace and his Gospel in truth the happinesse glory and the honour of the Lord Jesus is the greatest good that can befall him wherefore he saith If the Lord may be honoured though I am disgraced I care not it is enough to me if may stand to behold and see it Ioh. 3.26.29 When the Lord Christ began to set forth the frame and glory of the Gospel and to baptize the Disciples of John came to their Master and said Rabbi he that was with thee beyond Jordan to whom thou barest witnesse behold the same baptizeth and all men come to him they began to be troubled because the Lord Jesus baptized and the praise went from them as if they had said There is one come that carrieth the hearts of all men after him Now mark what John answered He that hath the Bride is the Bride-groome as if he should say The Lord Christ is the Bride-groome and I am onely the friend of the Bride-groome all my care was to prepare hearts for him and hath he now gotten those hearts and hath he prosperitie then have I enough if I heare that the case goes well with him I have enough let the Lord have the praise that is due to him and let me have whatsoever is due to me 2 Sam. 19.30 when Mephibosheth had been wrongfully accused to David and David had taken away the inheritance from him and was returned in safety so that he saw the Kings face againe David began to comfort him saying Thou and Siba divide the land but marke how he replies Yea saith he let him take all for as much as my Lord the King is come againe in peace It matters not for the inheritance and for my selfe and my life I passe not fith the King is returned in peace it is enough that I enjoy thy presence which is better to me than goods life and liberty So it is with a kinde-loving heart when hee is not able to indure to see Christs honour and glory lye in the dust but if his praise be advanced then he is glad this is a good and loving heart indeed which saith Lord I have enough that Christ is mine and that his honour and glory is magnified Let the world take all if I may have Christ and see him praised and magnified Labour to bring thy soule to this pitch a minister in his place and the master in his place and every Christian in his place let it be all our care not onely to honour God our selves but let it be our comfort if God may be better honoured by others than by our selves This is our basenesse of spirit we can bee content to lift up Christ upon our shoulders that we may lift up our selves by it this too much prevailes amongst all men But be content to lye in the dust that the Lord may be praised though thou be disgraced And though every mans heart goe opposite against thee yet let this content thee if the Lord Jesus may thrive and prosper yea if any of Gods people thrive and prosper more than thou let that be thy onely joy 5. Triall More more it desires union with Christ Lastly it is the nature of sound love to covet a neere union with the thing that is loved and to have a kinde of impatiency and to be restlesse till it doe attaine the greatest measure thereof This flowes directly from the nature of love especially of this love to Christ who is the greatest good love is of a linking and glewing nature will carry the soule with some kind of strength earnestness to injoy full possession and fellowship of the thing that is loved it cannot have enough of it and it is not satisfied with it upon any occasion As it is in reason with a childe Simile happely when the father entertaines him at the table hee gives him a little sweet-meat as some Conserve or the like which is so sweet that he can tast nothing but that and his minde is still upon it that he may receive more of it the father commends this and that and praiseth a third and extols a fourth dish but yet the childe cryes More of this because hee felt the sweetenesse of it So it is with a soule that truly loves Christ when it hath tasted how good the Lord is and hath had a good looke from heaven it covets union not so much with any thing as with that riches honours profits seeme as irksome as may be in regard of that the soul desires nothing so much as this and craves more of Christ more of that mercy and holinesse and grace and love that is in him let the wicked talke what they will of the world if he have that he hath enough Psal 73.25 when David had been doating upon the world and the vanities of it see what he sayth Whom have I in heaven but thee and whom on earth in comparison of thee and then see what followes hee bids adieu to the world and sayth in the last verse It is good for me to draw neere unto God as if he had said Let the ambitious belly-gods have their pleasure drinke and swill and goe downe to hell But oh let mee have that mercy and that good which God hath provided for and will bestow upon those that love him You shall observe it Joh. 20.15 16 17. Mary was a marvellous loving woman and therefore when Christ said to her Woman why weepest thou whom seekest thou she supposing him to be the Gardiner saith unto him Sir if thou hast borne him hence tell me where thou hast laid him I will take him away She would be content to have the dead body of her Saviour rather than none at all But when the Lord Jesus had revealed himselfe to her in the 16 verse shee said Rabboni and when she saw it was he she flies upon him and with marvellous violence embraceth him for so the text is to be conceived though hee forbad her to touch him because hee was not yet ascended saying Doe I once possesse thee againe I will never part with thee any more thus she held him by the feet till he checked her because shee
will come and whine to her husband and yet goe to it againe no if shee had a true heart to her husband and sought for peace she would not have returned to her vile courses againe So it is with the soule it is adulterous and base love and not the love of the Spouse of Christ to confesse and bewaile sinne and yet to commit it That sorrow which loosens the heart from sinne and makes it come neerer to God and so to be rid of corruption that sorrow I say gives content to Christ but that sorrow which indeed doth incourage a man and rather give way to the commission of sinne than loosen the heart from it gives no content to the Lord Jesus but to thy selfe and stands not with the allegeance of him but of sin but yet if thou canst say so and sorrow so as to be loosened from thy sinne then thou contentest the Lord Jesus but if thou thinkest thou hast a warrant or a privie seale for thy sinful practices because thou hast sorrowed this argues little love to Jesus Christ Object But some will say May not a man make his moane and expresse his griefe for sinne Expression of sorrow for sin limited Answ I answer Yes it is fitting and necessary yet consider these two rules 1. First make it not an ordinary table-talke for that smells too grossely of false hypocrisie as if a man did say Now I hope every man will take notice how I mourne for sin but rather if thy heart be full and surcharged with griefe inquire what is the danger of such and such corruptions and the cause of them and how thou mayst get power against them but keepe thy sorrow in secret 2. Or else in the second place thou shouldst make thy sorrow knowne to some godly Minister or faithfull Christian out of the burden of thy sin and not for fashion sake thus doe that thy heart may be loosened from thy sinne and thou see thy need of a Saviour A third sort is a new upstart hypocrite that is newly come up many of them are in other parts and some neere unto our owne selves they are such as are full of carnall confidence and are proud of their beleeving but faith shuts out boasting They are as full of hypocrisie as an egge is full of meat or a toad full of poyson Such an hypocrite I will discover to you thus Hee is a man that hath long professed the truth and hath seene his sinne and been awakened to his owne sense and hath had a kinde of attendance to the Gospel and a kinde of brainish acquaintance with the promise in Jesus Christ so that now he is fully perswaded that Jesus Christ is his and he is Christs And yet after all this when he is come thus farre he lookes no more after himselfe but lookes all to the Lord Jesus Christ insomuch that the Lord Jesus becomes a drudge to him Now the guise of this man is this he casts away all sorrow and reasons thus For me to see my vilenesse and to be sensible of the body of death and to bleed inwardly and mourne daily for my wickednesse I thinke is needlesse these are past with him for he sayth I have mourned before this day and now I have gotten Jesus Christ thus he thinks he needs not be afflicted with his sins nor mourne for his many failings but the Lord Jesus who he thinkes is at his command must doe all and thus he surfets on his sinnes still This is the root of the doctrine of the Familists that cursed hellish unconceiveable basenesse that is in them I have heard of many of them that after long profession and much zeale and exactnesse in a Christian course have fallen unto this straine and come to just nothing A poore sinfull deluded Sot thou art thou poore creature dost thou entertaine the Lord Christ as a Commander when thou wilt not have him so much as to dispose of thee but as thy drudge that thou mayst take what mercy thou wilt and leave what thou wilt They will have Christ to pardon their sinne but not to make them mourne for it as if in truth they meant that hee should stand at their beck They rest upon their faith and will not have themselves and their faith to rest upon Christ for this is their conceit they apprehend they doe beleeve and there they rest and so in conclusion they never goe to Christ to have their hearts humbled and brought under as if a man should goe and graspe with his hand and take no hold of the rocke he neither findes strength to himselfe nor any hold to his hand so they rest upon their faith and neither they nor their faith upon their Saviour Thou sinfull deluded hypocrite the Lord Jesus will make thee come under and stoope and force thee and thy carnall confidence to lye in the dust and begge for mercie Can any man in reason judge this to be love which in deed is nothing but a marvellous cursed distemper They say the law hath nothing to doe with them and they live by the law of love and yet they have not any love to the Lord Jesus Must the Lord Jesus Christ pardon thy sinnes and thou remaine in them Must the Lord Jesus seale to thy soule the forgivenesse of thine iniquities and thou dally with it No the Love of the Lord Christ will compell thee to doe any thing to give contentment to the Lord Jesus Esa 57.15 Psal 51.17 An humble heart is the onely house where Christ dwells and the onely sacrifice that he accepts of and the onely guise of spirit that Jesus Christ lookes to and if thou love the Lord Jesus thou must be sure to provide this dainty dish for him Ob. But some will say What need have I of this sorrow seeing Christ Jesus must doe all Ans I answer What need then hast thou of faith for Christ must in that do all for thee Though I doe not say thou hast as much need of sorrow and brokennesse of heart as of faith Continuall sorrow as needfull as continuall beleeving yet there is a kinde of proportionable need of a continuall sorrow as well as of continuall beleeving and that upon these grounds First thy sorrow helpes on thy faith that it may be more strongly carried to Jesus Christ for the more weight and burden of thy sinnes thou feelest the more need thou wilt see of Christ As it is with a sharpe sauce though it breed not a stomacke Simile yet it stirres up a stomacke so this godly sorrow though it is not the worke of beleeving yet it stirres up the stomacke of faith to go goe to the Lord Jesus for faith is the going out of the soule to Christ and hee that findes the burden of his sinne will be the more ready to goe out to Christ Againe this makes a man the more fit to receive the assurance of Gods love this I say makes
what thou wouldst have not after thy owne unworthinesse nor the kindnesse which others doe enjoy better than thy selfe murmuring that thou art not worthy whereas thou art not fitted that God should do any thing for thee This mis-judging many times carries the heart with a speciall mistaking against the Lord as it is with a poore creature that hath had the meanes but not received the like comfort and mercy thereby that others have see how the heart reasons saying Others have such and such assistance in the meane time God leaves me and such and such have evidence of his favour but God regards not me had I but such power against corruptions and such evidence of Gods love and favour as God hath given to such and such Christians farre younger than I I seeke and pray and intreat and have not and with that the heart is carried with a secret heart-burning against the Lord this breeds a secret kinde of wrangling and quarrelling and withdrawing from the Lord. Therefore labour thou to still those distempers and to rectifie thy selfe and to judge as thou oughtest Judge not thy selfe by what others have and by what thou deservest but say Blessed be God I am not as I might have been and blessed be God I am not as I have deserved for then I had either beene upon the chaine with felons or upon the gallowes with theeves and robbers or in the Ale-house at my abominations for my nature is prone to it as well as others I confesse I am not so holy as I ought to be but blessed be that mercy in Jesus Christ that I am as I am I have not what others have and yet it is a wonder that I have any thing at all at the hands of the Lord so unthankefull and dead-hearted as I am others are meeke and patient and heavenly and painfull and therefore it is a wonder that I have any thing at all Goe thy way and bee contented with the Lords goodnesse and quarrell no more and mis-judge the Lords kindnesse no more Thus you see the hindrances removed now there is a way made that the soule may come to some termes of love with God Meanes 2. 2. When the soule hath beene thus ordered we must labour to bee throughly acquainted with the beauty and sweetnesse of Christ in the promise that this may provoke our soules to love the Lord and to rejoyce in him When these hindrances are removed there is way made for the promise to come and meet with the soule these breed-bates are sent out of towne and now there may be some possibility of love and this is the next way to worke and draw our hearts to Christ and to kindle in us these affections of love and joy The soule that is loosened from all the causes of jarres and dissentions betweene Christ and him that soule is ready to match with the promise and to bestow it selfe in love upon Christ In a marriage a man must know the party first and the portion and understand both or else he can love neither so thou must see the beauty and excellency of the promise before thou canst love the Lord Jesus As it is in the baser affections the covetous man seeth a good bargaine before hee loves it so that it is the eye that makes the bargaine as one well observes so thou must looke wisely upon the promises and be able to know them and this will make thee love them as in Psal 91.14 Because he hath set his love upon me therefore will I deliver him I will set him on high because he hath knowne my Name How came he to love the name of the Lord because he knew him as it is Cant. 1.2 when the name of our Saviour was as an ointment powred forth then did the virgins love him this name is the graces of our Saviour revealed and communicated to us and Cant. 4.9 see what our Saviour saith My sister my spouse thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes with one chaine of thy necke this is by way of comparison from the lesse to the greater the Spouse of Christ is the Church of Christ and by eye and neck is meant nothing else but the beauty of his grace in the heart truely humbled now the Lord Jesus Christ lookes upon these graces and loves them and is ravished with the fight of them Now if the worke of grace in the heart of a poore sinner ravished the heart of Christ who is the God of all grace then much more if our hearts could but see one finger of the excellency that is in Christ they would bee ravished with earnest love and kindled with violence towards him There are three things that ought mainely to bee respected in the promise that we may eye and apprehend and that our hearts may be kindled with love to the Lord and these three worke love any where First the worth of the party in himselfe Secondly the desert of the party Thirdly the readinesse of the party in himselfe to seeke our good Three things in Christ to make us love him So it is with the Lord Jesus first he is worthy of our love in himselfe considered Secondly he hath deserved it Thirdly he seekes our love Thou that dwellest in a poore cottage wilt hardly beleeve this but I say he seekes thy love First Christ is worthy in himselfe I wonder that the Lord Jesus Christ will suffer himselfe to be beloved by such wretches as wee are if wee had a thousand hearts to bestow upon him we were never able to love him sufficiently for as Nehemiah said Nehem. 9.5 The name of the Lord is above all praise and as the name of God is above all praise that wee can give him so the name of the Lord is above all the love that we can bestow upon him Will you let out your love and affections as wee use to say in the market it is a good penny worth it is worth more money than you shall pay for it so if you will lay out all the affections that you have you may lay them out here and that with good advantage too What would you have you may have enough for your money Wouldst thou have beauty then thy Saviour is beautifull Psal 45.2 Thou art fairer than the children of men yea he is full of grace nay the Spouse Cant. 5.10 saith My beloved is the cheife of ten thousand and in the 16. verse Hee is altogether lovely hee is a very beautifull husband There is no beauty in the world but it hath its blemish nor no day so faire but it hath its clouds but the Lord Jesus Christ is altogether love if beauty will please thee he is altogether excellent Would you have strength Psal 45.3 hee is all strength A wife would not have a cowardly husband therefore the Text saith Gird thy sword upon thy thigh O most mighty ride on prosperously so that Kings are slaine and people shall fall
can be transplanted from the old Olive into the true Olive God must first cut us off from our old sinnes by contrition and secondly pare us and fit us by humiliation and then wee are fit to be ingrafted into Christ Where these two graces are wrought the soule cannot be void of faith and as surely as God is in heaven hee will undoubtedly poure faith into the soule So the substance is this If by this brokennesse of heart and this contrition and humiliation of spirit the two maine barres and lets of faith are removed then it is necessary that God worke this in the soule But the first part is cleered and marvellous plaine and therefore the other cannot be denied If you will be in your sinnes and in yoâ—rselves you cannot be in Christ you cannot bee in your selves and in Christ too This is enough for the first argument and it is the life of the point 2. This brokennesse of heart is marvellous necessary Reas 2 because by this meanes faith is preserved For when the heart is truly broken there followes this thing The soule prizeth faith and Christ and is thankfull for the least mercy God giveth Hee that stands in need will be thankfull for any mercy or favour as in Psal 35.10 All my bones shall say Lord who is like unto thee Me thinkes I see David in his distresse besieged with many miseries and when the Lord had eased him and freed him see how hee reasons with himselfe O Lord the heart that thou hast healed this broken spirit that thou hast bound up nay all these bones which were once shattered all to pieces thou hast set them againe and they shall say Lord who is like unto thee As if hee had said Here is mercy indeed for mine heart hath found it and mine eye hath seene it and mine hands and all my bones can say Lord who is like unto thee Before he was burthened with his sins and now he prizeth mercy wonderfully One dramme of faith is worth a hundred thousand worlds to a weary burthened soule As it was with the Iewes they had a yeare of Iubilee wherein every servant was set free and every bondman and every debtour set at libertie this is nothing else but the yeare of the Gospell The acceptable yeare of the Lord Esa 91 2. and the glad tydings of Salvation that is offered to all in the same The Master or hee that lent the money cared not for this yerre but the servant and the borrowers they only longed for that yeare and for that day that they might be delivered So it is here with a poore soule he that never felt the burthen nor the bondage of sinne cares not for the glad tydings of the Gospell but the poore oppressed creature that hath beene in the house of bondage by Satan tempting and his owne sinfull heart plaguing him when the day of salvation is offered he receives it thankfully And as the soule prizeth grace so it will hardly part with it when it hath it because it was got with so much difficulty We use to say Lightly come lightly goe but when the soule hath gotten faith with so much difficulty and had many troubles of soule before ever God gave an assured evidence of his love and favour hee will not suffer sinne or Satan to plucke it away Oh it cost him many a heavie heart and many a troublesome day before he got a little mercy and shall hee now part with it for a little pleasure or profit that he will never doe Then it is very reasonable that God should wound a man and breake his heart to make him taste his meat and to relish mercy Thus you see the heart must bee broken and humbled before the Lord Christ will come to dwell therein Now what 's the Use Vse 1 The first Use is for reproofe Of reproofe to them that would have comfort without brokennesse of heart and it checks the opinion and practice of two sorts of people If this be Gods way that before he will come into the soule he must have the heart fitted and prepared the house must bee ayred then I say it confutes the conceits of a company of carnall persons that bee in the world 1. The meere civill Professour that would sleepe in a whole skinne hee could be content to have heaven and mercy and hee hopeth he is in the right way but this melting of the soule and this bruising of the heart is more than God requireth or more than God looketh for onely he hath invented a new way and a shorter cut to heaven than ever God revealed Hee thinkes some melancholy man only may bee troubled and perplexed but otherwise it is not that which God requireth at the hands of men And therefore after a sleepie kind of profession without any life or power or soundnesse he goes on Iob 21.13 They spend their dayes in ease saith the Text and in a moment goe downe to hell There are a world of poore sinners that are thus deluded and because God hath given them some restraining grace to keepe them within compasse therefore they goe on in a kind of chearfull contentednesse and thinke that all is well And when they come to their sicke-beds In sicknesse false comfort fayleth they have nothing to say for themselves nay we cannot force comfort upon them for then they flie out and say it is not for them And if wee tell them of what they have done and that they have made a faire profession and have prayed and done many duties and beene well accounted of and so forth see what they answer It is true I have done this or that but this is onely the outside but oh this heart of mine was never broken truely onely I reformed my selfe outwardly and made a profession indeed but the bottome was never truly laid As it is in sailing so it is in living Though a man have a faire calme day and see the Sunne yet this will not bring him to the haven he must have a wind to drive the ship So it is with many a sinfull creature in the world hee puts forth to Sea and he will needes goe to heaven and taketh a sweet kinde of sleepie lazie course and will reforme himselfe outwardly but his heart was never broken nor humbled hee will never be landed before hee was never tossed Tossed hee must bee and that with some violence too but this man that was never troubled shall never bee comforted I have observed it as it was in the materiall Temple which Solomon built all the stones were hewed and polished before they were put in the building so here Christ is the Temple and every true Christian is a stone for it as the Apostle Peter saith 1 Pet. 2.5 Ye also as liuely stones be made a spiritual house Will the stones come close together in any building except first they be hewed and fitted or wil the heart ever come to close with God
be understood is cleere Mat. 3.12 In those dayes saith the Text came Iohn preaching and saying Repent yee for the kingdome of God is at hand Here Iohn proclaimeth the comming of Christ and laboureth to prepare all things fitting for him so then the heart of a poore sinner is the high-way wherein Christ walketh This way of it selfe is unfitting for Christ but this preaching of the Gospell doth fit and prepare it and then the Lord Christ commeth and takes possession of and ruleth in that soule to whom hee commeth In the materiall Temple when it was to be built there was a caveat given that there must be no hammer heard but that all the stones should be fitted and hewen ere they were brought thither When Christ came into his Temple hee found money changers John 2.15 and the Text saith hee made a whip and whipped them out and flung downe their provision As it was with the materiall Temple so it is with the spirituall Temple The soule of a poore sinner is like unto this materiall Temple whereof this was a type 1 Cor. 3.16 for saith the Apostle You are the Temple of the living God You are that which the Temple signified that is as God did shew himselfe marvellously in his Temple so he will in the soules of his people he will dwell with them and assist them in every good worke Now before we can bee fitted to be the Temple of the Lord before Christ will come into our soules hee will whip out all distempered affections and when these are removed hee will make himselfe knowne to be the King of his servants and provide all things for their comfort and consolation And thus wee see the truth of the point that the soule of a sinner must bee prepared for Christ before it can receive and entertaine him For the opening of the point two things must be considered first how we may conceive and understand the compasse of this preparation that wee may see how farre it reacheth and know wherein this preparation of the soule discovereth it selfe and then secondly we must know the reason why the heart must be prepared for the Lord Iesus before hee will take possession of it And when these two things be opened the point will be plaine First wee must see the compasse of this preparation and wherein it consists Preparation of the heart for Christ standeth in three things which makes it selfe knowne in three particulars We will speake of preparation only in generall here for we shall come to the particulars of it hereafter The first of the three passages wherein this generall preparation consists is this 1. In breaking off the league with old sinnes The soule of a sinner breakes that league which sometime it had with former lusts and corruptions there is a separation made betweene the soule and those darling sinnes which it before so much delighted in and the heart begins to rebell against those base tyrants which before usurped authority over it whether they be corruptions or profits or pleasures that before bore a great sway in the soule the league is broken there is a secret kind of mutinie which the soule setteth up against those distempers in so much that the separation being made and the soule having cast off the yoke of her corruptions the heart reserves it selfe for the Lord Christ Iesus And observe it alwaies there is a separation of the soule from sinne before there bee a reservation made for Christ It is with the soule as it is with a wife that is an adulteresse and hath gotten her selfe a base name and an evill report by her lewd and wicked courses after the Lord hath opened her eyes and discovered to her the basenesse of her practice then shee commeth to detest all her former courses and abandoneth all her former wicked companions and though shee be laid at continually by them and importuned upon every occasion yet shee never hearkeneth unto them but looketh onely unto her husband and if he will but receive her and entertaine her againe then shee will keepe close unto him and shew more love unto him than ever shee did before so the soule of a poore sinner was created for God and it ought to have beene married to God the end of our creation and redemption was that we might have communion with God but all of us have played the adulteresses wee have had our wicked lovers The heart that will have the world the profits and pleasures and vanities thereof will be married to lusts and corruptions every man doth bestow his soule upon these wicked practices But then the eyes of the soule are opened when the Lord discovereth unto it that loose practices will bring the soule to everlasting confusion and destruction the soule then doth stand at a maze it trades no more with those beloved lusts and corruptions it breakes the league with all former sinnes and distempers with pride and covetousnesse with malice and envie with the world with the profits and pleasures thereof and sits as a widow divorced from all these and waiteth for the Lord Christ Iesus alone then the soule saith to her selfe Oh if Christ would come to me and speake to me againe then I will give him better entertainment than ever I did before The ungracious heart however it hath gone from the Lord yet if it hath got any hope to receive Christ againe then the soule will say I was not borne to sinne sinne shall bee my husband no more but if the Lord will shew any favour towards mee then I will reserve my selfe for him alone for it was better with mee formerly than now And this the Scripture speaketh of Hos 14 3.8 see what the Church saith there in the third verse Ashur shall not save us wee will not ride upon horses neither will we say any more to the worke of our hands Yee are our gods for with thee the fatherlesse findeth mercy And in the eighth verse Ephraim shall say What have I to doe with Idols Every man naturally hath his gods his god pride his god covetousnesse his god malice his god envie now when the soule is divorced from these then it returneth this answer We will pray no more to our gods we will not submit our selves to any as unto a god but onely unto the Father of lights Ephraim shall say What have I to doe with Idols He was before addicted to Idolatry yet now his eyes being opened and his soule converted he saith What have I to doe with Idols any more and the drunkard saith What have I to doe with drunkennesse any more and the proud man saith What have I to doe with pride any more nay What have I to doe with any unlawfull practice but I will reserve my selfe wholly for the Lord Iesus Christ so in Psal 45 10 11. there is a mariage betweene Christ and his Church for the Text saith Hearken O daughter and consider and incline thine eare
Lord way in the whole abilitie of it that God in all things may rule in it it doth not give God place in some things onely and say God shall rule in mine eye but not in my hand God shall rule in my hand but not in my tongue God shall rule in my tongue but not in my heart but the soule giveth way to Christ in all things whatsoever Simile A great man that is to entertaine his Prince and Soveraigne doth not put him into a corner of his house but hee giveth him all the roome and shifts out all his servants and puts out every one both friend and foe every place he sheweth him and giveth him all the keyes and lets him dispose of all things So a soule that is prepared for the Lord Iesus doth not crowd him into a corner and say I must have one corner for a covetous heart another corner for a proud heart no no but a prepared heart giveth up all to God it reserveth no privie corner in this kind but ability faculty and whatsoever it is the soule giveth up all to God that he may dispose of all A sinfull soule that is prepared is not perfectly able of it selfe thus to over-rule his heart but as it is with a man when he gives up his house for the entertainment of the King doe what he can there will be some base fellowes peeping in but he is not pleased with it it is against his mind that they should so doe and he would with all his heart have his Majesty use some meanes for the restraining of them so it is with a soule prepared for the Lord it resignes all unto him hand eye and tongue and heart and practice but yet there will bee some base lusts and sinfull corruptions there will be hypocrisie and pride and self-selfe-love peeping into his heart but it is against the mind of a prepared sinner it is his mind that God should root out all those and order all to his owne glory And this is the third passage so that the soule which hath broken the league with all corruptions and reserveth it selfe for Christ the soule that is willing to give way to Christ and let him overthrow all whatsoever opposeth him and do whatsoever pleaseth him that soule I say which doth not thrust Christ into a corner but gives up all unto him that soule is prepared for the Lord Iesus Christ The next thing to be considered for the opening of the point 2. Reason why the heart must be so prepared for Christ is the reason why Christ requires this preparation of the heart and this will cut the throat of abundance of carnall conceits and imaginations Men thinke that Christ will come suddenly from heaven into their hearts at a beck they think that Lord have mercy upon me will fecth him No no Christ will have the soule prepared before he wil come take possession of it and the reason is because it cannot stand with the all-soveraigne holinesse of Christ to come there It 's so in common sense there cannot be two Kings in one Throne Non capit regnum duos there cannot be two Suns in one Firmament there cannot be two Gods in one heart we cannot serve God and Mammon Some would have their soules divided and have God to be King and raigne therein to day and their sinnes and lusts to morrow or else they will have Christ raigne in one corner of their hearts and their sinnes and lusts in another but God will have all or none at all in this case either no God or one God in thy heart Our Saviour Christ Math. 12.29 disputeth How can one enter into a strong mans house and spoile his goods unlesse he first bind the strong man and then spoile his goods The strong man is sinne and Satan and the house is the heart now Christ cannot goe into the heart and exercise authority there untill he hath wrought a separation betweene the soule and these and hath throwne out this god and then the God of heaven and earth takes possession of the heart First sin and Satan must be throwne out of the soule before the Lord will take possession He that takes possession of a house if there bee any in the house besides himselfe it is not good in law if there be any take possession of the heart and beare sway there Christ will beare no rule for it cannot stand with the holinesse of Christ to have any competitor to have another beare rule with himselfe and Christ himselfe plainly determines this Matth. 6.24 Yee cannot serve God and Mammon You thinke you may have the Divell rule in you one fit and God another but you cannot serve God and Mammon one Master must be renounced before another can be received This is the argument You cannot have two Gods in the heart therefore the soule must bee severed from sinne and Satan and the lusts of the flesh before it can bee prepared for the Lord Iesus Christ before he will come in and take place in it The Use of the point is threefold Vse 1 Those reproved who thinke to have mercy and heaven all on the sudden The truth being granted and the doctrine cleered the first Use is a Use of reproofe Wee may here discover and also condemne the fond dreames and vaine imaginations of many poore sinfull ignorant creatures who have invented a new way a backe doore to carry themselves to heaven more than ever the Word revealed and it is this Men thinke that they may have Christ and mercy at command and that they may catch at and obtaine blessednesse and happinesse at unawares and on the sudden and yet notwithstanding live in sinne and continue in sinne and approve of sinne and addict themselves thereunto and then when sicknesse comes if they can but say Lord have mercy on me they must goe to heaven all on the sudden Be perswaded at length to see the folly and sottishnesse of this conceit this is not the way which the Word reveales Christ by it makes no such agreement with us unlesse a poore sinner thinke that Christ will carry him to heaven with his uncleannesse and abominable sinnes when as he hath said that no uncleane thing shall enter into the kingdome of heaven No no if the harbenger goeth not before the King will not come where there goeth no preparation before there can bee no receiving of Christ He that will receive Christ and benefit by him and comfort and salvation from him must receive him at those termes wherupon he hath offered himselfe or else he shall never receive him 2 Cor. 6.17 the text there saith Come out from among them and bee separate saith the Lord and touch no uncleane thing and I will receive you Marke here the agreement that God maketh thou must first come out from among them yea come out from thy sinnes thou must come out of thy lusts and corruptions before the Lord will
them and make them fitting to receive his Majesty and therefore sweep your hearts and clense those roomes clense every sinke brush downe every cobweb and make roome for Christ for if thy heart bee prepard and divorced from all corruptions then Christ will come into thy soule and take possession of it Remove therefore all corruptions out of thy heart And when thou hast swept every corner of thy house doe not leave the dust behind the doore for that is a fluts tricke doe not remove sinne out of thy tongue and out of thy eye and out of thy hand and leave it in thy heart No no out with all let every chamber be dressed up let every part and faculty be right disposed that the Lord may come and dwell in thy soule The second motive that may stirre us up to prepare for the Lord Iesus 2. Christ is most worthy for whom we should prepare is his transcendent worthinesse in regard of which all preparation may seeme too little You are not to entertaine an ordinary person it is not a man it is not a King it is not a Monarch but it is a King of Kings that will come into your soules to comfort them yea his holy and blessed Spirit will remaine with you for ever Therefore doe all that possibly may be done to prepare for his comming and for the entertainement and welcomming of him when he comes In Psal 24.7 David calleth upon his owne soule and other of Gods people for so the words are to be expounded there he saith Lift up your heads O yee Gates and be yee lift up yee everlasting doores and the King of glory shall come in As who should say Be enlarged love joy hope set open give way for the Lord is comming But who is the Lord It is the Lord of hostes the Lord strong and mighty the Lord mighty in battell ver 8. And with that he knockes againe Lift up your heads O yee Gates and be yee lift up yee everlasting doores for the King of glory shall come in ver 9. As if he should say What shall the Lord knocke shall the King of glory stand Open suddenly and make all preparation Did David doe thus Why doe you so then Christ knockes by promises hee knockes by judgements hee knockes by threats yea hee speakes this day unto your soules and labours this day to make way for himselfe make therefore all preparation let nothing be wanting that when he comes he may take possession of your soules Particulars and bee a God unto you for ever There will come a great deale of benefit by this meanes unto your soules And this also may encourage us The Lord commeth into our soules not to trouble and charge us no hee commeth to bring everlasting salvation and happinesse to our soules Looke what Christ said to Zacheus Luk. 19.5 8 9. when hee went up into a Sycamore tree to see him Make haste and come downe Zacheus saith he for I must abide with thee in thy house Zacheus made no cavilling but made haste and came downe and received him joyfully And marke what Christ saith unto him This day salvation is come into thine house So likewise it shall be with you when Christ commeth salvation commeth with him when he commeth everlasting happinesse and salvation commeth when Christ commeth goe home and witnesse against all your carnall neighbours that they that refuse Christ and doe not make preparation for him refuse salvation and everlasting happinesse that is offered unto them Amos 4.12 when the Lord had sent a great plague and a heavie judgement upon Ierusalem he saith Thus will I doe unto thee Oh Israel and because I will doe this unto thee prepare to meet thy God O Israel I will doe thus unto thee O Israel that is I will send mildewes plagues and pestilence and famine I will draw you out with hookes and your posteritie with fish-hookes And what followeth Prepare to meet thy God O Israel If God come against us to plague us we must prepare to meet him Reason now with your owne soules upon strong grounds to your everlasting comfort Should the Lord come in judgement to torment us should the Lord come to scourge and punish us if wee must then prepare to meet him then what preparation ought we to make for his comming when hee shall not come thus in judgement to condemne us but in his mercy to save us in his goodnesse to enrich us in his compassion to comfort us then now if ever prepare to meet thy God O Israel Let every heart perswade it selfe of this particular and reason and consider with your owne soules in this case Is Christ so gracious and so mercifull doth he send downe from heaven unto us and say he will come if any man keepe my Commandements I stand at the doore and knocke Rev. 3.20 if any man will open my Father and I will come in and sup and dwell with him Why where is the heart in the meane time And if ever now prepare to meete the Lord. But if neither the judgements of God will perswade us nor the mercies of God allure us yet let the complaints and moanes of Christ Iesus prevaile with you to prepare for him Consider our Saviour Christ hath taken a great journey from heaven to earth to save us miserable wretched and sinfull creatures conceive you saw those streames of bloud trickling downe his cheekes conceive you saw him upon the crosse with his hands thrust thorow with nailes and his side pierced with a speare enduring the wrath of God for our sinnes and behold now hee standeth at the doore and saith with the Church Lam. 1.12 It is nothing to you have you no regard O yee that passe by behold and see if there bee any sorrow like unto my sorrow c. Imagine you heard Christ say I have suffered these and these things for you these hands of mine were nailed this side of mine was pierced this heart of mine was melted with anguish of spirit Imagine you saw Christ standing and knocking at the doore of your hearts as indeed hee doth and say Hoe all you within there hoe all you proud hearts hoe all you covetous and malicious hearts have you no regard of a poore Saviour have you no regard of a crucified Saviour hee that died for you even the bitter death upon the crosse for you and now laboureth to doe good unto you Would not this move you to prepare your your hearts for him and to let him in Nay marke what Christ saith to the Church Cant. 5.2 Open to me my sister my love my dove my undefiled for my head is filled with dew and my lockes with the drops of the night As if hee should say I have had an ill journey a bad way and unkind entertainment and therefore come away my love my dove my undefiled and open unto me So hee saith to every one of our soules This day I have travelled
upon us or some worldly inconvenience sits hard upon us and that our thoughts are wholly taken up with them and the strength of our imagination is wholly bestowed vpon those how to prevent them so that wee cannot see Christ when a mans mind is thus wholly imployed and all his thoughts thus busied partly about the guilt of sin how his conscience may be quieted and partly about temptation how it may be removed so that hee hath no leisure to see Christ though he knew him well if he were but in the calmnesse of his heart It befalls a poor soule in this case as it did the Disciples that were going to Emmaus Luke 24.16 for when Christ came and joyned sides with them in their travels and went with them the Text saith that their eyes were holden that they should not know him See the ground of the holding of their eyes Christ presented himselfe in his owne proportion therefore the fault was not in the substance that they did see The fault was not in the eare for that was not hindered in any measure neither did Christ blind their eyes any way for their eyes were thus farre opened as to see the way and walke cheerfully in it What did hold their eyes then leaving extraordinary things to God it was this their thoughts were so busied about the death of Christ and his resurrection that they did not know Christ though he were with them and therefore Christ asked them this question Luke 24.17 c. What maner of communication is this that you have one to another and are thus sad And the one of them said to him Art thou only a stranger in Ierusalem and hast not knowne the things which are come to passe there in these daies And hee said unto them What things And they sayd unto him Concerning Iesus of Nazereth which was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people We trusted that it had been hee which should have redeemed Israel and beside all this to day is the third day since these things were done and whether hee be risen againe we know not Wee find this by common experience a man that hath his mind possessed with some sad meditation though his familiar friend be neere him yet he discernes him not so the Disciples saw not a Saviour though he were in their presence therefore in the 32. verse when Christ had opened the Scripture and revealed himselfe to them see what they said Did not our hearts burne within us when hee talked with us As if they should say Wee had pregnant testimonie enough of the divine presence but we had no eyes to see it the burning of our hearts was argument enough that it was Christ that spake to us So when the soule of a poore broken-hearted sinner is taken up partly with the hurry of imaginations partly with the violence of some temptation and partly in regard of some worldly miserie that falls upon it it is so taken up with it that it cannot see the Lord Iesus Christ though hee hath sensible experience of Christ and the heart burnes in love to Christ This is the reason why many a poore soule when Sathan lets flie at him and some heavy temptation presseth in upon him reveale never so many comfortable promises yet by reason thereof we find it by experience that alwayes those distressed spirits forget whatsoever is spoken all their mind and talk is upon the evill and the violence of the temptation and they attend not to the comfort and to the promises revealed to them their eyes are held in this manner that though they are neere to Christ and even in the privie chamber yet they will not take notice of Christ because their hearts are thus held off from the apprehension of his presence In Psalme 73.23 when the Prophet David was fallen into a desperate perplexitie because of the prosperitie of the wicked so that he began to question his owne condition at last hee said Neverthelesse I am continually with thee thou hast holden mee by my right hand He could not see Gods providence over him and his presence with him because his mind was so taken up with the prosperitie of the ungodly he saw all their pompe and their glory and how their eyes stood out with fatnesse and that he was beaten every night by reason hereof I say hee saw not God upholding of him and going with him So gather up the former passages partly through ignorance because wee know not Christ when we see him and partly through carelesnesse because wee attend not to him when he is come and partly because we mis-judge the presence of Christ upon false grounds and partly the eyes are hid by the hurry of some temptation or some wordly extremity that we cannot see Christ though he be with us these be the first hinderances on our parts And as it is thus with us And for three reasons in Christ so there are other hinderances which let us that we cannot apprehend a Christ and they are these First in generall as we deprive our selves of consolation in Christ so the Lord Iesus through our just deserving doth withdraw himselfe from us As in Esay 18.7 I will waite upon the Lord that hideth his face from the house of Iacob and I will looke for him And in Psalme 31.22 I said in my hast I am cut off from before thine eyes neverthelesse thou heardest the voyce of my supplication when I cried unto thee Both these places doe make it cleere that many times though the Lord Iesus is neere the soule yet he apprehends it not Now the Lord Iesus hides himselfe upon three causes especially 1. When the Saints of God fall into some grosse sinne and some scandalous offence or else tamper with some bosome corruption and are at truce with it though it be but some infirmitie then the Lord Iesus justly hides himselfe and withdrawes the apprehension of his presence from such a soule For these are the termes whereupon the Lord hath promised to reveale himselfe to wit so farre as wee labour to walke with him If the Saints of God fall off from him and breake off themselves it is no wonder though the Lord Iesus hide himselfe from them he is with them while they are with him No longer no further doth Christ engage himselfe to bee with us but upon these termes Iohn 14.21 Hee that hath my Commandements keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall bee loved of my Father and I will love him and manifest my selfe to him The Lord will manifest himselfe to us upon what grounds If wee will love him and keepe his Commandements But if we breake the condition on our parts and falsifie that wee have promised to doe no wonder though the Lord withdraw himselfe from us You see it is the tenour upon which he promiseth his presence Now if the Saints of God fall scandalously and be
a sinner truly humbled and inlightned love and joy to entertaine and rejoyce in the riches of his mercy so as beseemes the worth of it There are three passages considerable that wee may know the meaning of this Doctrine First this love and joy is no where to be found nor seene but onely in a heart humbled and inlightned For unlesse the heart be humbled it seeth no need of this grace and mercy and therefore despiseth it and is rather carried with a hatred against that grace and mercy that would purge him and troubled with a kind of wearinesse of the power of that grace that would reforme his life and conversation And though hee were humbled yet if he were not enlightned to see this mercy and goodnesse of God he cannot delight in it I know there is wilde love and joy enough in the world as there is wilde Thyme and other herbes but wee would have garden-love and garden-joy of Gods owne planting for such hypocriticall love and joy we will not meddle with here Secondly this love and joy is kindled by the Spirit of the Father for the Father learnes us the lecture and as I told you before of the mind inlightned kindles this holy fire which is rightly compared to the fire of the Sanctuary as in Lev. 9.24 There came a fire from before the Lord and consumed upon the Altar the burnt offering even those sparkes of the pillar of fire which did typifie Christ to them But whether this bee so or no I will not now dispute for as the Lord provided the sacrifice so the Lord caused the fire to come downe from heaven and hence it was that when Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire the Lord consumed them Lev. 10.1 2. so it is in this holy fire of love and joy wee may strike and endevour but our steele and our flint will not worke this indevour nor strike this fire of love and joy It is Iesus Christ from whence all spirituall sparkes of grace doe come and amongst the rest these of love and joy all other love and joy that is not wrought by the Spirit of the Father must be casheered and abandoned it cannot reach to God nor be pleasing unto him It is that which the Apostle inferres in the generall Rom. 8.8 They that are in the flesh cannot please God but it must be joy of the spirit which must please him Now though the soule truely humbled and broken that heretofore hath felt the weight and burden of his sinnes and is now separated from them so that hee dares not meddle with them hee dares as well take a Beare by the tooth and fall quicke into hell as take up those courses againe yet hee hath not power of himselfe to bee enlarged in any love to entertaine Christ or spiritually to joy in him further than the power of the Lord Iesus in the promise shall inable him thereto Suffer me to inlarge my selfe thus The soule is like an empty vessell it stands not at the dispose of sinne or it selfe but it is at the Lords disposition if the Lord will kindle any love and joy so it is for of himselfe hee cannot doe it As it is with some Gentleman in the Countrey Simile he will be content to let the King have the use of his house for a while but he is not able to provide necessaries for him because hee is a meane man therefore the King sends his provision before and then comes himselfe Iust so it is here with a poore humble broken-hearted sinner the poore soule is marvellous well content that the Lord should come and dwell in him and dispose of him but hee is not able to give him any entertainment he hath not any heat of holy affections or love or desire to welcome the Lord as becomes so great a Majestie therefore the Lord is faine to infuse love and joy that by them he may bee welcommed into the soule of the humbled sinner Now when the soule is come to this degree of sanctification then it can worke by it selfe Or thus Simile It is with a broken-hearted sinner as with a burning glasse take such a glasse it will burne any thing by the heat of the Sunne yet it hath no heat in it selfe but receives it from the Sun-beames by vertue whereof it burnes whatsoever is before it Iust so it is with a broken-hearted sinner But all stubborne sinners are like water that will not burne at all I will goe no further than the worke of preparation It is neither sinne nor selfe shall have power over mee sinne shall not and selfe cannot rule me therefore I will wait till the Sunne of righteousnesse will shine forth from heaven from the beavtie of his sanctuary and having received the beames of Gods love and favour effectually upon my soule and being warmed by the Sunne of righteousnesse I shall be able to returne the heat of love to God againe Thus the Spirit of the Father kindles love and joy in a heart humbled and inlightned Thirdly the Doctrine saith that loue and joy are kindled that they may entertaine and rejoyce in the riches of Gods mercy in the worth of it This last clause is added to discover the distinct nature of this love and joy from all the fained love and joy that all carnall and hypocriticall wretches pretend to have to Iesus Christ there is a kind of loving and joying in the hearts of hypocrites as afterward you shall heare So sayes Iudas Haile Master so the Pharisees and the people cut downe branches of the trees to welcome Christ and crid Hosanna Blessed is hee that commeth in the name of the Lord. And in Matth. 8.19 A certaine Scribe came and said unto him Master I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest And so the stony ground Matth. 13.20 did heare the Word with joy and so love and joy goe together But it is not that kind of love which came downe from Heaven nor that which will ever carrie your selves as beseeming the mercie of God in Christ for hee that said Haile Master betrayed his Master with a kisse and Christ might have said Is this thy love and joy wherewith thou welcommest me And the Scribes and Pharisees follow Christ a while and then forsake him and so they that before cried Hosanna Blessed is he that commeth in the name of the Lord within a while after they cry Crucifie crucifie him and the stony ground received the Word with joy and a while after came to nothing This is wild-fire and foolish fire as the Philosopher saith it is bred and hammered out by our owne ends and aimes but they doe not carrie themselves beseeming the riches of Gods free grace in Iesus Christ that is thus An heart thus kindled bestowes the best love and joy upon the Lord Iesus Christ because hee is the best good This is the meaning of that phrase so often intimated Whosoever loveth father or mother more than mee is
not worthy of mee He that prizeth any thing more in love or delights in any thing more with joy than in Christ is not worthy of Christ So then whosoever bestowes love or joy upon any carnall contents more than upon Christ his love and joy is not brought from Heaven it is a false love that will fade and will not bring him that comfort which hee lookes to receive from it This love is called the spirituall love 2 Tim. 1.7 For God hath not given us the spirit of feare but of power of love and of a sound mind wee have not received the spirit of bondage that is in preparation but the spirit of love that is in vocation It is called spirituall love because the Spirit of God in the promise kindles it and joy goes with it as you shall heare anon and it is that affection also in the example of Zacheus Luke 19.6 hee had a moneths mind to see Christ and as the learned well interpret it he had a blind desire but well set on by Christ and therefore see how hee labours to preventall opportunities and occasions he runnes before the croude and gets up into a tree and when hee was there Christ saw him and said Come downe quickly for I must dine at thy house Here was the voyce of Christ and the kindnesse of Christ too and this kindled the fire and wrought love and ioy for these two goe together and therefore the Text saith Hee came downe and received him joyfully This seemes to me to be the reason and meaning why sometimes in the phrase of Scripture love is put for beleeving as in Ioh. 3.18 19. Hee that beleeveth is not condemned but hee that beleeveth not is condemned already because he beleeveth not in the name of the onely begotten Sonne of God And this is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men love darknesse more than light The Text saith He that beleeveth not or he that receiveth not for they are both one hee proves this that a man not beleeving shall be damned why for this is the great condemnation that light is come into the world and men love darknesse more than light because he will not love Christ and will not receive him he receives darknesse and loves darknesse more than Christ intimating the neere combination betweene these two and the working and acting of them There are many other places that speake of love and ioy but none that fits this place of vocation Now to make this good there are two things necessarie to bee propounded and handled First to shew the reason of the order of Gods worke why after hope and desire there comes this love and ioy Secondly the ground of this love and what it is in the promise that will kindle and strike fire upon these two affections and bring them home to the Lord this being cleared it will then appeare how the Spirit of God in the promise doth kindle this love and ioy First for the former What is the reason of the order of Gods worke Why after hope and desire God workes love and joy in the soule why comes love and ioy next after hope and desire I answer There are but two affections and there need no more God being perfectly wise hath appointed it whereby the soule should send to meet with any good that is absent if the good be absent then the understanding saith that is a good to be desired and very comfortable oh that I had it then it sends out hope and that waits for that good and stayes till it can see it and if that good come not then desire hath another proper worke it goes up and downe wandering and seeking and suing for Iesus Christ and this desire goes from place to place from East to West from North to South saith When shall I and how may I come to the sight of Iesus Christ As the Spouse in the Canticles sought to the watch-men to enquire after Christ so desire wanders up and downe For so I told you it is the wandering of the heart and it never ceaseth going and enquiring if it can gaine any intelligence of Iesus Christ It goes to prayer to see if it can speake with Christ there and from thence it goes to the Word to see if that will reveale Christ and to conference if that will mention it and saith See you the Lord Iesus Christ The hungrie soule comes to the Church to see if it can heare any newes of Christ And thus it continues till at last the Lord Iesus Christ is pleased to come himselfe after the soule hath hungred for him and sought for him as Marie said Oh if you can tell me where my Lord is So the soule goes from one place to another from Prayer to the Word and from the Sacrament to Fasting and asketh of the ordinances Where is my Saviour and saith If you know where hee is tell me of him that I may be possessed of him After this the Lord Iesus Christ is pleased to come himselfe into the view of the heart which longeth thus after him and saith as the Prophet Behold thy King commeth So he saith Oh thou poore broken-hearted sinner here is thy Saviour hee is come downe from Heaven this day to speake peace and comfort to thee and thou that hast so long time prayed to thee he saith Here I am and all my merits are now become thine and to thee that doest thus hunger and desire Christ hee is now come to comfort thee Now when the Lord Iesus Christ is come within thy view and thy desire hath met with him then there comes the other two affections he is come within sight and now there are other affections stirred up and sent out by the Spirit of the Lord to give entertainment to Christ Iesus Love leads him into the soule and tels the will of him and saith Loe here is Iesus Christ the Messiah that hath ordered these great things for his Saints and people and Ioy is the attendant to wait upon him when he is come Suffer me to expresse my selfe thus in this manner because I would shew the guise of the frame of the heart in this worke It is with a poore humbled sinner Simile as it is with a malefactour or traitor who is pursued with a Pursuivant that hath laid wait for him as farre as the Sea and at last hee is resolved to yeeld and come in He hath offended his Soveraigne and hee is driven to a stand he cannot procure a pardon nor hee cannot escape therefore hee is content to come in and yeeld his necke to the blocke that as he hath offended so he may receive his punishment accordingly Now as hee is going he heares an inckling that there is some hope of a pardon and thereupon the poore man begins to reioyce in hope that he may be pardoned and then heareth other newes which saith if hee will but bee humbled before his Maiestie
ashamed of the former abuse of Gods graces and the many abominations harboured and liked Now marke what God answers in that place Verse 20. Is Ephraim my deare sonne is hee a pleasant child as if the Lord had said Since I spake to him I still remember him all the while that the Lord let in the fiercenesse of his wrath into his soule he earnestly remembred him I saw all his desires and I observed all his teares and my bowels are towards that poore hungry and longing sinner that longs for my goodnes in Iesus Christ and I will shew mercy to him This is the behaviour of the Lord to the soule and of the soule to the Lord again Thus you see the reason of the order of Gods worke love is like the Host that welcomes the guest and delight and joy is like the Chamberlaine that waites upon the guest This is the very guise of the heart Now in the second place I come to the Motiues or that spirituall good Gods promise the ground of our love and how whereby the promise comes to worke this First what is it in the promise Secondly how comes the promise to work this in the hear◠and then we have the whole frame of the worke opened I answer for the opening of the point and the discovery of the truth in hand consider thus much It is when the spirit of God in the promise lets in some intimation of Gods love into the soule The weight lyes upon these two words Le ts in le ts in I say and conveyes some rellish of the loue of God into the heart when the Lord doth expresse any love and favour and goodnesse in that powerfull manner to the heart humbled and longing for his favour so that it doth prevaile with the soule and makes the soule to be affected with that rellish of his favour This is the ground of loue the certainty of a good stirreth up hope and the excellency of that good quickens up desire and the presence of this good kindles love there is a fulnesse that takes up all the whole frame of the work upon all the affections of the soule In Psal 42.8 it is said Psal 42.8 expounded The Lord will command his loving kindnesse in the day time what is that it is a phrase taken from kings and princes and great Commanders in the field whose words of command stand for lawes so the Lord shall send out his loving kindnesse and say Goe out my everlasting love and and kindnesse take a commission from me and goe to that humble thirsty and hunger-bitten sinner and goe and prosper and prevaile and settle my love effectually upon him and fasten my mercy upon him I command my loving kindnesse to doe it The Lord doth put a Commission into the hands of his loving kindnesse that it shall do good to the poore soule yea though he withdraw his soule saying what I mercy will Iesus Christ accept of me No no there is no hope of mcrcy for me Indeed if I could pray thus and heare thus and performe duties with that enlargement and had those parts and abilities then there were some comfort but now there is no hope of mercy for me We demand Is this your case is it thus and thus Yes you are thus humbled and have thus longed for the riches of his mercy in Christ haue you not Yes Then say we grace and mercy is yours I cannot thinke it saith he what such a wretch as I goe to Heaven no no Heaven would rather fall then such a sinner as I should come to be received there Thus he puts off mercy and shuts the door against it and at the last cast when carnall reason builds up forts against mercy and sets up strong holds against comfort consolation and neither Word nor Minister can comfort them then the Lord I say is faine to put a commission into the hands of his loving kindnesse when the poore sinner hath bin sighing and longing and nothing will content him but Christ thē then the Lord gives out the commission and saith Goe home to that poore soule and breake open the doores upon that weary weltering heart and knocke off all those bolts and rend off that veile of ignorance and carnall reason and all base arguments goe I say to that soule and cheare it and warme it and tell him from mee that his sinnes are pardoned and his soule shall be saved and his sighes and his prayers are heard in Heaven and I charge you doe the worke before you come againe Here is the goodnesse of God to expresse himselfe thus mercifully in his Word to the soule if it were in mans power no comfort should ever come to the soule but the Lord blessed be his Name for it he commands his loving kindnesse to breake in upon him As it is with an High Sheriffe when a man will not deliver up quiet possession to the owner he comes with his men and breakes open all before him and will estate the man into his possession so this loving kindnesse is the Lords High Sheriffe and when a company of Rake-shames of carnall reason would keepe out mercy the Lord is faine to send his loving kindnesse with a commission to seaze upon the heart Now take notice of this the ground of a mans love is any good which expresseth his presence to him as a good to come was the ground of hope and the necessitie and excellencie of that good makes the soule to long after it so now when a good is not onely present but expresseth his presence and leaues a kind of remembrance upon the soule that stirres up love continually but this must be done before love will come As it is with the naturall body if that which lyes upon a man carries some weight with it then it is easily felt but if it bee marvellous light it may lye upon us and wee not perceive it as a feather a flye or the like and if there comes any weight that affects the hand either wet or cold or warmth then hee feeles it but if it be light hee perceives it not as a mote may bee on the face and not be felt nor seene so love in the soule is like this touching of the body Now when loving kindnesse is not set on upon the soule and when it leaves no expression in the soule the heart cannot be affected with it nor returne that joy and delight that otherwise it would doe so that there must be a present good and a good expressing it selfe to the heart and affecting the heart therewith and then this love comes to God againe Gods love affecting the heart and setled upon it it breeds a love to God againe that is the ground which S. Iohn speaketh of 1 Ioh. 4 19. Wee love him because he loved us first As I told you in the example of the burning-glasse it must receive the heat of the beames of the Sunne before it can burne any
love Christ I say neither thou nor I can doe it by any power or vertue in our selues nay I say thou art as able to save thy owne soule and to redeeme thy selfe without Christ as thou art able to love Christ unlesse he by the power of his spiritenable thee to doe it Nay you that make nothing of it to loue Christ marke what I say If a man might have happinesse in hand and heaven laid downe upon the nayle if he could love the Lord Iesus of himselfe I say if he had no more but nature he would never goe to heaven nor never bee happy Nay it will cost more than so it will cost time and paines and many teares and prayers you must have the Father come downe from heaven to teach you and you must goe to another schoole than ever you were at yet before you can learne it and unlesse the Father make you able to loue Christ you can never doe it It is true if it were nothing but pratling and professing and yet to stand in open opposition to the power of grace and the spirit this cannot bee for to welcome a Saviour to receive Christ answerable to the worth of him a man cannot doe it by the meere power of nature it is the worke of the Lord as the Apostle Saint Iohn saith 1 Ioh. 1.5 God is light and in him is no darknesse and Ephes 5.8 You were darknesse God is nothing but holines and you are nothing but darknesse Now you know darknesse can oppose light and wickednesse can oppose holinesse but never give way to it nor receive it This is thy nature and condition thou hast an ignorant darke heart of thine owne but the Lord is altogether holines and light and thou canst not receive it nor wilt thou receiue him As 2 Thess 2.10 they would not receive the truth of God in the loue of it the truth of God makes love to thy carnall heart and would plucke thee from thy base lusts and corruptions and would woo and winne thy soule that it might take place in thy heart the world will not receive it Iesus Christ came into the world to save sinners but the world would not receive him so farre were they from seeking to a Saviour that they would not receiue him though he came to offer himselfe to them thou hast a heart that hatest Iesus Christ and cannot loue him and thou hast a heart that can oppose him and his grace but canst not take contentment in that grace and rich mercy of his if thou hast not grace and mercy thou hast but what thou wouldst haue and therefore it is just thou shouldest never haue it The second cause Saints Iove not as they might and should because they rely not on the promise why I presse this instruction is this To shew the disorderly proceedings of many poore Saints that labour extremely to worke their owne soules and to bring their hearts to love Christ that they even fall out with themselues and curse their base hearts that can loue the world and cannot loue Iesus Christ they labour much and would bring their hearts to loue him but they cannot doe it because they goe to worke the contrary way they would bring loue to the promise and not receive love from the promise as if a man should bring water to the sea or light to the sunne It is as if he would have a sun of his owne and yet there is but one sunne of righteousnesse that can kindle this loue of Iesus Christ to carry it selfe worthy of him Therefore be wise herein and thinke not to bring love to the promise but come to the promise for it and goe to the sea for water and looke up to the sunne of Gods loue and be under the beames of Gods mercy and looke not down into that dead frozen heart of thine own for if thou wouldst never so faine thou canst not receive one sparkle of this love from thy owne abilities See his love therein and bee thereby drawne to love him againe and see the fulnesse of those pleasures at his right hand which endure for ever Ioh. 16.14 the Lord Christ saith He shall send the Spirit the Comforter and he shall take of mine that is take of Christs All spirituall graces are Christs therefore goe thou thy way and tell the Lord thus much saying In truth Lord I have not a heart to love thee it is thine owne worke and thou hast sayd that thy spirit shall take of thine and give it to thy servants that thy servants may also give thee of thine owne againe that love and that delight is thine to give that wee may giue thee of thine owne as David spoke of the building of the Temple Thus much of the use of instruction Vse 2. Comfort to them that love Christ In the second place here is a strong consolation to sustaine and refresh the hearts of those that have received this gracious worke though they haue some small weaknesses it skills not be the worke sound it is enough thy soule may bee comforted that the Lord hath enlarged himselfe to thee in this gracious worke I say it is a ground of admirable sweet refreshing of soule to any that finde this gracious love unto Christ A man by nature cannot have this therefore hast thou this by grace Goe thy way as he that hath found a treasury and make much of it and say and know thou hast something more than all carnall wretches can have and thou hast more than all the cunning close-hearted hypocrites under heaven can have let them pretend and fain and flatter what they will Me thinks this should wonderfully refresh the hope of you poore ones for though many times other things goe not well with you yet this is enough to cheare up your hearts for ever You know a childe will loue his father though hee can doe little for him he is a child and therefore though he can doe little for his father yet if he love his father hee is contented so they that haue little meanes and small sufficiencies towards any servants of God and it may be their understandings are not so deepe as others be and their tongues runne not so glib as such and such and they cannot talke so freely of the things of grace and salvation and thou hast meaner parts and canst not enlarge thy self in holy duties and holy services though this is commendable where it is and thou canst not dispute for a Saviour and perform such duties as others can doe yet thou canst loue Iesus Christ and reioyce in him Methinkes there is many a poore soule would say I blesse the name of the Lord that 's all that I haue the Lord knowes that all the friends I have and parts and meanes and abilities in the world they are but as dung and drosse in comparison of Christ Oh it were the comfort of my soule if I might be euer with him Goe thy
that comes he cares not he loves gaine in and aboue all So a good heart resignes up all to a Christ and whatsoever is pleasing to a Christ he will doe it and whatsoever comes from a Christ is welcome but if any man be an enemy against his Majestie and would doe any violence against him he cannot endure it But the hypocrite receives Christ as the Inne-keeper doth his guest if the world come it shall be served and if honour come it is welcome if he may have gain from them they are all welcome and therefore all is welcome because hee may haue gaine by all and so he loves himselfe in all and not Christ 3. Triall It avoydes matter of griefe and displeasure Thirdly the soule that thus entertaines Christ and studies wholly to give contentment to him he is marvellous warie and watchfull that he may not sad that good spirit of God and grieve him and cause him to goe away as displeased or to take away the sweetnesse of it for the present the penitent feares lest there be any thing that may cause this because he entertains him as a marvellous loving friend and therefore if hee should doe any thing to grieve him it would vexe him to the heart See this Cant. 3.4.5 the Spouse sought long for her beloved and at last brought him home and when she had welcomed him she gives charge to all the house not to stirre nor awaken her love till he please When a Prince comes into the house of a great man what charge is there given to make no noise in the night lest such or such a man bee awakened before his time And were it not a basenesse in us if wee should have our hearts more in love with any thing than the service of Christ The soul also when it hath received the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ gives a peremptory charge to keepe watch and ward and gives a charge to hope and desire and love and joy and the minde and all not to grieve nor molest the good spirit of the Lord let there bee no motion but entertaine it no advice but receive it and doe nothing that may worke the least kinde of dislike In Gen. 19.5 6 7 8. when Lot had received the 2 Angels into his house the cursed Sodomites came about the house to abuse them but see how Lot pleadeth with those base wicked people I pray you my brethren doe not so wickedly Behold now I have two daughters which have not known man them will I bring forth unto you and doe unto them as seemeth good unto you onely to these men doe nothing for therefore are they come under the shadow of my roofe This is kinde and honourable entertainement indeed he would rather suffer himselfe than they so a loving heart will doe with Christ he saith Let my soule bee wounded and my honour lye in the dust that Gods name may be honoured let persecution and shame disgrace and any thing come to mee I am willing to endure all but I will doe nothing against Jesus Christ nor against the credit of the Gospel nor speake evill of Gods name no nor dishonour the worke of his grace whatsoever befall me Simile As one that loves a friend will aske his servants what doth your Master like best and what doth hee desire to eat because he would prevent him with kindnesse so marvellous carefull is he to avoid whatsoever may displease him So a soule truly humbled is not content unless God may have his will and therefore it comes to the faithfull Ministers of God and saith How may I please God better and how may I come to entertaine the motions of his spirit better shew me what duties must be done and what sinnes must be avoided You know Christs will and what will please him I beseech you advise me that I may heare and pray and walke and approve my heart so to him that nothing may displease him This I take to bee the maine difference betweene a good heart and a false hypocriticall one Simile For looke what difference there is between a man that takes a servant into his family and a Noble-man that receives a Prince so much difference there is between a good heart a false hypocriticall heart Now a man entertaines a servāt into his house to the end he may serve please himselfe and that the servant may give contentment to him because hee is wise and able to dispatch his occasions and likewise diligent to looke throughly to all and therefore it is that the servant is entertained not for the servants sake but that hee may content his master But he that doth receive a Noble-man into his house he labours to give him all the content that may be he layes by all and attends onely upon him and though hee be a man of great state and hath many to attend on him yet all the servants are charged to see that nothing bee wanting to his guest nay he will rather discontent himself than him because he comes out of an honorable respect to visite him therefore he wil receive him as beseemes his state and person Just so it is with a faithfull soule that receives Christ in the worth of him and one that receives him for gaine onely the one receives Christ as a servant into his family and so all the while that the Gospel and the profession of it and the Lord Jesus may promote his ease and honour and credit then welcome Gospel but if his profits and honour and credit and the Gospel cannot agree together he turnes all out of doores and of a professor hee proves a loather of Jesus Christ because he received him to content himselfe withall But hee that receives Christ in the worth of him will not please himselfe and his lusts and his pride and vaine-glory but though they that are his nearest friends call him and say they must have his company and his attendance yet hee replies No hee cannot the Lord Jesus Christ must be attended and when the old haunts of heart and old lewd courses that have had inward league with the poore sinner come and crave and plead for acceptance hee regards them not nay an humbled soule will rather displease all the great men in the world yea the neerest man that he depends upon and all that glory and pompe than Jesus Christ 4 Triall It rejoyceth most to see Christ honoured 4 Fourthly he that loves any thing in the worth of it it is his good and happinesse to see the good and happinesse of that thing which he loves this is an undoubted argument of sound affection that that which he loves should have all good though hee misse it If any good befall that thing which hee loves hee thinkes himselfe happy and had rather see that honoured than himself this is true love a marvellous sweet passage of a loving heart yea it is the very picture of true love 1
depended too much upon his outward presence Touch mee not saith the Text for I am not yet ascended thou shalt enjoy my presence before I part with thee but as yet be not so earnest so it is expressed 1 Cor. 7.1 This is a lively expression of that love and joy which many poore soules are possessed withall after they have waited long for mercie and God is pleased to refresh them therewith many times they begin to lose their sleepe and meat and begin to be lightened by it because they are ever holding of it till they almost overthrow themselves with it Simile As it is with parties that have lived long together in one house whose affections are linked together in the way of marriage they will ever desire to be talking together and ever to be drawing on to the marriage So it is with the soule that loves the Lord Jesus hath this holy affection kindled and his spirit enlarged therein when the Lord hath let in some glimpse of his love he thinks the houre sweet when hee prayeth to the Lord Christ and hath a great deale of sweet conference with his Saviour he thinks that Lords day marvellous sweet wherein God revealeth by the power of his holy ordinance any of that rich grace and mercy of his It is admirable to see how the heart will be delighted to reckon the time and place and meanes when and where the Lord did reveale it and the soule saith Oh this is good oh that I might ever be thus cheared and refreshed it cannot have enough of this if it might have what it would but as David Ps 84.2 3. saith My soul longeth yea even fainteth for the Courts of the Lord my heart and my flesh cryeth out for the living God Yea the sparrow hath found an house and the swallow a nest for her selfe where she may lay her young even thine Altars O Lord of Hosts my King and my God as if hee had said Goe you blessed birds you may build your nests by the Altar of my God and come into his house Lord am not I as good as birds His heart was marvellously inflamed with the want of that which he loved Nay in Luke 2.29 good old Simeon had his heart so enlarged to Christ that hee could have been content to depart this life so hee might have his fill of Christ The spouse that is contracted thinkes every day a yeare till she enjoy her beloved Oh sayth she would that day were come that I might injoy him and take full satisfaction to my soule in him so it is with a loving soul that hath been truly humbled and enlightned is now contracted to Jesus Christ how it longs after him Oh when will that day be saith it that I shall ever bee with him who is best of all it takes hold of every word it heares every promise that reveales any thing of Christ but oh when will that day bee that I shall ever bee with Christ This is the highest pitch of Saint Pauls speech Phil. 1.23 For I am in a straight betweene two having a desire to depart and to bee with Christ which is best of all as if hee had said that I may ever be with that mercy and grace and spirit that is in Christ and be filled with his fulnesse for ever and ever This is the frame of the soule that is in love with Christ yea this is the strong and glewing nature of love that it will make a man desire to be with the thing loved though hee must undergoe never so great misery to obtaine it as Gen. 37.35 when Jacobs sonnes brought the party-coloured coat to their father he sayd It is my sonnes coat an evill beast hath devoured him and he rent his cloaths and put sack-cloth upon his loines and mourned for his sonne many dayes And all his sonns and all his daughters rose up to comfort him but he refused to be comforted and he said For I will goe downe into the grave unto my sonne mourning he had rather be in the grave than not to be with his son Joseph If a womans husband be in prison it is her wonderfull griefe that it is so but most of all that she may not be with him there Thus also is it with the soule that entirely loves Christ it is content to goe to the prison with him and saith Let mee bee with Christ though hee bee persecuted It is his griefe that Christ is persecuted but it is a greater griefe that hee may not bee with him in persecution As the Spouse Cantic 2.16 My beloved is mine and I am his and as the wife saith Husband let the world doe and say what they will thou art mine and I am thine So the soule saith mercy is mine and Christ is mine if I may have that I have enough but without it I cannot be quieted Secondly there is an holy impatience and restlessenesse of spirit when it cannot come to close with Christ Oh it is good to expresse the earnest desire of the soule to Christ though he seeme to hide his face away and to forbid the banes of asking Thus it appeares what it is to love the Lord Jesus Use 3. Now the pill is sugered Reproofe of them that love not Christ in truth it will go downe the better therefore now let us come to the use of reproofe and this is as a swift witnesse to accuse as a Judge to condemne many in the world this is sufficient to shake the heart and to make the hearts of most that live in the bosome of the Church to sinke at the very sight of their wofull condition in whose heart this blessed grace of God was never yet received I meane that never loved the Lord Jesus woe to their soules yea this is the greatest part of their woe that though they doe not love Christ yet they doe not thinke so nay they will not be perswaded to it This is the cunning that the Divell useth to deceive poore soules withall because these affections are secret and inward neither discover themselves evidently to the heart further than practise goes therefore they think others know them not and here they rest they lean upon a cōpany of sottish delusions which will faile them thus they and their hopes perish for ever Wicked men cannot but confesse their owne vilenesse that their communications are vaine and their fall scandalous but this is that which salves all they say their lives are so indeed but they love the Lord Jesus with all their hearts When these wretches have sworne by their Saviour and have torne his sacred body in sunder with their oathes and blasphemies yet they love Christ with their souls poore deluded sinfull men Now for the better convincing of these men first let me make it good that most men have not this love of Christ and so lay the inditement Secondly let me plead the inditement and shew who they are that have it not
the soule more ready and fit to receive the evidence of Gods love to be exprest to the soule which thou canst not have so exprest to thee except thou have this godly sorrow 1 Joh. 1.9 If wee confesse our sinnes he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sinnes and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnesse he speaks there of them that now had faith yet shewes that before the Lord would seale to the man that hath faith the assurance of the pardon of his sinnes hee will make him humble and cry and sorrow for them and as to live comfortably so sorrowfully too as 1 King 8.38 2 Chron. 6.36 If the people returne to thee in the land of their captivitie and pray unto thee saying We have sinned we have done amisse and have dealt wickedly then heare thou in heaven c. When the Lord seeth their hearts humbled for their sinnes and sorrowfull for them then hee seales up the pardon of them So then the way to have this assurance is to have this frame of spirit here spoken of Thirdly this godly sorrow ought to bee continually in such as have this love of Christ that so our hearts may be carried with a more deadly hatred of sinne These are the benefits of godly sorrow and if a man sorrow not for sinne he will not sorrow for the wrong and dishonour done to God by other sinfull men as David Psal 119.136 Rivers of waters runne downe mine eyes because they keepe not thy law EZech. 9.4 The Lord sayd to the Angel Goe and set a marke upon the foreheads of all the men that sigh and that cry for all the abhominations that be done in the midst thereof Now how can a man mourn for the abhominations of others when he hath not the heart to mourne for it in his owne soule Ob. But some will say Must we never rejoyce in the Lord Ans I answer Yes I say sorrow daily for thy sinnes and yet daily rejoyce in thy Saviour and the more thy heart is broken for the one the more thou wilt be comforted by the other Thou that makest no matter of being sensible of the body of death that hangs upon thee and hast no care to bee sensible of thy owne failings take heed that the Lord give thee not up for ever to thy owne basenesse to be rushed headlong into some vile scandalous courses and so thou perish for ever as wee finde by experience many by this meanes have growne the most profane creatures that ever lived And this is the damnable heresie of the Familists The fourth sort is the vain-glorious hypocrite and hee is marvellous zealous for God and his truth in outward appearance That God may bee honoured and his Gospel advanced it is admirable what he will do he will hazzard himselfe his life his estate and all nay be content not to live if he may but leave a little vaine breath after him Wee know what vaine-glory doth amongst the Papists who that they may be canonized for Saints will endure any thing and suffer death it selfe this vain-glory is above life and all Simile As some great Courtiers will doe by a man that they meane to make a booty of they make him their onely favorite and expresse a great deale of kindnesse to him that hee may helpe them to more honour and glory So this wretch doth lift up the Gospel that the Gospel may advance him and fill his sailes full of winde therefore he will doe great matters for this end that hee may receive glory from it Even as the Stage-player that sets up a great stage that he may be above the people Another so it is with a vain-glorious wretch prayer is a good stage and fasting and hearing and preaching are very fine stages for him upon which he acts his part that others may see him that glory may come to him and not that the glory and grace of Christ may bee extolled hee would lift up himselfe to heaven and cast downe Christ to hell Such an one was Saul when Samuel gave him the left hand and would not go with him into the Citie 1 Sam. 15.30 He said I have sinned yet honour me I pray thee before the people and turne again with me that I may worship the Lord thy God Walke with me and then the people will say Oh what good friends they bee surely hee is a good man the Prophet goes with him It is a great honour to those that are wise because they are willing to joyne side with those that are holy and gracious so Saul will honour Samuel that Samuel may honour him and that he may stand upon his shoulders as it were that the people may say See how inward they are and what a good man hee is the Prophet goes on with him but the turne and the issue of the hypocrite is this it is meerly for himselfe which will appeare thus If once the winde begin to turne and the gale of honour grow somewhat cold and other men are a little lifted up so that he may not bee in the fore-front or if his profession will not carry him out with honour but his credit is laid in the dust and hee sees hee cannot get honour his heart dies in him and he saith It is as good to leave off all and if he cannot get glory from the Gospel either hee will grow desperately wicked and oppose the Gospell and joyne side with the wicked and helpe them or else he will flagge and die in a base carnall course and come to nothing and that 's the best of him This hath been the bane of many men who when they have missed of the glory that they lookt for from the Gospel they have become persecuters These men deal with Christ as the Inne-keeper doth with his guests If a man will pay the Ordinarie Simile he is welcome but if once his money faile hee turnes him out of doores so if Christ will pay his Ordinary and if hee may have credit and honour so as men may say he hath good parts and that he fasts more than the world knowes I say if the Gospel will give him this Ordinary it is welcome and he is carried on cheerfully but if Christ and the Gospel will not give him that which hee would have hee turnes his backe upon it The Lord Jesus convince your hearts of it I take this to be the state of a great many but a gracious heart is of another straine or temper Happely God hath given a man parts and gifts and credit and yet if the Lord withdraw himselfe a good soule saith as John did Joh. 3.40 Hee must encrease I must decrease so a good heart saith If another man deserve and have more than I yet let this proud heart licke the dust and never lift up it selfe if the Lord Jesus may encrease and have his honour and glory let me be trodden in the dust this is a heart worth gold
doth Luke 19.27 Those mine enemies which would not that I should raigne over them bring hither and slay them before me He will say Bring hither that enemy of mine he hath opposed mee and grieved my spirit and sleighted my mercy bring my enemies hither not the Heathens or Pagans I regard not them so much but him that hath beene a hater of me and of my Gospel and then shalt thou see the intolerablenesse and unavoydablenesse of thy punishment Oh poore soule what wilt thou say or doe when thou art put to such a plunge as Josephs bowels did earne within him when hee talked with his brethren that he could forbeare no longer I wish that I had a heart to mourne in secret for thee I say what will become of thee poore wretch Happely thou wilt say there is mercy It 's true but thou hast hated that mercy which should save thee or wilt thou thinke that the blood and merits of the Lord Jesus will save thee thou hast trodden upon them Wilt thou say The good spirit of the Lord will prevaile with this wretched heart of mine with what heart canst thou crave aide from the spirit when thy owne conscience can say I have hated that good spirit of the Lord and that mercy which should save mee And when all is done and thou art come to the period goe your way home to your husbands and wives and mourn for them for there is neither mercy nor Christ for them for they also have hated him And when this is done imagine thou didst see the heavens opened and the fire melting round about thee and the Lord Christ coming in flaming fire rendering vengeance to all that obey not the Gospel lay thy hand upon thy breast say that 's I Lord that 's my husband or my childe he is come against us to render vengeance to them that have lived with mee and have opposed the Gospel and the riches of grace and of mercy in Jesus Christ Thinke of these in Gods name and labour to prevent them here that thou mayest bee freed from the punishment of them hereafter Love the Lord Jesus in sinceritie Use 4. The last use is for Exhortation Oh that God would please to worke our soules to this duty which the Saints take up and all of us ought to labour after You heare how the Lord works in the hearts of his and how they which are truely called of God have this love kindled in their hearts Oh therefore what remaines but onely this bee exhorted since you see the way to walke in it and since we see what the Saints of God have and doe let us labour to expresse this frame of heart that so the Lord Jesus may make us partakers of their hapnesse I say let us labour after it and when we have it expresse our loves to the Lord Jesus Christ as wee ought It was that which tooke up the heart of David Psal 18.1 when hee saith I will love thee deerely O Lord my strength As it is with a woman with child though the infant in the wombe have life yet the mothers love is not so great towards it till it bee borne but then she clasps her armes about it with much tendernesse so hee saith I will embrace the Lord with much love I will love him as if hee had said All the world shall not hinder mee but I will love him though I love not my selfe and hee perswades all the Saints of God to do the like Psa 31. 23. saying Love the Lord all ye his Saints who will you love if you love not him Oh you poore ones love you the Lord for you have need of him and all you rich ones love you the Lord for you have cause to doe it and you little ones too if there be any such in the congregation he knockes at every mans doore and perswades every mans heart and he deales faithfully with his Saints therefore if you have but this grace it is an undoubted argument that you are the Saints of God nay though out of thy blindnesse thou couldst never know the way to Christ and out of thy weakenesse thou couldst never close with Christ yet if thou wilt but love him thou shalt know him and be with him for ever 1 Joh. 4 12.16 No man hath seene God at any time God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him If thy heart be perswaded to continue in God and to be with God for ever then love him and he will dwell in thee for he is love it selfe for so saith the Apostle Love is of God Ob. Oh but some will say it is true we know it is fitting and we ought to doe it but it is a difficult thing and we are unable to doe it though we know it is requisite to be done To love the Lord Jesus we find is a difficult worke and hard although the world thinke it not so Ans I would to God you did finde it difficult and marke what I say that man never loved Christ aright who found it not difficult He that saith Oh such an one as will not love the Lord Jesus it is pitty he should live it is to be feared he did never love Jesus Christ aright Poore silly deluded creature it will cost thee hot water before that day yet when thou hast it it will quit all thy cost and labour Oh but some will say Means to love Christ what are the meanes to prevaile with us and how may wee draw our sturdy rebellious waiward hearts to this love of Jesus Christ I referre the meanes to these three heads 1. First there are some hinderances to be removed 2. Secondly labour to see the beauty and excellencie of Jesus Christ in the promise 3. Thirdly when the promise is come neere and the heart made empty then learne the skill to make the soule and the promise meet Meanes 1. First that you may love the Lord Christ there are some hinderances which lye upon the heart which are marvellous causes of dissention between Jesus Christ and the soule and these must be taken away Now the hinderances of this sort are these three Hinderance 1. The first is this To take off the soule from the love of these base things here below I beseech you observe it be marvellous wise that you lavish not out your soules upon these lying vanities for as it is with a streame Simile if the banke be cut and all the streame run that way then the proper chanell must needs lie dry because all the streame runs another way so is it with the streame of a mans affections if the stream of love joy be let out upon profits or pleasures or honours you cannot have spend you cannot have your affections still when you have spent them upon other things therefore bee sure to knocke them off from the world that you may give them wholly to the Lord.
with Sechem Hamors son Gen. 34.24 when he would perswade the Citizens to joine side with him he doth two things First he did commune with them in the gates and then hee shewes what undoubted good they should bee sure to get by it Shall not their cattell and their substance and every beast that they have bee ours and hereby will they consent if every one bee circumcised as they are He communed of the busines and of the good that comes by it so likewise let us commune with the good of the promises Secondly conclude that the good thou expectest shall come thereby and that all happinesse shall come unto thy soule If thou match with Jesus Christ shall not all his mercy all his excellency all his merits and love yea all his comforts and grace be thine Yes every grace of Jesus Christ and all the comforts not only of this but of a better life Wee stand demurring upon the matters of agreement if we might have a good ingagement what would wee doe lay all these aside and know that if thou wilt have Christ thou must part with all and then thou shalt finde in him what ever thy heart desires 1 Corinthians 3.23 All is yours and yee are Christs and Christ is Gods so I say to every of you if Christ bee thine then all is thine nay all the Divells malice shall promote that which shall make for thy good Therefore is this so that the Lord Jesus Christ is worthy of your love and hath deserved it is he worthy of more love then all that you have and doth he seeke it for he hath sent me this day to entreat love at the hands and hearts of all you poore sinners you then that are in higher rankes and places the Lord Christ is worthy of your affections and he doth offer love to all you that are weary and have need to every poor soule now what answer shall I return to him in the evening shall I say Lord I have tendered thy mercy and it was refused and they sleighted thy mercy and thy promise and they would none of Christ they have taken up their hearts with the world therefore they cannot give up their hearts to thee Brethren it would grieve my heart to returne this answer Christ Jesus becomes a suiter to you and doth beseech you through me to be reconciled to him and to bee blessed by him for ever Will you love the Lord Christ let him have but love from you that is all he cares for I beseech you for the Lord Jesus Christs sake if you will not love him nor his grace and mercy yet love your owne selves deny not this gracious offer lest hereafter you seeke for love and mercy and compassion and be refused and condemned for ever Therefore give up all and bid adieu to all other Lovers And because it is not in your power to love Christ goe to the Father of love and to the Spirit of love and entreat him but to strike one sparke of love from the promise and say good Lord is it true I have a base vile heart and I have contemned thee my only comfort but thou that requirest love thou that art the God of love kindle but one sparke of love in the heart of thy servant that I may love thee more than my selfe and all things here below Hitherto of the love of Christ Next we will speake of joy in God Spirituall Joy HABAKKUK 3.17 18. Although the Fig-tree shall not blossome neither shall fruit be in the vines the labour of the Olive shall faile and the fields shall yeeld no meat the flocke shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no heard in the stalls Yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation THIS Text may fitly be called Order The poore mans comfort in a deare yeare It was the Prophets stay in the great desolation which he fore-saw to be comming by the Chaldeans In the first Chapter hee complaines of Israels sinne and the Chaldeans crueltie In the second he sees a vision of comfort for the Church and the destruction of the enemies In the third he prayes for accomplishment and strengthens his faith in prayer by recounting the old dealings of God with his people Now toward the conclusion hee professeth his owne hope and confidence in God which by his example he would worke all godly men unto True hee was greatly afraid at the vengeance of God but by fearing before hand he procured a sweet securitie for time to come verse 16. That I might rest in the day of trouble And in the text he speakes more fully Although the Figge-tree shall not blossome c. Parts In the words is 1. A supposition of great evill which probably might come upon the Jewes vers 17.2 A proposition of his own unmoveable comfort amidst it all vers 18. Exposition Of the supposition In many particulars the Prophet sets forth an extreme vastation and desolation of their countrey all commodities should faile which concerned both delight and necessitie that is Corne Wine Oyle other fruits both small and great Cattell those in the fold those in the stall Sheepe and Oxen all should come short of the wonted plentie I name foure wayes whereby such misery invades a nation and the particular inhabitants First by Warre and the Sword which layes all waste where it comes as in Germany the vines cut the fruit trees rooted up the corne burnt or not sowed flockes and herds driven away Temples and houses laid in their rubbish and people slaughtered Neither Easterne nor Westerne Babylonians can affoord better termes of agreement with the Israel of God Prov. 12.10 The tender mercies of the wicked are cruell Secondly by drought or other calamities of ill weather when the yeare of restraints commeth Jer. 14.1 and then hee describes a grievous famine the former and latter raine is with-holden the sweet influence of the Pleiades is restrained Job 38.31 the heaven made as brasse the earth as iron unkindly windes devouring wormes blast mildew and other evils which we have indured Thirdly by losses and casualties which the wisedome of man cannot foresee nor his power prevent Thus the folds and stalls of Job were made empty and the like hath befallen many a rich man and may hereafter To the world-ward none can rightly be accounted blessed but hee that is fairly buried Others have wine and oyle and olives and other dainties in plentifull measure but this or that man hath lost his part and hath much adoe to sustaine his necessitie Fourthly by meere poverty and utter disability to make such provisions Some never had these fine things mentioned in the Text nor have nor are likely ever to have unlesse at other mens tables with some every yeare is a deare yeare through their whole life though some pinch them more than other A poore empty smoke-bound cottage with course bread and water out
office Why should the want of temporalls disturbe our joy in this God of salvation Reteine comfort in God whatever thou wantest Jam. 1.9 Use 1. Of exhortation To reteine our comfort as the Prophet here doth As all true-hearted Christians should stirre up themselves to rejoyce in God and the sure mercies of David while the meanes of grace and of worldly comfort do continue so especially the brother of low degree should rejoyce because he is exalted in spirituall things as high as any and hath equall share in the God of salvation In deepe povertie in falling from a great estate in deare yeares in desolation by warre if it should come in all troubles and afflictions still we have a ground of joy while God is in heaven and can have recourse to the Christian heart at pleasure Hold thine owne remember thy evidences make use of thy provisions now is a time and occasion to say as the Prophet Although the Fig-tree blossome not Psal 46.1 5. c. and as the Psalmist God is our refuge and strength a very present helpe in trouble therefore will we not feare though the earth bee removed c. Although the stone cut my reines my spleene paine me or other diseases torment me although I be put beside my meanes turned out to the wide world my wife and children set to begging my selfe shut up in prison and wait for the day of execution although I meet with a peevish and pestilent adversary at the law be defamed know not how presently to cleare mine innocencie but goe for an evill doer c. Yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation None of all this can drive away the great Comforter from me but rather he will solace me the more for these discomforts in the world Christ is left still and the love of God and the kingdome of heaven to receive me out of the most miserable shipwracke And the same God that now admits me a guest at his table to eate of his sweet and fat things will one day make me sit downe with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the kingdome of heaven O my brethren were not we our owne foes and stood in our owne light what comfortable lives should we lead even in the midst of the valley of the shadow of death Were it not for passion Psal 23.4 impatience covetousnesse doting on the fine things of the world love of credit and reputation among worldlings living too much the life of sense formalitie in holy duties securitie in putting away the evill day and other corruption certainly we should joy in our God all the day long whatever the yeare be or can bring forth we might doe what we are commanded Phil. 4.4 Rejoyce in the Lord alwaies and againe I say Rejoyce No dearth or other evill should take us unprovided It is our owne fault that we totter or stagger at any time Faith hope patience contentment and other graces with the comforts of Gods holy Spirit will set us as unmoveable as a rock in the sea amidst the greatest waves and stormes whatsoever Reproofe to them that grow uncomfortable for crosses Use 2. Of Reprehension It is utterly a fault in Christians if they bee melancholy and dejected because of crosse yeares bad harvest losse in that or any other kinde casualties calamities or other evils that come by the hand of God or man as if you had no hope in God but onely in this present life or in the things of this life or as if God were not sufficient for your comfort and blessednesse without these temporalls or had tied himselfe to meanes as you are tied to the use of them or as if you must needs gaine so much at least save your selves harmlesse otherwise God and you will bee friends no longer I know that in arguing you will not stand to these inferences as truths and will deny the adoption of Gods children to depend on outward comforts But he that whines pines sighes is cast downe by the want of them perhaps because he is something abridged of his former plenty what doth hee but say in effect that outward prosperitie is one signe of the childe of God Consider and beware It is a diabolicall straine to call our adoption into question for present want of comforts for the body If thou be the Sonne of God Matth. 4.3 command that these stones be made bread We dishonour God torment our own hearts teare our owne flesh shorten our daies hazzard our part in heaven or at least make our way thither more unpleasant than we need to doe Use 3. Of Instruction Wee see by this doctrine Make this sure God is the God of my salvaâ—ion what is the maine thing which we had most need to doe even in our greatest peace and prosperitie namely to doe the same as the Prophet here had done make this sure to our hearts that the Lord is the God of our salvation and every particular Christian to his owne heart in particular he is the God of my salvation therefore I will rejoyce in him although these and these evils should come strange grievous tedious yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation Quest This were worth the having but how should I get it I would doe any thing for it Answ Tracke the foot-steps of this Prophet throughout this prophesie It is not for every profane or sensuall liver to say he will rejoyce in God c. Such are sent to weepe and howle for the misery that shall come upon them and woe unto you that laugh now yee shall weepe and Jam. 5.1 Luke 6.25 Amos 6.1 woe to them that are at ease in Sion onely the righteous are called to rejoyce in the Lord and they that are upright in heart to shout for joy and bee glad Psal 32.11 Therefore First look to the main and be sure your peace be made with God Meanes to rejoyce in evill times None but beleevers can rejoyce in God when great trials come none else are righteous none else have a faith to live by Hab. 2.4 The just shall live by his faith He that deceives himselfe in his faith deceives himself also in his joy Fancie presumption and self-self-love will leave a man in the suds when he hath most need of comfort well it may uphold him while the fig-tree blossomes c. but in the defect of these it faileth too and makes him as pensive as before he was jocund Secondly after the sorrowes of conversion at the beginning be sure also to be duely affected with feare and sorrow when God is shewing his terrible workes in the land such as pestilence dearth drought divisions of Reuben c. The wise of heart will consider and lay it to heart and by renewing his repentance take off the controversie so farre as it concerns himselfe if it cannot be done for others So did this Prophet
reproach losse paine persecution for righteousnesse sake shall be abundantly recompenced with joy in the holy Ghost and the joy of heaven Mat. 5.10 11 12. The like of suffering by the hand of God or men in common affaires They that are well exercised by afflictions shall one day bee comforted as Lazarus all will end as a Comedie in mirth and felicitie All this is metaphorically compirsed in the Text by a figure of sowing and reaping usuall in the Scripture Sow to the flesh or spirit sow liberally Gal. 6.8 2 Cor. 9.6 Psal 97.11 and reap liberally the Lord gives bread to the sower light is sowen for the righteous c. A wet and cold seed-time brings the husbandman afterward a plenteous and ioyfull harvest so the sad times and occasions that goe over Gods people will first or last bring them a great measure of joy comfort blessednesse Heare the limitations a little 1. Not the teares themselves considered in themselves bring forth the joyfull crop but the sowing in teares Esau his teares were shed to no purpose and in hell there will be weeping and wailing but because there is no sowing no good comes of it It is onely the pretious seed in vers 6. that affoords the good sheaves and it is required it be godly sorrow 2 Cor. 7.9 that we mourn for the absence of the Bridegroome and that we faint not when we sow Gal. 6.9 neither in faith nor obedience In due time yee shall reap if yee faint not It were unreasonable to sow in September and look to reap in October No stay till the moneth of harvest and then see what blessing God will give The husband-man hath patience c. Jam. 5.7 2. Of the joy that is to be reaped here put for the whole happinesse of a Christian as a Christian both here hereafter according the Grecian salutation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They joy before thee Isai 9.3 according to the joy of harvest In this life a Christian hath the beginning first fruits of the Spirit peace joy quietnesse assurance for ever In Christ he shall have peace by the Ordinances comfort is to be had and the afflictions would be too sharp and heavie if there were not some mixture of joy But in the world to come we shall have joy to the full what is wanting now shall he supplied then to the uttermost This rich harvest will pay for all the cost and labour and patience good measure pressed downe and running over 3. Of the reaping of that joy first it shall be certaine which no husband-man can promise to himselfe a Christian is sure to reape if he sow All the promises of God are Yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1.20 Secondly it shall be abundant not an hundred for one but a thousand yea millions of degrees beyond our expences a farre more exceeding 4.17 and eternall weight of glory But many a poore husband-man reapes sparingly scarce can pay his rent and live c. Thirdly it shall be in joy onely all teares for ever wiped from our eyes no chaffe among our wheat no darnell nor weeds of any kinde The joy of this harvest is never done the barns never emptied the provisions never spent the labours no more repeated It is no proverb for these husband-men Their worke is never at an end No they rest from their labours and their workes follow them henceforth they are blessed Rev. 14.13 Sorrowfull seed-time breeds Christians a joyfull harvest Doctr. The sorrowfull seed-time of true Christians in the exercises of humiliation and mortification yeelds them a rich ioyful harvest They shall be paid for all sooner or later They sow in righteousnesse and reape in mercy Hos 10.12 they have their fruit unto holinesse and the end everlasting life Rom. 6.22 Reas 1. Because of the promise of God And why This in the Text is uttered by way of promise and there be many the like promises in Scripture which for the matter of them are precious for the manner free for the extent universall and for certainty most faithfull confirmed divers wayes by oath c. 2. Because they are heires of blessing the Israel of God partakers of the heavenly calling and promise Destroy not the cluster for there is a blessing in it Esa 65.8 9. They are as an Oke whose substance is in them though the leaves be cast Chap. 6.13 namely in and by Christ who makes them honourable before God and capable of a sound and lasting joy 3. Because of the precious seed which they beare forth and must bring home againe in the harvest The seed of God abideth in them 1 Joh. 3.9 and they sinne not as the wicked doe that is Rom. 11.29 the gifts and graces of the holy Ghost which are without repentance of an immortall being and immortall in the effect 1 Pet. 1.23 24 25. 4. The very field wherein they sow is ioyous and wholsome I meane the duties they performe and ordinances they frequent Prayer yeelds a comfortable answer of God to the soule The Lords Supper affords much ioy and peace of conscience hearing receives the glad tydings of the Gospel c. In the field lyeth a treasure he that buyes it goes away rejoycing 5. The shedding of these teares preventeth the matter of future sorrow namely the curse of sinne the wrath of God the deadnesse of heart the reigne of lusts the sting and feare of death the bitternesse of persecution Having mourned before and kept even with God from time to time there is the lesse sorrow now to be taken Is not the guiltinesse gone and a sure foundation laid for comfort 6. As the causes of sorrow are removed so the Christian by mourning makes sure to his soule all the causes of true joy Causes of true joy assured by mourning which are the love of God a part in Christ inhabitation of the Spirit the great Comforter the white stone and new name the image of God in the soule the testimony of a good conscience interest in the prayers of all Gods people a sanctified and safe use of all mercies and afflictions joyfull and assured expectation of the glory of heaven Rom. 5.1 2 3. Grant the full and the immediate cause and the effect will follow Objection What say you to the case of desertion Answ It is one day of the sorrowfull seed-time the harvest comes afterward and the Eclipse will soone be over in darkenesse the Lord shall bee a light unto me Mic. 7.8 Some lightsome passages there are in the meane time Sharpe Preachers make you gainers Use 1. If so then by our sharpest preaching you receive damage by us in nothing we make some weepe and take on for their sinnes we wring teares from them wee take them off from their pleasures of sinne which are for a moment But while you are set a sowing in teares you are set into the right way of reaping in joy We give