the Lord pronounceth his Oath negatively then it is to be understood as an affirmation as Isa 14.24 The Lord of hosts hath sworn if not so it shall come to pass that is it shall certainly come to pass But when he setteth it down affirmatively then it is to be understood negatively as Psal 95.11 If they shall enter into my rest that is they shall never enter into my rest When God sweareth thus by himself he mentioneth not the Curse because no Execration or Curse can fall upon him that is God necessarily infinitely and eternally blessed and therefore not to be expressed because it cannot come upon him neither should such a form of speech be supplied as some do prophanely use then let me not be God or such like It is sufficient to alarm Sinners that God doth swear if they continue to the death without love to and saith in Christ they shall not enter into his rest 1. A man loves not Christ that hath 1. an understanding to know the excellencies of Christ the necessity of Christ the danger of being without Christ and the everlasting good and benefits that are to be had by Christ 2. A man that hath a Will to be guided by the Understanding a Will to chuse good and refuse evil 3. A man that hath Affections of love desire and delight and shall not place them upon their proper primary principal Object 4. A man that hath a Conscience to walk and act by to accuse and condemn him when his Affections are not rightly fixed and to comfort him and to testify for him when they tend to and rest in their proper Object 5. A man that is capable of knowing loving and enjoying the best good 6. A man that hath heard of Christ that professeth Christ and hath frequently and earnestly been intreated to give Christ his love 7. A man that is a sinful man a lost man a diseased polluted man that stands in need of washing cleansing and recovering healing Grace Shew me the man that needs not Christ and let him deny him his love 8. A man that is a dying man a man leaving this World going out of Time and entring into Eternity that must shortly be a damned or saved man within a few years months weeks days or houts be eternally happy or everlastingly miserable 3. Any man especially where the Gospel is preached where the joyful sound is heard to whom the tydings of a Saviour and Eternal Life are brought The Heathen cannot love him because they do not know him because they hear not of him but any man especially that lives under the means of Grace any mean man any noble man any ignorant man any learned man any man of any sort of any age of any calling of any place or Nation where they have so often and so long heard of Christ that his blessed name is become too common in their prophane polluted mouths If any such man 4. Love not tho he often talk of him tho he pray to God mentioning his Name tho he profess him hear daily from him suffer or dye for him and not love him that is 5. The Lord the Lord of Lords the only Potentate the Lord that hath the power of Life and Death able to take up to Heaven and cast down to Hell to damn and save that reigns over Men and Devils that hath all Power committed to him that is 6. Jesus the only mighty alsufficient Saviour that came from Heaven to Earth to get and purchase for men a passage from Earth to Heaven that suffered bled and died to save Sinners from Sin from Hell from Everlasting Burnings when there is no other Name under Heaven by which Sinners can be saved than the Name of Jesus who is also 7. Christ anointed of the Father designed from all Eternity and sent in the fulness of time to bring about and accomplish the work of man's Redemption that was furnished with all manner of qualifications to bring Souls to Eternal Glory and yet those that have their Names from him called Christians from Christ and yet not love him shall be 8. Anathema cursed Wretches miserable Caitiffs devoted to damnation separated from God cast to Devils when 9. Maran-atha the Lord comes to be Anathema when Maran-atha is to be accursed indeed and for ever then cursed Men must be with cursed Devils to all eternity CHAP. II. SECT I. The Doctrine and Method FRom this Text thus explained Doct. this Doctrine clearly resulteth That whatsoever man hath not sincere love to the Lord Jesus Christ is in a deplorable condition and shall be accursed when the Lord comes For his Sin is great his Mind is blind his Will perverse his Heart is hard and carnal his Affections corrupt and base and vile and his Soul and Body shall then be doomed down to blackness of darkness to extremity and eternity of misery to pains and punishment that no Tongue can express no Heart conceive no Pen can write how great how terrible how intolerable it will be found to be The method in treating on this Subject is cast into these five general Heads 1. What is the nature of this love to Christ what kind or manner of Love it is without which if man be found he is Anathema and shall be plagued with this heavy Curse at the coming of the Lord 2. That whosoever is without this love to Christ is in such a miserable condition and dying without it shall be damned when Christ shall come is to be demonstrated 3. What are the properties of this Curse that will make it so exceeding grievous and intolerable 4. Why so great a stress is put upon such Love why the Lord insists so much upon the love of man unto his Son that whosoever wants it shall be thus accursed 5. The improving of this Doctrine by practical application In opening of the nature of this Love to Christ I shall not only mention the formal reason of it but also what is presupposed and necessarily requisite to the raising or producing of it in the heart of man my Apprehensions concerning it I shall give you in these twelve following Particulars which being taking up and laid together will contain a description of this Love 1. This Love supposeth the goodness of the Object 2. It includes or implies the illumination of the Understanding to see and discern this incomparable goodness in Christ 3. It includes a discovery of the suitableness of Christ unto the Soul in all respects 4. As also a sight of the communicability of that good that is discerned to be so suitable 5. Highest valuation of Christ greatest estimation of him which is called appretiating Love 6. It contains the permanent volition of the Will the setled inclination of the heart towards the Lord Jesus Christ 7. It includes the prevailing and predominant degrees of our love to be to Christ more than to any thing else whatsoever 8. In this Love is the election of the Will choosing Christ
For 1. Love to Christ will be the sweetest Love He that loveth other things and not Christ loves nothing but Vanity and to love Vanity will prove vexation He that loveth Riches hath vexing sorrow with his love fretting fears and perplexing cutting cares When thou lovest thy Relations if they be bad the more thou lovest the more thou art Wounded If they be good the more evil befalls them the more thou art grieved There cannot be love to other things without love to Christ but it will be bitter Love for thou wilt repent of that love or thou wilt not If thou dost then thou wilt find more forrow for it more bitterness in it than ever thou didst find delight and say Oh now it doth repent me that ever I loved the World as I have done my Pleasures my Sin as I have done But thou wilt never have cause to say I repent that ever I loved Christ Never was such a Word heard from the mouth of a sincere Lover of Christ if thou dost never repent of thy Love to the World and Sin that Love will certainly end in sorrow and with bitterness of Soul be fruitlesly lamented in Hell But what content satisfaction delight comfort joy there is in loving of Christ none can tell so well as he that loves him 2. Love to Christ is the safest Love No fear of Sinning in this Love except it be in the smalness of the measure of it but that is not to Sin in loving but not loving more You might fear and tremble in loving other things and say Do not I sin in this Is there not sinning in my loving 3. Love to Christ is the surest Love to other things is often turned into hatred Love to day and hate to morrow but this remaineth firm The Object is the surest Object neither Men nor Death nor Devils can take away the Object of this Love It is surest in the Habit and Principle the Power of God the Prayer of Christ the promise of both secure the preservation of it It is surest in the Act for if we be careful our selves no Men nor Devils can hinder our acting of this Love they might keep us from hearing of his Word but not from loving of his Person 4. Love to Christ is the Noblest Love Love to Pleasures to the World to Sin is base polluted Love this most sublime and raised it hath the noblest and the highest Object it carrieth the Soul in his Thoughts and Meditations after him into the highest Heavens and hath complacency in the highest Degree and shall have for ever the highest Reward 5. Love to Christ is the longest Love that shall never end Sirs ere long you will have done loving this World even ye that love it most and have your hearts most set upon it Ye that now have your hearts full of Earth when ye shall have your mouths full too and your Corps lye rotting in the Earth you shall have done loving of it Death that ends your life in the World shall end your love to the World which Grace never did Ye shall also have done ere long loving your Relations ye shall have done loving Father and Mother Brother and Sister and Husband and Wife and Children as now in that relation but the gracious Soul the Lover of Christ shall never have done loving of Christ It is sweet to have it but this doth make it more sweet to think he shall always have it Have it in Life have it at Death and have it after Death O blessed Love that shall never be lost but ever last While I was Musing upon this it came into my mind to consider what those that never love Christ in this World can love in the next and I could not imagine any thing that Damned Souls in Hell can Love If it be that I understand not nor am acquainted with the acting of their Souls nor State God grant I never may as they do I thought can they love God Christ the holy Spirit Angels Saints Their hatred to all these is and shall be more deeply radicated that is Rooted in them than ever upon Earth Can they love the place of Hell They wish they never had come thither Can they love the pains of Hell They grieve and groan under them and are weary to bear them Can they love the Devils in Hell They curse them for tempting them to Sin that brought them to that place Can they love their Companions in Hell They are an aggravation of one anothers misery Can they love their Sin in Hell Alas all that was pleasurable in it is gone and the pain and sting only doth remain Can they love their Beings in Hell They had rather dye than live and cease to be at all than to continue to be there I know not what it is that they can love O loathsome place where there is and can be no love O lovely Heaven where Love doth Reign where Love doth Live and the Life of them therein shall be for ever a Life of Love And in this World where Love is wanting so far it looks like Hell Where Love and that which is the best which is that which is to Christ doth prevail so far it looks like Heaven Dear Lord save me from Hell because there there is no love to thee nor to any thing that is good Sweet Saviour lead me in thy way to Heaven and bring me thither where Love to thee shall live and last for ever IV. Is it not great folly to love other things and not Christ For love ye will There is such an affection as Love in all your Hearts and something it will be set upon in this World what e're it be with Damned Souls in the next Now if Christ have it not the World will If Christ hath it not Sin will And do ye act as Rational Creatures as Men endued with Reason to deny your Love to Christ and give it to the World and Sin Set one over against the other and then tell me 1. Is it not great folly to love that which is worse than your selves and not that which is infinitely better Do ye think your Silver and your Gold is better than your selves as much as ye love it That your Houses and your Lands as bad as ye are are better than your selves But ye are not yet so good nor yet so bad but I hope ye will say and ackdowledge that Christ is better 2. Is it not great folly to love that which cannot love you again and not him that would Ye love your Gold but that cannot love you again The Cloaths upon your back the Furniture in your Houses ye love but these can make no returns of Love Ye give your love to them but ye receive no love from them Are ye not vexed when ye love a Man that doth not love you again nor return love for love And why are ye so well pleased and are so well contented in placing the very
Instant Now there is hope and yet thou wilt not give me thy Love and Heart then there will be no hope and that might even break thy Heart Besides 3. Will it not be universal pain All over no part free Here if thou art pained in thy Head thy Heart may not be sick if pained in more yet not in all but then thou wilt be all over Tormented Thy Vnderstanding will torment thee when thou shalt know the God the Heaven the Happiness thou hast lost and all for want of Love to me and the misery thou hast found Thy Memory will increase the vexation of thy Heart in calling to mind thine opportunities upon Earth how Mercy did intreat thee how Grace did Wooe thee how I called my Spirit strived and Patience long waited for thy Love and yet I could not obtain it of thee Thy Conscience will sting and gnaw thee saying Did not I tell thee this would be the end of thy Refusals Did not I forewarn thee Did not I say it would be thy wisest only way to hearken unto Christ and to set thy Love upon him But thou wouldst not didst not hearken to my voice nor to the voice of Christ intreating of thee for thy Love And at the Resurrection thy Body will be sharer of punishment with thy Soul and all thy Senses be tormented with afflicting Obects Thine Ears in hearing doleful Lamentations â—hine Eyes in seeing a cursed Crew of Damnâ—d Creatures thy Smell afflicted with the stench of burning Brimstone thy Taste in continual drinking of the Cup of Wrath full of Dregs without mixture of Mercy thy Touch in feeling the Fire burning but never consuming of thee It was a Wonder unto Moses that the Bush did burn and not consume on Earth and these brambles shall burn in Hell and not consume which will be a greater Wonder Now tell me poor Sinner saith Christ what is thine Answer Hadst thou rather endure all this than love me Hadst thou rather love the World and thy present Pleasures and hereafter lye in these extream eternal and universal pains than love me and be delivered from them One of these must be be wise therefore in thy choice As Christ takes this course to gain thy Love so do thou join in with Christ by serious consideration for thine own Conviction that thou maist give thy love to him Urge thy self and work it on thy Heart that thou art under the Curse and Threatnings of God which are true terrible intolerable and eternal thou art the Man that art threatned by God with the forest Punishments Plagues Judgments in this Life and in the Life to come thou art the Man that Law and Gospel will condemn if thou finally deny thy love to Christ Think seriously with thy self that thou art under the Wrath of God which is great Wrath Jer. 21.5 Whole Treasures of it Rom. 2.5 Abiding Wrath. Joh. 3.36 Tearing and destroying Wrath. Amos 1.11 Psal 50.22 Ezek. 43.8 Intolerable Nah. 1.6 Most of it to come Mat. 3.7 And Eternal Rev. 14.10 11. Endeavour to get thine Heart affected that while thou lovest not Christ thou hast no Title to Heaven no Actual Hope no Promise no Pledge nor Earnest no Plea no Interest no Warrant to expect Salvation that Hell is thy due Torments thy desert Hell is appointed for thy Lodging Dwelling place The Place is prepared the Fire is kindled Devils are waiting and all Hell is moved to meet thee at thy coming Oh think what manner of Hell it is that thou art every moment in danger of it is hot long large dark deep a restless and remediless Hell When thou hast got a sight and sense of thy Sin and that thou art lost in thy self then II. Consider there is no help for thee in any meer Creature among all the Creation of God none such can prevent thy Damnation set thee in Gods favour bring thee to his Kingdom If thou lookest upwards Angels cannot or downwards Devils neither can nor will Look round about thee all Creatures say There is no help in us for Wrath must be pacified and that cannot be till Justice is satisfied and how shall any meer finite Creature satisfie Infinite-offended-Justice Tears Prayers Reformation cannot satisfie God so that as all other Creatures cannot give relief unto thee so thou thy self canst not help thy self Then III. By serious thoughts dwell upon thy own Mortality and on the consideration of Judgment Heaven and Hell Ponder upon the certainty and the nearness of approaching Death thou mightest dye this Year before the next this Week this Day this Hour before the next and say Oh what will become of me then Where shall I be then What shall I do Nay What shall I suffer then Am I under the Curse and Death at my back Is God angry with me and Death at my heels Have I no Title to Heaven no Reason to hope for it and yet do not know how soon Death might come Am I in danger of Hell and might drop into it any day in the Week any hour in the Day Oh woful case that I am in Wrath is over my head and Hell is under my feet Wrath is ready to fall upon me and I am in danger of falling into Hell I never thought my Heart for want of love had been so bad my danger so great my Soul so black my Self so near to Hell Torments Woe is me that all my Life I have loved loathsom Sin A very Monster Even Sin which is a provocation to the Majesty of God a contradiction to the Will of God an opposition to the Nature of God a rejection of the Son of God a vexation to the Spirit of God and Damnation to my own Soul surely this Love was blind Oh! Will God bear such slightings of his Son Such abusings of his Grace Such contemning of his Mercy Woe is me Can I live without Life And be saved without a Saviour Oh what shall I do And where must I have help By whom may I be relieved restored saved Oh in this distress that I am in if I could but hear of one that could and would relieve and save me of one that could take off the Curse and make me Blessed that could turn away Gods wrath and reconcile me unto him that would save me from Hell and bring me to Heaven then What then distressed Soul Oh then him would I love Love Yea with all my Heart with all my Soul as surely I should have cause to do Love him Did I know such a one his very Name would be precious unto my Soul it should be Engraven on my Heart and I should think I could never love such a one enough Saist thou so Sinner I will tell thee there is one and but one that can and that is full and fit and free to help thee and to save and succour thee in this distress that thou art in Oh good Sir what is his Name that I might apply my self unto him and place
a thing or person and yet love him To have mean low and undervaluing thoughts of one and yet love him more than another whom you do more highly esteem and value Doth not the Worldling that loves his Money more than other things value it above other things Doth not the Ambitious person that loves his Honour and his Credit more than other things stand upon it and esteem it more than other things And will it not be so with him that loveth Christ Or is not he a Cursed man that valueth any thing above Christ and esteems it more than Christ As Christ is precious to him that doth Believe 1 Pet. 2.7 so he is to him that Loves Pearls are valued but as Pebbles and Diamonds as Dirt and Diadems as Dung by a man that loveth Christ when they stand in competition for our Love with Christ In the practical judgment of a sincere Lover of Christ Christ cannot be valued with the Gold of Ophir with the precious Onyx or the Saphire the Gold and the Chrystal cannot equal him and he would not exchange him for Jewels of fine Gold With him no mention shall be made of Coral or of Pearl for the Worth of Christ is above Rubies The Topaz of Ethiopia doth not equal him neither shall the purest Gold or the most refined Silver be weighed in the balance of his judgment to be preferred before Christ For to him he is more precious than Rubies And all the things the heart of man can desire besides him are not to be compared with him For Christ is that Treasure hid in a field which when this Lover hath found for joy thereof he goeth and selleth all that he hath and buyeth that field He is that goodly Pearl of great Price which when found all shall be left or lost and parted with that this might be obtained Mat. 13.44 45 46. And what a man gives all for he values that more than all he giveth for it Can that man be judged to love Christ that values his corruptible Silver above the incomparable Saviour That esteemeth Earth above Heaven And the Creature more than God Or is not he deservedly to be reckoned an Anathema that shall esteem the Dross of this World above the Darling of God Or thick Clay above him that doth excel the clearest Chrystal Or the things of Time which are only for Time above that Christ that is a Good for all Eternity SECT VII The Sixth Requisite of Love to Christ SIxthly This Love to Christ takes in the Permanent Volition of the Will the setled Inclination of the heart towards the Lord Jesus Christ For what else is Love but the Volition of the rational Appetite Or the Will 's Volition of Good apprehended by the Understanding Or the Will 's chusing of him and adhering to him Aversation of the Will from Christ is no better than hating of him For as Volition and Complacency is Love so Nolition and Displicency is hatred Can a man Love Christ and yet not Will him Can he love him and yet not chuse him Can he love him and the Will refuse him Was Nilling ever accounted loving or turning of the Heart from an Object ever taken for the closing with it or is it not a contradiction will not and love not is all one John 5.40 Ye will not come to me 42. I know you that ye have not the love of God in you What is the Object of the love of the Heart is the Object of the choice of the Will and such as is the choice of your Wills such are ye If thy Will chuse the World before Christ I dare boldly call thee a worldly man or Pleasures before Christ I dare confidently declare thee a voluptuous man but if Christ before all other things I may term thee a truly gracious man Suppose then the World and the Riches thereof the Honours and the Pleasures of it were set on the one hand and Christ on the other which would you really chuse It is an easie thing to think and say you would chuse Christ and not the world but my question is Which you would really chuse Canst thou say and appeal to God that knows thy heart Lord thou that knowest all things thou knowest that I chuse Christ before Riches Christ before Pleasures Liberty Life or any thing that is dear unto me in this world Thou knowest that I would rather have Christ without the World than the World without Christ I would rather have the Lord Jesus with Disgrace with Poverty and with the Cross than all the Treasures of the world This must be a man's Will and this must be a man's Choice or cannot be said to have sincere Love to Jesus Christ SECT VIII The Seventh Requisite in Love to Christ or the Sincerity of it SEventhly This Love consists in the prevailing and predominant degrees of Affections unto Christ For if he be not loved above all he is not sincerely loved at all There might be love of other things subordinate with the Love of Christ but not co-ordinate or equal with it much less superior to it You might love your Friends and love your Enjoyments and love the Comforts of your life but you must love Christ more The love of these must be swallowed up in the love of Christ and be subordinate unto it But you may say This is that offensive Doctrine that 〈◊〉 the difference betwixt common and special Grace to be only gradual and not specifical and God forbid that we should think that God will damn a man for want of further degrees of Grace when he hath it in truth and kind and the degrees do not vary the kind 1. The degrees do not vary nor alter the kind in things natural but they may and do in things moral For Example The degrees of Reason acuteness of Wit solidity of Judgment that one man might have more than another man doth not make him more a man as to his Species or kind than another man that is in those respects inferior to him for both quoad Speciem as to Kind are men have the Human Nature and the specifical difference whereby they are distinguished from things of any other kind but yet degrees might make a specifical difference in morals where the act as natural is still of the same kind For instance In eating and drinking little or much the natural act of both is still the same but in morality if a man eat and drink for quantity and quality according to the rules and guidance of Prudence and no more this is a virtue called Temperance but if in degrees he doth exceed and eateth more and drinketh more than that Mediocrity quoad nos prescribed by Prudence in which the nature of this Virtue doth consist doth admit of then though eating and drinking considered Physically be of the same kind yet in a moral respect it alters the kind and is called quite by another name viz. Intemperance Gluttony and Drunkenness 2. The
above all thankfully accept him for my Lord and Saviour is plainly required from me and upon the sincere performance of these conditions and persevering therein unto the end of my life for Christ's sake beloved and believed on I may comfortably well-groundedly hope wait for and expect through the Riches and Freeness of his Grace Everlasting Happiness In like manner I judge it a perplexing question Whether we should love Christ for himself or for the Benefits by him Lord help me to love Christ for himself and for all the good I have and hope for by him but the one subordinately the other ultimately for such love I read there was in David Psal 116.1 I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice and my supplications SECT X. The Ninth Requisite in Love to Christ NInthly Sincere Love to Jesus Christ doth respect him and is placed upon him as he is Prophet Priest and King In which respect the love of Hypocrites and carnal Gospellers doth fail and come short Most will profess love to Christ as he is Jesus a Saviour to deliver them from the Guilt of Sin and Punishment of Hell and the Wrath that is to come but will not love him nor have him as a Teacher and a Ruler As if a woman should love her husband as he makes provision for her and doth protect her from wrongs and injuries but as he is her Head to guide to rule and govern her so she cannot endure him Would you not in such a case cry out against such love and say this is but partial and pretended love And do not you see you deal as deceitfully and hypocritically with Christ when in one respect you say you like and love him but indeed in other respects you do dislike and hate him And do you think that Christ will save you from Hell if he do not save you from your sins That he will make you happy if you be never holy Or do you hope that he will bring you to Heaven without your being made meet and fit for Heaven Doth not your own Reason and Conscience if you consult them condemn such hopes of happiness that is built upon such partial Love Must Sin be loved as a Lord and Christ loved as a Saviour Do you think if Sin be your Lord Christ will be your Saviour What is the meaning then that the Object of such love that you must have if you would not be Anathema in the Text is set down the Lord Jesus Christ What meaneth then that slaughter at the last day among them that never would submit to Christ as Lord and Ruler nor love him in that relation Whom Christ looks upon not as Lovers of him but as Enemies to him and will deal with them not as Lovers but as Enemies Luk. 19.27 But those mine enemies which would not that I should reign over them bring hither and slay them before me What is the meaning then that Lord and Saviour so often in Scripture with a Conjunction Copulative are put together if as the Object of your Love they are to be parted asunder Rom. 8.39 and 7.25 1 Cor. 1.2 1 Cor. 15.57 2 Cor. 1.2 Gal. 1.3 Eph. 1.2 3. Phil. 1.2 Col. 1.2 1 Thes 1.1 and 2.1 2. 1 Tim. 1.2 and 2.1 2. Tit. 1.4 Jam. 1.1 1 Pet. 1.3 and 2 Pet. 1.1 2. In these Texts and many more Lord and Saviour Lord and Jesus Lord Jesus Christ are set together and in all these respects propounded to us to be loved and received by us if we would have Grace Mercy and Peace from God and Salvation by him And as he is offered so he must be loved and accepted or you must go without him and his benefits for ever SECT XI The Tenth Requisite to Love to Christ or the Worker of it TEnthly This Love to Christ is wrought by the Powerful Operation of the Spirit of God upon the heart For tho there is Affection of Love naturally in all men yet there is not the Grace of Love naturally in any man There is love to sin and to the world and there might be love of man to man and some common love in man to God by some common workings of the Spirit but there can be no special Saving Love to Jesus Christ but by the special Operations of the Holy Ghost It is a Flower that doth not grow in Natures Garden but is planted by the Spirit of God Therefore spiritual holy Love is said to be a fruit of the Spirit Gal. 5.22 And if any such surely is sincere and saving Love to Christ SECT XII The Eleventh Thing required in it ELeventhly This Love includes a Resignation of a man's self to Christ without reservation of any thing he is or hath unto himself A Lover of Christ doth so devote dedicate and give up himself unfeignedly to Christ as to his rightful Owner and bountiful Benefactor that he looks upon himself to be Christ's more than his own to live to Christ and not to himself and to seek Christ in all and not himself As in Conjugal Love there is a mutual giving each to other the one I give my self to thee the other and I give my self to thee so in this holy Spiritual Love between Christ and the Soul Christ gives himself unto the Soul and says I am thine my Righteousness is thine my Merits are thine and all my Benefits shall be thine So the Soul in love with Christ saith Lord I give my self to thee my Understanding shall be thine my Will my Heart my Estate my All shall be thine at thy Command at thy Disposal for me to have to use to leave or lose as thou shalt please Cant. 2.16 My beloved is mine and I am his Hos 2.23 I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy and I will say to them which were not my people Thou art my people and they shall say Thou art my God SECT XIII The Workings of this Love as it is Delighting Desiring or Mourning Love TWelfthly When all this is done the Soul doth Delight in Christ if present Desireth after him if absent or mourneth for him if it cannot find him One of these Three ways Love will discover it self There are Three sorts of Love First Delighting Love If a man finds Christ's gracious quickning Presence in his Soul discovering and manifesting himself and Love unto him he rejoiceth in it more than in all Riches and saith My Life is a Pleasure my Heart is filled with Comfor my Soul with Heavenly Delights Psal 4.6 There be many that say Who will shew us any good Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us 7. Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased Cant. 2.3 As the apple-trees among the trees of the wood so is my beloved among the sons I sate down under his shadow with great delight and his fruit was sweet unto my taste 4. He brought me
into the banquetting-house and his banner over me was love John 20.16 Jesus saith unto her Mary she turned her self and saith unto him Rabboni which is to say Master 18. Mary Magdalen came and told the disciples That she had seen the Lord and that he had spoken these things unto her 20. And when he had so said Peace be unto you he shewed unto them his hands and his side Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. Secondly Desiring Love If Christ be withdrawn the Soul doth long doth pant doth thirst and cannot rest till Christ returns O whither is my Beloved gone where shall I seek him when shall I find him how long how long will it be Oh stay me with flagons comfort me with apples for I am sick of love Cant. 2.5 And Psal 42.1 As the heart panteth after the water-brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God 2. My soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before God Psal 63.1 O God thou art my God early will I seek thee my soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee Psal 84.2 My soul longeth yea even fainteth for the courts of the Lord my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first word is the Radex or primitive word from whence cometh a word that signifieth Silver Whence I note that as a man that loveth Silver desireth Silver so a man that loveth Christ desireth Christ Oh blessed Love whereby a man loveth Christ and desireth Christ with that earnest ardent continual love as a Lover of the World loveth and desireth the Silver and Gold and the Riches of the World the other word translated sainteth signifieth to be consumed anxiously to expect q. d. My soul desireth yea also desireth is consumed with desires after God Thirdly Mourning Love The Soul doth grieve and is filled with sorrow when it hath not the thing that it doth desire Alas that I should go from Duty to Duty to look for Christ and cannot find him to seek him but cannot see him Alas it grieves it groans and weeps for the absence of its beloved Lord. In company you might see his tears in secret were you near him you might hear his groans and bitter sorrowful complaints My Lord â—s gone my Love the dearly beloved of my Soul carrieth himself as a stranger to me Like Mary John 20.13 They said unto her Woman why weepest thou she saith unto them Because they have taken away my Lord and I know not where they have laid him The sum of all these Particulars opening the nature of this Love being contracted and laid together make up this Description SECT XIV The Description of Love to Christ LOVE to Christ is a special Grace wrought in the heart by the Spirit of God inlightning the mind whereby the Soul discenring the incomparable goodness suitableness and communicability of Christ unto him and in his judgment having a superlative valuation of him the Will doth chuse him before all primarily for himself and secondarily for his Benefits and giving to him the predominant degrees of his Affections resigneth himself to Christ in all his Offices delighting in him if present desiring after him if absent or mourning for him if he cannot find him This is the Love you must have to Christ if you would not be Anathema accursed when the Lord shall come CHAP. III. Ten Arguments that prove the Necessity of this Love to Christ for the avoiding of the Curse DOTH it need any further proof than the Text it self what other construction can you make of it If you believe that this is the Word of God and that God's Word is true how can you question whether a Non-Lover of Christ shall be a cursed Wretch at the coming of the Lord but you love not Christ and yet you hope to be blessed when he comes you have no sincere love to him and yet perswade your selves your Condition is good for the present and shall escape the Curse hereafter What! against the plain Assertions of the Word of God Will not you only bear me down that you shall be blessed but will you also bear down Paul nay and God himself too that it is well with you now and shall go well with you at the coming of the Lord and after that for ever Miserable men that have no other hopes that they shall escape the Curse but that God should not be true and his Word should not be true and all his Servants that come and preach to them in his Name and warn them of this Curse do not deliver the very truth unto them But whether you will hear or whether you will forbear I will proceed to evidence this truth to you by these following Arguments Arg. 1. He that loves not Christ is not in Christ he that is not in Christ is in his sins he that is in his sins is accursed therefore he that loves not Christ is accursed And being found so when he comes shall be cursed at his coming He that hath no sincere love to Christ hath still his old Heart and his old Love remaining in him and he that hath his old Heart is not in Christ 2 Cor. 5.17 If any man be in Christ he is a new creature old things are past away behold all things are become new Can you be in Christ and not the love of Christ be in you Can you be in Christ and your heart turn away from Christ Can you be in Christ while your heart is set against Christ and is not your heart against him while you have no love for him can there be any Union where there is no liking Affection doth not hatred keep at the greatest distance and maintain the widest separation If you be not in Christ can you bring forth any Fruit pleasing unto God Joh. 15.4 As the branch cannot bear fruit of it self except it abide in the vine no more can ye except ye abide in me And if you bring forth no fruit shall you not be cast into the fire Joh. 15.6 If a man abide not in me he is cast forth as a branch and is withered and men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burnt And are you such as shall be cast into the fire and flames of Hell and are you not in a cursed dangerous and miserable Condition Can a bad Tree bring forth good Fruit and if it do not is it not for the fire Mat. 3.10 And now also the ax is laid to the root of the trees therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewen down and cast into the fire Hath not the rain of heavenly Doctrine dropped upon you and yet do you bring forth any thing but Briars and Thorns when you have no love to Christ and are you not then rejected and your end to be burned and is then the Curse far from you Heb. 6.7 The earth which drinketh
love his filthy unclean doings still Let him remain under hardness of heart to his dying day What should I do with him my Ministers have begged on him to give me his Love and he will not my Spirit hath strived with him but he will not What will he not not love me No then let him love what he will This is a great Curse upon the Soul of a Sinner while Christ defers his coming Rev. 22.11 He that is unjust let him be unjust still and he which is filthy let him be filthy still Some have had great Parts and with them they have not loved Christ and their Parts have withered away Christ hath cursed them Some have performed many Duties and were forward Professors but all this while they prayed and heard and received they loved not Christ and Christ hath cursed them and they are turned prophane Some are given to Swearing and Whoring and Drinking and it is not only their Sin but the Curse of God upon their Souls that he hath given them over because they have refused to love his Son Psal 81.11 My people would not hearken to my voice and Israel would none of me 12. So I gave them up unto their own hearts lust and they walked in their own counsels Hos 4.17 Ephraim is joined to idols let him alone My Spirit let him alone my Ministers let him alone my Ordinances let him alone Conscience let him alone let all let him alone he is stubborn wilful and perverse his heart is joined to his Profits and to his Pleasures Let him alone let him take his course and walk in the foolish imagination of his owne vil heart An heavy Curse in this life But when Maran-atha the Lord comes these Curses on the Soul shall be setled fixed never removed This was the man that never loved me now let him never repent except it be with a vain empty self-tormenting Repentance Now let him be without Holiness for ever and without Love to me for ever 3. To be Anathema when Maran-atha shall be to be cursed with a bitter Curse without any ingredient of the least Blessing to allay or mitigate the bitterness of it Then shall he have sorrow without joy mourning without mirth darkness without light pain without ease misery without mercy all evil without the least good and all this without end and therefore without hope this Cup of Cursing because it shall be so pure without mixture shall be so exceeding so inconceivably bitter Rev. 14.10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of his holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11. And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever and they have no rest day nor night A bitter Cup a bitter Curse more bitter than the water of Jealousie that caused the Curse which a woman drank that had given her love to another man and had trespassed against her husband the Water was bitter Water and the Curse a bitter Curse for it made her belly to swell and her thigh to rot and she was a curse among the people Numb 5.27 This bitter Curse at the coming of Christ shall come into thy bowels like water and like oil into thy bones it shall be unto thee as the garment which covereth thee and for a girdle wherewith thou shalt be girded continually Psal 109.18 19. It shall imbitter thy thoughts thy soul thy very being and make thee cry out Oh this is a bitter place this is a bitter state a bitter condition exceeding bitter My loving of the World and Sin was not so sweet as this is bitter That seemed to me once as sweet as Honey but this is more bitter than Gall. But here is my Wo which makes it still more bitter the sweet is gone and the bitter remains the sweet will never return and the bitter will never be gone I did put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter but now I cannot The bitter is so bitter that I cannot put it for sweet nor imagine it to be so Oh I never thought the sweet delight I took in what I loved would have brought upon me this bitter Curse or me to these bitter Torments 4. To be Anathema when Maran-atha will be to be accursed publickly and openly before all the world to be accursed before blessed Angels and cursed Devils to be accursed before the blessed Saints and other cursed men Thou didst openly declare thy love of Pleasures thou didst openly follow such courses that all might see are inconsistent with sincere love to Christ and thou shalt be openly accursed Or though thou didst openly pray and publickly hear and profess the ways of Christ but didst secretly in thy heart love something else more than Christ yet for thy secret hypocrisie thou shalt be publickly accursed Before the greatest Congregation that ever eyes beheld before a greater number than ever yet at once were gathered together even before Millions of Angels before all that shall be found alive at Christ's coming and all that have been dead that shall then be made alive even all People of all Nations and before them shalt thou stand and be declared a cursed wretch because thou didst never love the Blessed Son of God What shame shall then confound thee and what confusion shall then cover thy face when thou that thoughtest thy self a blessed man and others thought thee to be blessed that thou and they were quite mistaken When Christ before them all shall pronounce a sentence upon thee whereby thou art published to be accursed and commanded with all the Plagues and Curses of God upon thy soul and body to depart into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels Mat. 25.41 5. To be Anathema when Maran-atha is to be cursed Positively sentenced down to positive pains to real politive torments so great so grievous so many so extreme continual and universal that shall wring out a confession from thee Now I am accursed indeed To lye in these flames that cannot be quenched to burn in this fire in which I cannot be consumed is such a Curse so intolerable that will make thee curse the day in which thou wast born and curse the time thou ever livedst in this world because not better improved to escape that Curse thou liest under in that world When thou shalt cry out and roar Wo is me poor miserable wretch I am tormented in this place and cannot have one drop of water to refresh and cool my parched tongue Wo is me poor cursed Caitiff I am in pain in pain in extremity of pain and here is no ease alas here is no ease I toss and tumble in this bed of flames and cannot rest If I wander from one side of Hell unto another I cannot find one corner where I might have a little rest O cursed creature
under our feet which was predominant in our hearts and how hard a task is this there must be calling off the love of the heart from Sin which was as our right Eye or right Hand unto us and how difficult a work is this there must be a loving above all what we hated more than all and an hating above all what we loved most of all and thus to turn the stream of a man's Affections is exceeding difficult There must be striving to an Agony Luk. 13.24 25. there must be wrestling with Devils Eph. 6.12 with God himself so as not to let him go except he bless us Gen 32.24 26. there must be fighting and watching and maintaining our spiritual Warfare 2 Tim. 4.7 there must be running as for life 1 Cor. 9.24 all this to get the Blessing when the Lord shall come all hard and laborious But it is the easiest thing in the world to come under the Curse and Wrath of God Nay it is hard not to have it come upon us What mean then the most of men to take so much pains to bring the Curse of God upon them what need you be at so much labour to undo your selves what needs such swearing sweating in a way of Sin as if you were striving to get to Hell as if you thought you could not go thither fast enough nor get thither soon enough what need you rail at the People of Christ and revile the ways of Christ and rent and tear his holy Name in your prophane polluted Mouths Hell might be had with lesser pains and if cursed you WILL be cursed you MAY be without wearying of your selves in committing of Iniquity Sit still and you will run to Hell do nothing and you will soon be there It is but letting Faith and Repentance and Christ alone it is but forbearing what you ought to do and the Curse will fall upon your Soul and stick fast to you for ever It is easie to do what you should not to love the World more than Christ It is easier not to do what you should not to love Christ and for the easier of these you may be as sure of Hell as if you were there already therefore hold your Hands and Tongue and Feet from sinning so fast from making such speed and haste from committing sin manibus pedibusque with all our might and power for if not loving of Christ not believing on him not repenting for sin will and doth expose you to the Wrath and Curse of God Good Lord how easie a thing is it to be overtaken with it VII Must such as want love to Christ be thus accursed Then what great care and Conscience should Ministers have to preach the Lord Jesus Christ unto the People with that plainness and power that Christ might have their love and they might have the blessings of Christ Cursed must the People be that do not love Jesus Christ then cursed must the Preacher be that preacheth himself and not Christ and studieth to set out his own Gifts and Parts that men might admire him for an Eloquent Orator for his lofty Style for his fruitful pregnant Fancy and as the Phrase now prevails for his fine English or for a profound Philosopher or a great polemical Divine while by his starched Sentences seraphical Notions and needless Pulpit Disputations and manner of Expressions he soars aloft above the Peoples Capacities and casts a vail upon their Eyes as if he studied in preaching of Christ to hide Christ from their Vnderstandings while he preacheth to instruct them in the knowledge of Christ he clouds the Doctrine of Christ and makes the plain necessary Truths to be obscure that after his polite Discourse poor ignorant Souls remain as ignorant as before as if he stood amongst a thousand People that must be damned and cursed with everlasting Curses if they love not Christ to flourish his Parts to get the name of a great Scholar in making easie things hard and hard more hard when the true use of Learning and great Learning it is to make hard things easie and to bring things sublime and lofty down to the capacity of the meanest in the Congregation that hath a Soul that must be damned or saved Alas it would make a serious man to tremble when he thinks all these People stand upon the brink of Eternity and if Death jog them they fall and enter into it and when he heareth the Preacher speak with lofty Rhetorical Strains great swelling Words as if he were making an Oration in the Schools not considering the Ignorance the weak Capacity of hundreds of his Auditors Can he think that Servants that have precious Souls and many ignorant and unlearned Trades-men that are taken up with the matters of the World all the Week can be profited on the Lord's Day with such a Style or manner of expressing the great things of God that though it be their Mother-tongue transcends their Apprehension almost as much as if he spake in an unknown Language and so indeed is no better than an English Barbarian to the People What cursed Pride is this to seek Applause from men when he should be gaining Sinners to Christ to seek to have their perishing breath when he should seek to save their Immortal Souls What cursed doing is this to stand in Christ's stead and commend himself instead of commending Christ What though Christ be the Subject of his Discourse when his Discourse upon that Subject is so managed that it glides from Christ unto himself both as the Subject and the End In hatred to such doings I was about to say What cursed Preaching is this wherein dying Self is sought to be advanced in the esteem of dying People when Blessed Jesus should be so set forth that he might be magnified in the hearts of all be loved by all be received by all and immortal Souls so loving and receiving of him might be for ever saved and blessed by him And what is the end of all that he might be reverenced for his Parts extolled for his profound adorned Language and have the common Vogue of a man of more than ordinary Wisdom A Wise man and through his wisdom ignorant Souls do perish a Wise man and by his preaching with the enticing words of man's Wisdom even by the preaching of the only Saviour in the words which man's Wisdom teacheth and not the Holy Ghost the Devil goes away with and makes a prey of the Hearers Souls who in hearing do not hear neither do they understand not because the Hearers are such Fools but because the Preacher is so wise Let him pass for a Wiseman in his own Conceit let him be esteemed a Wiseman by them that do admire him because they do not understand him nor the worth of Souls nor the weighty work and end of Preaching but with me he shall never pass for a wise Preacher who had rather be a Fool for Christ than wise for my self for in such a place
Christ and few blessed by Christ Most are void of love unto him and most shall be accursed at his coming Is it an hard saying If hard yet true Is it a hard saying But it will be harder feeling when the Curse shall fully be inflicted XI Shall every one that loves not Christ be Anathema when Maran-atha accursed when the Lord shall come then the day of Christ's coming will be a doleful day to the Non-Lovers of Christ Then all the World shall be divided into cursed ones and blessed ones You love not Christ and yet bless your self but I pray you consider Maran-atha the Lord comes You glory in your Estate though Christ hath not your Heart but I beg of you that you would remember Maran-atha You put the Curse and the Evil day far from you but I beseech you let Maran-atha sound in your ears Then Oh then you shall curse the day that ever you were born you shall curse the time that you lived under the Gospel and heard of Christ but did not love him You shall curse your self for your wickedness madness and folly that so lovely a Christ was set before you and you had not an heart to set your love upon him and say Oh cursed heart that would love the World and not love yonder glorious Christ Oh cursed Will that didst chuse the Vanities of the World before the Son of God! Oh cursed was that love which I gave unto the Creature and did deny to Christ How can I hold up my head now to behold that Christ whom I never had an heart to love How can I hear that Voice and yet it is so great so thundring and so loud that I cannot but hear it commanding me to depart like a cursed Wretch when I never did and never would hearken to his Voice calling to me to love him and to give my Heart and Affections to him Wo is me now Maran-atha and now I am Anathema Wo is me the Lord is come and with him wrath is come and banishment from Heaven is come Wo wo wo is me the Lord is come and I feel fear and trembling is come ten thousand woes to me for the Lord is come and now compleat damnation comes the Lord is come and I must go I poor Wretch must go go Whither must I go to a cursed place to whom Alas to cursed Company But how wo is me like a cursed Wretch Cursed most bitterly cursed finally totally Body and Soul and all eternally for I had no Love for Christ and now Christ hath no Blessing for me When it is said throughout the World Maranatha then the World will ring with this Cry every one that loves not Christ is now Anathema CHAP. VIII Twenty Aggravations of want of Love to Christ THE Second Use doth bring a Charge and an Accusation against you for not loving the Lord Jesus Christ Some openly declare by their actions and manner of conversation That they do not love him Some openly pretend Love to Christ but really have no love unto him Ezek. 33.31 And they come unto thee as the people cometh and they sit before thee as my people and they hear thy words but they will not do them for with their mouth they shew much love but their heart goeth after their covetousness Love to Christ is in their mouth but love to the world is in their heart Some say they love him but God knows they do not John 5.42 But I know you that ye have not the love of God in you No! Do you know how great a sin this is Why then do you make so light of it Why then are you no more ashamed that you want this love Would you not be ashamed if this report went of you That you did not love your Wife your Children or your Neighbour And is it not an incomparably greater sin and shame that you do not love the Lord Jesus The only Son of God the only Saviour of lost sinners How is it that you do so seldom or never bewail the want of love to Christ in your Prayers or scarce put it in amongst the Confession of your Sins What do you love your Gold and not your God Or do you make your Gold your God and then love your Gold instead of loving the true God Can you love your Silver and not the precious Saviour Are you bound to love your very Enemies and yet have no love to him that would be your surest greatest and most faithful friend What shall I say Good Lord I am ashamed and blush to say which yet is true of too many of the sons of men that they both can and do love their very beasts their dog their horse and all their cattel and yet will not be prevailed with to love thy Son thy only Son and by thee beloved Son Nay what shall I say That you do love your very lusts and filthy sins that will destroy and damn you for ever and yet not love that only Lord and Jesus that would save you from your sins and from Hell for ever What can I say but that you love not Christ because you love your sin so much Oh horrid shame Love Deformity and not Beauty Where are your eyes Surely your love to sin is blind O monstrous Lover Love that which is worst of all and not him that is best of all Where is your reason Have you lost the understanding of a man Hath sin bereaved you of your wits Then oh Madness and Folly Are you so fond of sin as to be damn'd for it Are you so foolishly fond of this world as for the love of it to be hated of God and banished out of his Glorious Presence for ever Is your Soul so clogg'd with flesh and sunk so deep into it that it can rise no higher in its love than sensual earthly and fleshly delights and pleasures Will this love be so sweet in the review as you think it is in the present taste thereof Is this so vile a thing so base and sordid love that sets you below the rank of men not to be reproved For this are you not justly blamed Blamed yea and justly reckoned an Anathema that hath such an incomparable Object as Christ propounded to him and yet will nor love him Whose Excellencies are set forth and yet he seeth no Beauty in him That when there is nothing in the world so suitable to a sinner as Christ and yet will you be so perverse as to imagine and your heart maintain that Riches are more suitable and Pleasures are more suitable and Christ and the things of Christ the only inconvenient things for you If you do not think so why do you do so as you do in denying him your love Are you not to be blamed that when yet you might have Christ are not past a capacity a possibility of having Christ and all his benefits and good by him that you do not turn your love unto him Are you not to be
Love tried whether sincere or counterfeit MUST a man that loves not Christ sincerely be Anathema when Maranatha Must he love or be cursed if he do not Then as Christ did put the Question unto Peter Joh. 21.15 Simon Son of Jonas lovest thou me And 16. the second time and 17. the third time Simon Son of Jonas lovest thou me So do thou put this Question to thy self O my Soul lovest thou the Lord Jesus And when thy heart may forwardly return an answer ask it the second time O my Soul art thou not mistaken Dost thou indeed love the Lord Jesus And because the matter is of everlasting moment put the Question a third time and so often till to this Question O my Soul Dost thou sincerely love the Lord Jesus Thou hast such proof out of the Scripture as will hold trial when this shall be in question at the great day of Judgment But alas What great grounds of jealousie are there that the love of many is but supposed love to Christ that think they do that hope they do but indeed do not For whose conviction I shall desire them to give in a serious answer to the following Queslions as trials of the sincerity of their love I. Dost thou love Christ sincerely and live in wilful disobedience to the known commands of Christ Dost thou know his will and willingly every day act contrary to it and yet pretend to love him Dost thou slight his commands and love his person Doth Christ command thee to be the death of thy sins and thou suffer them to live and rule and yet love him Doth Christ command thee to pray continually and thou dost neglect it continually and yet have the face to say thou lovest Christ Doth Christ command thee not to swear profanely at all nor to take Gods name in vain and dost thou do this often in a day and yet defie that man that calls in question thy love to Christ But whatever be thy confidence I do declare to thy face it is a great and Soul-damning mistake for as Love and Obedience are conjoined in the Scripture so they are never parted in the true and sincere Lover Weigh these Scriptures and thou wilt find thy Love pretended to without obedience to be so light that it will be driven away by the evidence of the Word like chaff before the wind Exod. 20.6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments The same words repeated Deut. 5.10 and Deut. 7.9 Know therefore that the Lord thy God he is God the faithful God which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations And 11.13 And it shall come to pass if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul Neh. 1.5 I beseech thee O Lord God of heaven the great and terrible God that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments Joh. 14.15 If ye love me keep my commandments 21. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them he it is yes that is the man that loveth me 23. Jesus answered and said unto him if a man love me he will keep my words 24. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings Do ye see how in all these Texts Obedience is joined with Love If Love go before Obedience follows after and the latter is a proof of the former Then the man amongst you that is not openly profane but of a moral conversation and moreover a Professor will say as Saul did to Samuel Blessed be thou of the Lord. I have performed the commandment of the Lord 1 Sam. 15.13 But Samuel replied ver 16. What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears and the lowing of the Oxen which I hear So ye say we love the Lord how do ye prove it Why we have performed the Commandments of the Lord. Have ye so What meaneth then the neglect of Prayer in your Families that I hear of What meaneth then your Idling away the Lords day or polluting it by worldly Discourse What meaneth I pray you the allowed dead Praying and dull performances not striven against nor lamented for But if you would not deceive your sell mind that that Obedience which proves sincerity of love to Christ must be 1. Vniversal and that in regard of the object all the Commandments of God those that are more hard as those that be more easie those that cross and condemn your best beloved sin as well as those you could more easily and readily part with those commands that respect the inward as well as the outward Man and do enjoin the manner as well as the matter of your Duties Psal 119.6 Then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect to all thy commandments and Universal in regard of the subject that your obedience be done with the whole heart Deut. 10.12 And now Israel what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to fear the Lord thy God to walk in all his ways and to love him and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul 2. Obedience that is a proof of Love must be chearful for Love obeyeth with delight It is not a burden to Pray but a pleasure hard Duties become easie to Love and the time seems not long nor tedious As Jacoh for the Love of Rachel Gen. 29.20 And Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed unto him but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as ones days translated as few days for the love he had unto her Seven years to love seem but as one day One day in an holy Duty to one that wanteth love seemeth as seven days if not as seven years which seem to pass away sooner and with more delight than one day spent in Flesh displeasing Duties where there is no love to take off the rediousness of it to the Flesh 3. Such Obedience must be the choicest Sincere Lovers of Christ will serve him with the best they have and in the best manner they can Love thinks nothing too good for God and Christ else it is but deceitful and pretended love Mal. 1.13 Ye said also behold what a weariness is it and ye have snuffed at it saith the Lord of hosts and ye brought that which was torn and the lame and the sick thus ye brought an offering should I accept this of your hands saith the Lord You bring Prayers but they are sleepy Prayers thus ye Pray Ye Pray but with your minds roving because of the prevailing habitual love ye have unto the World THUS ye Pray Could sincere Love find no better Service Give no better Duties than such for which a man is a Deceiver and Accursed v. 14. But cursed be the deceiver which hath in his slock a maele and voweth and sacrificeth unto the Lord
a corrupt thing for I am a great King saith the Lord of hosts and my name is dreadful among the heathen That is strange then that it should be no more dreadful among his people that pretend to love him that they are not afraid to bring and offer such Duties to him as do so much provoke him and are so greatly displeasing to him that give him only words when they have a Male in their Flock an heart in their breast to give him 4. Such Obedience as is a proof of Love must be persevering to the end expressed not by stepping into Gods ways but by walking in them One that loves not Christ might step into a good way but he that loves doth walk therein Deut. 11.1 Therefore thou shalt love the Lord thy God and keep his charge and his statutes and his judgments and his commandments alway And 19.9 If thou shalt keep all these commandments to do them which I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God and to walk ever in his ways Such then as have made great shews of love to Christ and now are revolted and have forsaken his holy Commandments by this might judge what kind of love it was to Christ that they once made profession of and more by their partial irksom and refuse Obedience might be convinced that their love to Christ is unfound and only supposed Love II. Do you love Christ while you maintain the Love of Sin in your Heart Can the love of Sin and the love of Christ dwell together in highest degrees Can the affection of love in that manner be carried out to two contrary objects at the same time And is there any thing in the World more contrary than Christ and Sin Is there more opposition between Light and Darkness extreamly Sweet and extreamly Sowre Can you love your Health and Poyson too to be in your Stomach Can you love Christ and yet love what he doth hate Can you love Christ and delight in Sin which took away the Life of your Lord Could you carry that Knife continually in your Bosom with delight that was the Instrument of Death unto your dearest Friend You might as soon look down upon the Earth and up unto the Heavens at the same instant as thus love Sin and Christ together Psal 97.10 Ye that love the Lord hate evil and the hatred to Sin that proves sincere Love to Christ must be 1. Vniversal to the Darling Sin as well as others to the Sin that hath been to you as your Right Hand or Right Eye Hatred is to the kind he that hates a Toad It is not this one or that in particular but all He that Loves Christ sincerely hates Sin as a man hates a Toad not only as to the degree but also as to the extent all and every one Psal 119.104 I hate every false way 2. Implacable Anger might be pacified but Hatred planted in the Nature is irreconcileable Antipathy cannot be rooted out nor turned into Love A man might be angry at Sin that loves not Christ but be friends again might turn from it and afterwards return unto it but the hatred to Sin implanted in the new Creature is implacably bent against Sin that the words might have some place here by way of allusion relating the Love and Hatred of Amnon to Tamar 2 Sam. 13.15 Then Amnon hated her exceedingly Hebrew is with great hatred greatly so that the hatred wherewith he hated her was greater than the love wherewith he had loved her and Amnon said unto her Arise be gone With like detestation will the Lover of Christ pack away his Sin Arise be gone with greater hatred than before he loved it 3. Therefore it is mortal and destructive to Sin that is the object of it Esau hated Jacob because of the Blessing wherewith his Father blessed him and Esau said in his heart The days of mourning for my father are at hand then will I slay my brother Jacob Gen. 27.41 So the Lover of Christ that hateth Sin is resolved to be the destruction of it Shall not I be the death of that cursed Sin that was the death of my blessed Lord Shall I suffer that to live in my heart which would not suffer Christ to live in the World Did Sin shed my Saviours Blood and shall not I be avenged on my 〈◊〉 Did Sin make my Saviour Groan and Sweat in a bloody Agony and shall I take delight therein Was my Sin the Nails that did fasten him to the Cross The Spear that did pierce his blessed Side And the Thorns that Crowned his Sacred Head And shall I lodge it in my Bosom Did Christ in love unto my Soul dye for my Sin and shall not I in love unto my Lord cause Sin to dye in me III. Do you love Christ sincerely when the things of this World have the predominant degrees of your affections As Sin is not to be loved at all by them that love Christ so things that are good must not be loved above Christ nor are by them that love him Mat. 10.37 If any man love father or mother more than me he is not worthy of me Doth that Woman love her Husband with a sincere Conjugal Love that though she love him truly yet loveth another more than him Do you love Riches Pleasures Honours Relations Self Life more than Christ and yet sincerely love Christ As he is better than all greater than all more suitable more durable more sweet more satisfying than all other good things so he must be loved above and more than all 1 Joh. 2.15 Love not the world neither the things that are in the world if any man love the world the love of the father is not in him Jam. 4.4 Ye Adulterers and Adulteresses know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God Though one that is sincere in his love to Christ might not love Christ more than some other persons love him yet he loves Christ more than he loves other persons or things But do you love Christ more than you love other things and yet 1. Your thoughts are habitually set and actually run out upon other things more than upon Christ Can you think on the World with delight but not on Christ And love to have a thousand thoughts on other things for one you have of Christ It is a pleasure to you to think on your Pleasures your Profits your Children but a burden to you to think of Christ and keep your thoughts upon him Are not the thoughts much upon the object of love Psal 139.17 When I awake I am still with thee But if you cannot sleep in the Night your Head is full of the thoughts of the World because your Heart is full of the love of the World Is it not a sign the World and not Christ is loved as your Treasure for where the treasure is there the
too if thou dost with-hold it from him If it be due so many ways what Injustice will it be in thee to deny to Christ that which is his due Art thou not careful to give to every one their own And is it not an ease to thy mind that though thou art not Rich yet thou hast to give every one his due Dost thou not Trade Work Cark and Care to give all their own and shall Christ be the only Person to whom thou wilt be Unjust If thou hast not enough to satisfie all thy Creditors yet of one whom thou lovest and bearest more respect unto thou sayest If it please God such a one shall lose nothing by me Poor Sinner wilt thou say Though I cannot do what I should yet Christ shall not be so far a Loser by me as not to have my Heart and Love Look to it that he do not for if he do thou wilt lose thy Soul and then who will be the greatest loser XIV Is it not great condescention in Christ that he will so kindly accept of thy Love One so great accept the Love of one so mean One so holy accept the love of one that is so sinful One so glorious of one so vile Do great Men value the love of Beggars or Princes the love of Peasants Would a Man of great Birth and Estate give leave to one cloathed in Rags to love him in order to Marriage Or would he not scorn and reject both the person and her love Methinks considering what Christ is and what thou art thou shouldst say If Christ will give me leave I will love him Give thee leave Not only so but gives the command and that upon pain and peril of everlasting Damnation if thou dost not He doth give thee leave and charge to love him but no leave to live without love to him though for thy long refusal he might justly leave thee to live without love to him XV. Should you ever have any cause or reason to be ashamed of your love to Christ Is not the time coming and the day hastning when covetous men shall be ashamed of their loving of the World and voluptuous men ashamed of loving their Pleasures and the ambitious of their Honours but the time will never come the day will never be that a gracious Soul shall be ashamed of his sincere love to Jesus Christ For what is said of Hope is true of Love Rom. 5.5 it maketh not ashamed but as all Sin is matter of shame Rom. 6.21 What fruit have ye of those things of which ye are now ashamed so especially the Lovers of Sin shall be ashamed that they loved not Christ For is it not an horrid shame that a rational Creature should be such a Sot as to love Sin that is most loathsom and not love Christ that is most lovely To love deformity and not beauty A real evil under the notion and appearance and paint of a seeming good and not a Christ that is a real good without appearance of the least evil O shame shame I am ashamed that Sin should have such esteem and Christ so great contempt put upon him but shame shall ere long confound these now shameless Wretches when they shall cry out We are ashamed that we loved Profits and not Christ House Lands Lusts and not Christ This is the confusion of our Faces and shame doth cover us that we should be so foolish and so blind that we had not Wit nor Reason to distinguish betwixt the greatest and most lovely good and the greatest and most odious evil XVI Is there any love so profitable as the love of Christ Gain draweth Love by the love of other things more than Christ you will lose more than you gain By such love God Christ Heaven and your own Soul will be for ever lost and should your gains of the World be proportionable to your love of the World yea and exceed it to the gaining of the whole World to your self which never man yet did your gain would prove your loss and when you come to cast up your Accompt at Death or Judgment you will find your self cast much behind hand because from Gods face and favour Mat. 16.26 What is a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul But by the loving of Christ you shall have gain that no man can value no Wit can estimate no Arithmetician by all his Numbers and Figures can compute even pardon of innumerable Sins the favour of an infinite God deliverance from unconceiveable Torments possession of endless Life and more than I or any man can describe or comprehend XVII Is there any love so universally necessary as the love of Christ One man loves one thing and a second another and a third another but there is no necessity that all men should love any one thing but Christ and things appertaining to our having and enjoying of him and love to Christ is necessary for poor and rich for great and small for noble and ignoble for learned and unlearned for bond and free Oh then what doings are these that that love which is necessary not only for the most but for all should be neglected not only by the most but almost comparatively by all XVIII Do not you want one great help against the temptations of Satan while you are void of love to Christ Is not Satan your Enemy Is not your heart forward to yield to him Doth it not concern you to resist him when if you yield you deserve to dye But this love would Garrison your Hearts Fortifie your Souls make you Couragious and Resolute against all the batteries of Satan assaults of Sin and watchful against the Assurements and Ambushments of the World and that you would say Shall I offend my dearest Lord Shall I displease him that hath had such good pleasure to do me such good such everlasting good Oh! how can I do this or that great evil and sin against him whom I do love For do you not find that Love forbids and exceedingly restrains from grieving offending or wronging him whom you do entirely love XIX Will you ever be able to hold your profession of Christ without sincere love unto him When trials come will not such as have no saving love to Christ turn their backs upon him Will they that love Riches Ease Liberty Honours Life or any thing more than Christ lease lose lay down these for Christ What you love most will you not endeavour to keep longest These must be harboured but Christ then shall be abandoned Mat. 19.21 22. but if you have not that love that will keep you stedfast and constant in suffering for Christ on Earth for want of that love you shall suffer eternally in Hell XX. Is it not possible for you to set your love upon Christ Is it not attainable Devils cannot love him but you can Damned Souls cannot love him
but you can if you would for have you not the means to help you to love him Is not he Preached to you Is not the Spirit striving with you Will you say you cannot love him though you would That I utterly deny for if you were really willing to love him you could love him nay if you do unfeignedly Will to love him you do love him for what is Willing but Loving And what hinders you from Loving but your not willing to love him Will you say you want power What power do you mean The Natural faculty or power of the Will That you have how else do you Will any thing you do Will you say you want a power of Willing to love Christ What is that but that you are unwilling to love him And if you cannot because you will not the more you plead your Cannot the more you aggravate your Will not A Natural Power God hath given you that is a Will if you lye under a Moral Impotency that is your Sin and what is this Moral Cannot or Impotency but the averseness of the Will from Christ Therefore though without the powerful workings of the Grace and Spirit of God you cannot love Christ sincerely yet this Cannot is your Will not for if by the Grace of God you were enabled to Will you could and if you were as willing to love Christ as some now are that once were as unwilling as now you be you could love him as well as they Why should you stand off and say If it were possible for me to love Christ I would How Possible What! Is there no difference betwixt you and a Devil Betwixt you and the Damned in Hell You can love the World can you do that You can love your Self can you do that Yes And I suppose you can love Sin too can you not To our Grief and your Shame we find it But why can you love World and Self and Sin Is it not because you will Do you do it against your Will I wish you did then there might be more hopes you would be perswaded to love Christ You can and do love Sin because you are willing have but as great willingness to love Christ as the World and Sin and then it may be said Not only that you can but do love Christ However though I am no Asserter of the Liberty and Power of the Will in things Supernatural nor an opposer of the necessity of the workings of the Spirit to enable a Sinner to love Christ yet it is most manifest that your unwillingness is the hinderance of such Love and this unwillingness is your weakness since then your unwillingness certainly by Grace might be removed your Love is possible therefore cease not till it be actual Are ye at length convinced of the Necessity of love to Christ And are ye at length perswaded to seek it and willing to get love to him I shall then next proceed to the Directions whereby ye might through Grace fall in love with Jesus Christ CHAP. XII Ten Directions to get sincere Love to Christ shewing the way of Love to him I. CLearly understand and be throughly convinced of thy lost Estate and miserable Condition for Conviction sight and sense of Sin and of our lost Estate thereby usually goes before the setting of the Heart and Love upon Jesus Christ though God doth not deal with all Sinners in all circumstances alike in working and begetting in them consent and love unto his Son in divers persons the measure of Conviction is different as in the Natural Birth some are born after more pangs and throws than others are so in the Spiritual Birth in which the Love is turned unto and set upon Christ the day of this Birth being the day of Espousals some God dealeth with more gently with some more roughly Some he melts like Wax and some he hews like knotty Wood some he carrieth by the Gates of Hell to the Door of Heaven and some he brings to Christ and leads to Heaven with lesser Terrors To gain your love to Christ he expresly threatens Damnation that is so great it cannot be fully expressed and lets the Sinner know that Consent and Love he must or be Damned he must He doth let in such light into the Mind that the Soul doth see there is is no way to escape the darkness of Hell than by consenting to Christ that came from Heaven and Christ presseth hard upon the Conscience of the Sinner whom he Wooeth for his Love saying Poor Sinner What dost thou mean To be Damned rather than to have me for thy Saviour To go to Hell with thy Lusts than to Heaven with me the Lord What wilt thou do Shall I have thy Love or No Wilt thou at last consent or wilt thou still refuse I tell thee plainly if I and thou part Hell and thou must meet I have been Wooing long and Waiting long but now it is come to a parting or a closing point and it is time for thee to come to a resolution This is the Case Deny my Suit and God will Damn thy Soul If thou hear not me thou shalt howl in Hell If I leave thee God will leave thee and Mercy will leave thee and all Misery will come upon thee Poor Sinner Consider the issue of thy final refusal of me and of denying thy love to me 1. Will it not be thy being cast into pain of greatest extremity And how wilt thou do to bear it If God do but touch thee with his Finger thou dost sigh and sob thou dost cry and roar and canst not rest O how wilt thou rest when God shall lay on blows with his Almighty Arm If pain in thy Head or sickness at thy Heart or Gripings in thy Bowels make thee cry out like a Distracted Man what wilt thou do to bear the wrath of God in a place prepared on purpose to shew his indignation against Christ-refusing Sinners When the sorest affliction in this Life is but as the pricking of a Pin to the piercing of a Sword if compared to the Torments of the Damned 2. Will it not be Misery joined with endless Eternity And hadst thou rather bear pains extream and eternal too than Love me that would deliver thee from them Doth not a small affliction make one Day or Night seem long much more if it be heavy Then in the Night thou askest Is it not Day Thou countest the Clock thou numberest the Hours and think'st that Time doth pass but slowly on Would it were but break-a-day that I might rise But all the time between the Creation and the Dissolution of the World is but a moment to Eternity Where there is no striking of Clocks no telling of Hours no returns of Night and Day but always Night and never Day never shall be break-a-day A thousand years shall pass and never the less to come Nay nothing past and nothing to come and yet more to come than is already past an everlasting
all my Love upon him His Name is the Lord Jesus Christ Lord Jesus Christ Oh blessed Lord Oh sweetest Jesus Oh loving lovely Christ Lord Jesus Christ Methinks the sound of his Name is Melody to mine Ears is Honey to my Taste is Light unto mine Eyes a sweet Perfume of precious Ointment it is Balm to my wounded Conscience it is a reviving Cordial to my sinking Spirit to my fainting Soul Methinks now you have told me his Name runs in my Mind I love to have it with love and reverence in my Mouth and upon my Tongue The Lord Jesus Christ will help me the Lord Jesus Christ will save me if I love him if I love him that is Lord and Jesus and Christ Oh if the very hearing of his Name hath given this hopes fain I would know more of him for surely the more I know of him the more my Love will be set upon him Oh that some would tell me more what he is and what I might do that I might love him That 's next IV. Get the Knowledge of Christ what he is and what he will be to thee and dwell on those thoughts till thou findest thy heart to glow to burn to flame in love to him And to this purpose consider 1. His Name Lord Jesus and Christ 2. His Relation to God yet given for Man 3. His own Excellencies and undertaking for you 4. His Affection and what he will be to you 5. His Benefits that he will confer upon you 1. The consideration of his Name hath much in it to attract and draw thy Love for he is 1. Lord. Even Lord of Lords and King of Kings the Blessed and only Potentate 1 Tim. 6.15 He is Lord by vertue of Creation he gave thee thy Being brought thee out of Nothing made thee a Man he gave thee Understanding Will Affections Now wilt thou love thy Father and thy Mother and not thy Maker He is Lord by right of Redemption when thou wast in thy Sin worse than Nothing in Bondage to Satan and Sin he bought thee out with his own Blood Act. 20.28 by giving his Soul for thine Isa 53.10 his Life for thine Mat. 20.28 himself for thee 1 Tim. 2.6 Let the thoughts how dear he paid for thy good draw thy Love He is Lord by universal Jurisdiction given by the Father Mat. 28.18 All power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth Joh. 5.22 The father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son 27. And hath given him authority to execute judgment also because he is the Son of man Joh. 17.2 As thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him Rom. 14.9 For this end Christ both died rose and revived that he may be Lord both of the dead and living Behold no Lord like this that hath power to judge and execute to damn and save a means this is to beget both fear and love 2. Jesus A gracious Name a Saviour Mat. 1.21 Thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sin His very Name tells you what you might expect by him Jesus A glorious Name Phil. 2.9 Wherefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a name above every name 10. That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow all be subject unto him Jesus A precious Name Gant 1.3 This Name is a sweet Perfume more than all precious Oyntments Jesus A miraculous Name Acts 3.6 In this name the lame have been made to walk the blind to see the deaf to hear the guilty are justified the polluted are purged the aliens reconciled and sinners saved 3. Christ Anointed Psal 45.7 God thy God hath anointed thee with the oyl of gladness above thy fellows Isa 61.1 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings If he hath been anointed to be a Saviour to lost Sinners should not the thoughts of this be an attractive of your love 2. To gain your love to Christ consider him in his relation to the Father who yet gave him foryou All Beings have some relation to God but none nearer to him than Christ who is God's own Son and that in a sense beyond all Angels that were the Sons of God by creation Job 38.7 Believers by Adoption John 1.12 Gal. 3.26 but Christ by eternal Generation Psal 2.7 Christ God's only begotten Son such an one he had but one and yet this only one was given for you O where is your love Is not this enough to kindle it in your hearts Christ was God's dear Son his very Darling his daily delight Prov. 8.30 The Son of his love Col. 1.13 And shall he not be the Object of yours Behold the Son of his love was given and came for the Children of Wrath. And is not he to be beloved upon that account and for that very reason Do men love the Sons of Princes and will not you love the Son of God Do you love your own Children your own Sons and Daughters and will you not love the Son of God He did not say Father since I am thy Son why should I suffer and die for thine Enemies Father I am thine only Son and thou hast not another in Heaven or Earth as I am why then should I be crowned with Thorns that Sinners might have a Crown of Glory But this only Son did die for Rebels the Son of God's Bosom lay in the Bosom of the Earth Dear Saviour Thou art worthy of every man's bosom-love 3. To attract and draw your Love consider how wonderful Christ is in himself and in his undertakings for you and then love him with wonderful love for if you should not love it would be wonderful Isa 9.6 His name shall be called Wonderful 1. Christ was wonderful in his Conception and Birth Isa 7.14 Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel Luke 1.35 The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God Behold Mary a Mother and yet a Virgin Wonderful Mary that bore Jesus was a Sinner and yet Jesus born of her was without Sin or Spot Wonderful 2. In his Person He was Man and yet he was God he was God and yet he was Man 1 Tim. 3.16 Wonderful 3. In his Works and Operations He healed the sick without medicines he opened the Eyes of a man born blind with Clay and Spittle John 9.1.6.7 cast out Devils with a word did calm the raging Sea Matth. 8.26 27. All wonderful 4. In his Death and Passion Matth. 27.50 Jesus when he had cried again with a loud voice yielded up the Ghost 51. And behold the vail of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom and the earth did quake and the rocks
Love to Christ Necessary to Escape the CURSE AT His Coming By THO. DOOLITTLE M. A. Mat. x. 37. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me Mat. xxv 41. Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels LONDON Printed for Tho. Cockerill at the Three Legs in the Poultrey over against the Stocks-Market 1692. THE EPISTLE TO Non-Lovers OF CHRIST Lamenting Their SIN and MISERY THat Glorious Person who is both Lord and Jesus and Christ hath suffered and done and promised such things that might gain the love of Sinners to himself and by these doth Plead with them to set their Affections upon him In opposition to him the World and Sin stand in competition with him for the love of man's Heart Christ calls Sinner Love me Sin and World cry aloud Place thy love on us The Spirit Word Ministers Mercies and a Well-informed awaken'd Conscience press hard for the Love of Man to Christ The Devil and the Flesh sollicit for the Heart of Man for Sin and World Love man hath and one of these he will Love both he cannot at the same time with a predominant Love for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other Ye cannot Love and serve God and Mammon Mat. 6.24 Predominant Love to the one is inconsistent with such Love unto the other 1 Joh. 2.15 Love not the world neither the things that are in the world If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him This considered what Thinking man can forbear to grieve abstain from floods of Tears and bitter Lamentation when he seeth that the Love of Man such a Noble Affection in it self is set so much on Sin that is so bad in it self and unto its Lovers and upon the World that proves a vexation to those that are so fond of it who Love and vex who vex at it and yet still continue and encrease their Love unto it and their vexation by it doth not abate their inordinate Affection to it while Christ that is the primary principal and most delightful Object of Love is slighted by so many even by the most Blind Sinners Do ye thus love Sin so vile and the World so contemptible and not Christ that is altogether lovely and desirable What perverseness is this that Christ that is best in himself and best for them should be refused and Sin that is worst in it self and worst to them should be embraced What folly and madness is this that Christ should be kept out standing at the Door when Sin and World are admitted in and Lodged and kindly Entertained in the chiefest Room of their Hearts Cursed doings When Sin should have no Love shall it have all When Christ should have all shall he have none When the whole World like that part the Earth should be as your Footstool shall it or any thing in it be set up in your Hearts as in its Throne How is it that ye are so much mistaken as to think ye see Beauty in Deformity and Deformity in Beauty it self Why is odious Sin so lovely and a precious Christ so unlovely in your Eyes Have ye considered what Sin is and what Christ is that ye have greater Love to that Work of the Devil than ye have to Gods own Son And this when Sin is so bad and vile that as Sin it cannot be loved by the worst of men till it be first disguised and dressed up with the appearance of Good and Christ so good that as Christ he is to be loved most of all When called invited and charged in the Name of God by the Ministers of Christ shewing you God's Call Invitation and Charge to love this lovely Jesus why do ye retort and say What is your Beloved above another Beloved O ye Teachers of Christ VVhat is your Beloved more than another Beloved that ye so charge us How long will ye say He hath no form or comeliness VVe see â—o Beauty in him that we should desire him How long shall Christ complain of you that ye hate both him and his Father And is not this complaint more grievous when ye hate him without a cause and do not love him when there is so much cause and reason why you should VVhat hath Sin and VVorld done for you and what did ever Christ do against you that ye love your sorest Enemies and hate him that would be your surest Friend Hath Sin afforded you Pleasures But how long will they last And what will ye do when the Pleasures of Sin are past and fled away and the Pains and Punishment for Sin are come and shall never never pass away Hath the VVorld allowed you its Profits But whose shall these be when ye are Dead and Lodged in the Dust VVhat profit is there in all your Profits if ye gain them and lose your Souls Will not your Gain be your Everlasting Loss Is Christ the Admiration of Angels and is he your Derision Do they Adore him and do ye thus Despise him Do Holy Saved-Souls above delight and joy in their Love to him and in his to them and do ye turn away your Love and Alienate your Hearts from him and Love Sin and Rejoyce in that your Love Do Holy Souls beneath in this Imperfect State cry ouâ— Whom have we in Heaven but Christ or what is there on Earth that we desire like or love in comparison of him and do ye prefer your Lust and Fleshly Pleasures and Worldly Profits before him Have ye done so and will ye still Are ye so resolved Are your Hearts so hardened Your Minds so blinded And so enslaved to Sin and Satan Alas for you Were ye Born without love to Christ And have ye lived so long without love to him And will ye Dye at last without love to him Where are the Mourners that they may with flowing Tears bewail your Sin and Misery Why your Sin Because ye love not Christ Why your Misery Because you must be ANATHEMA when MARANATHA be Accursed when the Lord shall come Alas for you that are Ignorant of Christ for can ye love whom ye do not know Alas for you whose Hearts are full of love to a vain deluding VVorld and empty of sincere Love to Christ for ye must all be ANATHEMA when MARANATHA Accursed when the Lord shall come Let Angels blush Let the Heavens be ashamed Let good men weep Let the Earth mourn Let all the Creation of God sigh and sob and groan that the Son of God is not beloved by so many of the Sons of Men O my Soul where is thy love to these Souls empty of Saving-love unto thy Lord Where is thy sorrow for want of their Love Where are thy Bowels of compassion
the swarms of men therein that have no sincere Love to Jesus Christ Let all among you this day that are not Sensual Beasts or Incarnate Devils that have the Understanding and Hearts of men stand and wonder that tho Devils will not love the Lord Jesus Christ that a Man should deny him his Love Good Lord What a thing is this What cursed Wickedness is this What wonder that thou dost behold such a fight as this a Man without love unto thy Son and suffer him to continue to be a man or dost not make him a sick man a poor man a tormented pained man on earth or a Damned man in Hell But tho thou bearest with such a man is he not a wretched miserable man tho he be a rich and prospering man Oh what Punishment waiteth for him How do Devils hope for his Death that they might drag him down to that Hellish Crew where there is not one Lover of Christ amongst them all But what is he What shall he be that Loves not Christ What Anathema Maran-atha What is that The Explication will tell you SECT II. The Explication of Anathema Maran-atha Anathema where found in Scripture is usually Translated Accursed Acts 23.14 And they came to the chief priests and elders and said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We have bound our selves under a great curse that we will eat nothing until we have slain Paul i.e. with a Curse we have Cursed that is grievously Cursed or bound our selves with direful Curses Vers 21. The same word used Gal. 1.8 But tho we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let him be Anathema accursed Repeated verse 9. Mark 14.71 But he began 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to curse and to swear saying I know not this man of whom ye speak Rom. 9.3 For I could wish my self Anathema were accursed from Christ for my brethren my kinsmen according to the flesh 1 Cor. 12.3 Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus Anathema accursed Not to love Jesus is to carry our selves towards him as tho he were Anathema but forasmuch as he is God over all blessed for ever whosoever loves not him shall be Anathema for ever This Greek word is used as the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cherem which is Translated utterly to destroy viz. 1 Sam. 15.9 But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fatlings and the lambs and all that was good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and would not utterly destroy them but every thing that was vile and refuse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they destroyed utterly The Greek Verb signifieth such Cursing as when a man either sweareth voweth or wisheth himself to dye or to be given to the Devil except he And the Hebrew word that answereth to it signifieth Utterly to destroy to devote to destruction As much as to say If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be utterly destroyed devoted to destruction let the Devil take him and so he will by God's own Order and Command Mat. 25.41 Then shall he say unto them on the left hand Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels Luk. 12.20 But God said Thou fool This night thy soul shall be required of thee In the Greek They shall require demand fetch away thy soul They What they The Devils that seize the souls of all that love not Christ whenever they dye 2. Maran-atha two Syriack words as some take them Maran that is our Lord. Nun finale est affixum primae personae ex pronomine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mar with Aleph is a Chaldee word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mara Lord and Nun only litera paragogica then Maran both in Chaldee and Syriack signifieth Lord. Atha written thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is an Hebrew word written thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Chaldee thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a Syriack word thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Arabick in all signifieth To come A man that loves not the Lord Jesus Christ shall be Cursed in all Nations in all Languages by all People all the world shall account that man to be Anathema Anathema Maran-atha some render it Let him be accursed till the Lord come or when the Lord comes or he shall have due Vengeance from the Lord when he comes Some thus Let him be accursed even till the coming of the Lord to his death's day even for ever and hath reference to that Prophecy of Enoch recorded Jude ver 14. Enoch also the seventh from Adam prophesied of these saying Behold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord comes with ten thousand of his Saints 15. to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have angodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him And all for want of Love unto him Learned men conclude That here is an allusion to the Jewish manner of Excommunication of which there were three sorts or degrees The Lesser The Middle Sort. The Greatest 1. The Lesser called Niddui Put out and in the New Testament they were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Put out of the Synagogue and they hold that Cain was excommunicated this way 2. The second was called Cherem or Anathema when a scandalous sinner with Curses out of the Law of Moses was in the publick Audience of the whole Church without any limitation of time excluded from the Communion of it This thought to be the same called a delivering up unto Satan With this sort of Excommunication was the Incestuous person censured 1 Cor. 5.4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ when ye are gathered together and my Spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ 5. To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus 3. The greatest of all they called Samatha so called from Sem a name which they put for Nomen Tetragrammaton or Jehova and Atha comes Others derive it from Sham There and Mitha Death as if they should say There and then shall be death to the Non-Lovers of Christ The Syrians call it Maran-atha by which form added to the two former the excommunicated person as desperate and forlorn without all hope of pardon or restitution was left to the hands of the Lord to receive from him an heavy doom at his coming implying that they summoned the Excommunicated before the dreadful Tribunal at the last coming of the Son of God They say this sort of Excommunication the people of God used against the Amalâ—kites And with this highest degree of Excommunication
shall all the Non-Lovers of Christ at his coming be excluded and stand excommunicated from the favourable Presence of the Glorious God and of Christ the Gracious only Saviour from the Company of all the Holy Angels and Society of the Blessed Saints from the Holy Place above and from all the Joys and Happiness thereof The manner how the Jews excommunicated the Samaritans was very solemn and dreadful They brought Three hundred Priests and Three hundred Trumpets and Three hundred Books of the Law and Three hundred Boys and they blew with Trumpets and the Levites singing accursed the Cutthaeans in the Name of Tetragrammaton or Jehovah and with the Curses both of the Superior and Inferior House of Judgment and they said Cursed is he that eateth the bread of the Cutthaeans hence is that saying of theirs He that eateth the bread of the Cutthaean or Samaritan is as he who eats swines flesh and let no Cutthaean be a Prosâ—lite in Israel neither have any part in the resurrection of the just These Curses they wrote upon Tables and sealed them and sent them through all Israel who multiplied also this great Anathema or Curse upon them But the Excommunication of all the Non-Lovers of Christ will be inconceivably more terrible when the Lord himself shall come with Millions of his Holy Angels and with Ten Thousands yea Thousands of thousands of his Saints and the Trumpet sounding the Saints singing and the Air ringing Christ and all shall say Now cursed for ever be every man that did not love the Lord Jesus Let them never come into the Kingdom of Heaven nor have a share in the Happiness that God hath prepared for them that love him and all the Saints and Angels shall say Amen Amen There is another Text setting forth the contrary good condition of those that love Christ Ephes 6.24 Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity Amen Paul standing one while upon Mount Ebal denounceth a Curse against those that do not love the Lord Jesus another while upon Mount Gerizzim pronouncing a Blessing upon them that do Deut. 27.11 And Moses charged the people the same day saying 12. These shall stand upon Mount Gerizzim to bless the people when ye are come over Jordan Simeon and Levi and Judah and Issachar and Joseph and Benjamin 13. And these shall stand upon Mount Ebal to curse Reuben Gad and Asher and Zebulun Dan and Napthali 14. And the Levites shall speak and say unto all the men of Israel with a loud voice 15. Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image an abomination to the Lord the work of the hands of the craftsmen and putteth it in a secret place and all the people shall answer and say Amen 16. Cursed be he that setteth light by his father or his mother and all the people shall say Amen 17. Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour's land-mark and all the people shall say Amen 18 Cursed be he that maketh the blind to wander out of the way and all the people shall say Amen 19. Cursed be he that perverteth the judgment of the stranger fatherless and widow and all the people shall say Amen Six Tribes stood upon Mount Gerizzim and six upon Mount Ebal and in a little Valley between these two Mountains the Priests stood one while pronouncing a Blessing upon the Observers of the Law and then the Tribes upon Mount Gerizzim sounded out Amen Another while denouncing Curses against the Transgressors of the Law then the Tribes upon Mount Ebal founded out Amen But now though you are not unjust towards men no Drunkards no Swearers yet if Non-Lovers of Christ the Curse lies upon you and at the coming of the Lord it will be in vain to plead your praying hearing receiving your moral Conversation if void of the Love of Christ for Christ shall declare you accursed and all that shall attend him at his coming shall say Amen SECT III. A Division and Paraphrase of the Text. The whole Text consists of these seven parts 1. The Grace to be obtained the Duty to be performed or Act to be exerted viz. Love Sweet pleasant and delightful 2. The Object of this Act or Person to be loved called the Lord and Jesus and Christ 3. The Subject of this Act or who should do this Duty Man Beasts cannot Devils will not Man ought 4. A Supposition if a man love not and it is indeed to be supposed that many will not 5. An heavy Imprecation or solemn denunciation of Vengeance Anathema if he will not be a Lover of Christ let him be accursed 6. A determination of the time when this at furthest shall be executed and poured forth upon him Maran-atha when the Lord comes tho he prosper in the mean time yet when Maran-atha then Anathema 7. The Extent of this Curse If any man let him be he what he will a Scholar a Preacher a Professor an Emperor and yet not a Christ-Lover the Plagues of God at the coming of Christ shall light and lie upon him and if this any be never so many Vengeance and Damnation shall overtake and seize them all I cannot yet get off the words of the Text without another view of each term one by one 1. If This if joined to the not loving of Christ is one of the saddest ifs you can suppose if you should be poor if you should be cast into Prison if you should be banished if you should suffer the loss of liberty and life it is not so bad as if you should not love the Lord Jesus Christ For if you be cast to Hell if you should be damned for ever it will be if you love not Christ If you be ever saved if you never love Christ God is not true and Christ is not true and this Word of God is not true if you pray till you wear the skin from off your knees if you cry for mercy till you waste your Tongue if you confess sin and weep your selves blind if you go as far towards Heaven as ever glozing Hypocrite did and all this while have no sincere love to Christ you never shall escape the Damnation of Hell if you do say I am a Lyer say I preached falshood and deceitful words unto you What! will you drive us to despair yes that I would with all my heart into this despair of ever getting to Heaven without sincere unfeigned love to Christ for despair you must of having Happiness and eternal Glory any other way than God hath prescribed in his Word and Love to Christ is one qualification of that man that shall be saved And to this if relating to your not loving of Christ I will shew you another if relating to your not entring into Heaven Heb. 4.3 I have sworn in my wrath If they shall enter into my rest 5. And in this place again If they shall enter into my rest Here God useth an Oath but concealeth the Imprecation when
for himself and for the excellency of his own Person tho not with the exclusion of our own advantage by him 9. Christ as Lord as well as Saviour is the Object of this Love Christ in all his Offices as Teacher Ruler as well as Benefactor is beloved in which respect the Love of all Hypocrites and carnal Gospellers doth fail and come short 10. This Love is wrought by the powerful special operation of the Spirit of God upon the heart 11. Whence follows a voluntary resignation of a man's self to Christ without reservation of himself or any thing he hath unto himself 12. When all this is done the Soul doth delighe in Christ if present or desires after him if absent or mourns for him if it cannot find him for one of these three ways Love will be working and by these workings discover it self SECT II. The nature requisites and the description of this Love to Christ Frist This Love supposeth the goodness of the Object as all Love doth For nothing can be loved but what is really good or at least appeareth so unto the Lover This holy Love therefore being the choicest chiefest Love supposeth Christ to be the choicest and the chiefest Good That he is a good Saviour a good Redeemer a good Lord and Master a Good excelling transcending all inferior sublunary good Good not only good but best best in himself and best for us And because he must be loved with such a love as that we be willing at his call to part with all other good for his sake therefore he is looked upon and loved as an universal Good whereas Riches Honours Friends and all things of this World are but particular good no one thing good for all things Meat and drink are good to satisfy your hunger and thirst but not to clothe you Clothes are good to cover you but not to feed you c. But the Soul whose love is fixed upon Christ doth see and say In poverty Christ will be my riches in disgrace Christ will be my honour in bonds and imprisonment Christ will be my liberty in pain Christ will be my ease in death Christ will be my life in the loss of all things Christ will be better to me than the enjoyment of all these things He that looks not upon Christ as an incomparable Object doth not love him as he ought Psal 73.25 Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee Prov. 3.14 Happy is the man that findeth wisdom and the man that getteth understanding 14. For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver and the gain thereof than fine gold 15. She is more precious than rubies and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her The Spouse saw such goodness in Christ that she was love-sick for him Cant. 5.8 I charge you O daughters of Jerusalem if ye find my beloved that ye tell him that I am sick of love Others wonder what a gracious Soul doth see in Christ that it is so inflamed with love unto him V. 9. What is thy beloved more than another beloved O thou fairest among women what is thy beloved more than another beloved that thou dost so charge us What is he in a large description of his Excellencies she answereth to this Question 10. My beloved is white and ruddy the chiefest among ten thousand proceeds in Vers 11 12 13 14 15. and in the 16th concludeth He is altogether lovely this is my beloved and this is my friend O daughters of Jerusalem What then Doth the transcendent goodness of Christ thus displayed draw the Heart allure the Affections yes verily for it immediately follows Cant. 6.1 Whither is thy beloved gone O thou fairest among women Whither is thy beloved turned aside that we may seek him with thee 1. Christ as God is incomparably good for so he is originally good infinitely good eternally immutably incomprehensibly good 2. Christ as Man is the most excellent of all men Adam in innocency the Prophets and Apostles in all their greatest dignity and the Saints in Heaven in perfect glory are not comparable to the man Christ Jesus 3. Christ as God-man and Mediator surpasseth in goodness all the holy Ones on Earth and all the Angels in Heaven Ephes 1.20 And set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places 21. Far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which is to come And though he call his People his Brethren and his Fellows Yet God hath anointed him with the oyl of gladness above all his fellows Psal 45.7 is Christ thus in your Eyes and to your Hearts SECT III. The Second Requisite of this Love SEcondly This Love includes and implies the illumination of the Vnderstanding to see and discern this matchless goodness in Christ Tho Knowledge be not formaliter Love yet it is necessarily pre-requisite to it for this Love is not blind Ignoti nulla cupido What we do not know we cannot love nor desire John 4.10 If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith unto thee give me to drink thou wouldst have asked of him and he would have given thee living water You might love an UNSEEN Christ but you cannot love an UNKNOWN Christ 1 Pet. 1.8 whom having not seen ye love in whom tho now ye see him not yet believing and Faith includeth Knowledge ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory Therefore the Prophet speaking of graceless men as disliking not desiring nor loving Christ brings them in as saying Isa 53.2 He hath no form nor comeliness and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him How no comeliness in him that is the brightness of the Father's glory and the express image of his person yes there was there is but they had not eyes to see it as if a blind man should say the Sun is dark because he hath no eyes to behold the light thereof How when we shall see him there is no beauty in him that we should desire him It was because in seeing they did not see How should they look upon him with an eye of Love when they did not discern him with an eye of Faith But a sanctified Soul whose eyes are opened seeth that superlative Goodness Beauty and Excellency in Christ that all other things that are good with an inferior goodness seem to him as dross and dung Phil. 3.7 But what things were gain to me those I counted loss for Christ 8. Yea doubtless and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things cast to dogs or Dogs-meat or dung that I may win Christ The sanctified
man whose mind is savingly inlightned can say I see that goodness in the Saviour that far surpasseth all the goodness of the Creature tho the Stars in the coldest night might be seen yet when the Sun ariseth they all disappear so in the night of Ignorance when my Mind was blind my Heart hard and my Affections frozen I was taken with the goodness of Riches of Honours and of worldly Pleasure yet when the Sun of Righteousness with his radiant Rays did shine into my Soul and with his warming Influences did thaw my benummed frozen Heart when Christ the Day-Star arose in my Soul then O then the glory of these things that did dazle mine eyes did presently vanish and wither away then in comparison of Christ I saw an emptiness in all the Creatures fulness I saw beggery in all its bravery shame in all its glory and poverty in its riches I saw its greatest resplendent lustre to be darkness its wisdom to be folly its beauty appeared to me no better than deformity when once I had got a view of Christ's transcendent loveliness SECT IV. The Third Requisite THirdly This Love to Christ includes a discovery of the suitableness of Christ unto the Soul as the most convenient Good Appetibility is not the formal reason of goodness but rather a consequent of it for a thing is not therefore good because it is desirable but it is therefore desirable because it is good Our Desires do not make the goodness of the Object but the goodness of the Object allures our Desires and Love Suitableness is the ground of Love A thing might be good in it self yet if we apprehend no suitableness in it to us the love of our hearts is not upon it therefore in pain and sickness a man judgeth ease and health to be better for him than Gold and Silver because more suitable a man in hunger and thirst esteemeth Bread and Water to be better than Honours and Preferments because more suitable Love to Christ is grounded on the Apprehensions that the Soul hath of the suitableness of Christ unto him and saith Food is not more suitable to an hungry man nor Physick to a sick man nor Cloathing to a naked man than Christ is to me a poor sinful and by my Sins a lost man an undone perishing and distressed man For I am naked and He will give me change of Raiment I am blind and He will restore my sight I am enslaved to Sin and Satan and He will give me liberty I am lost He will save me I am guilty He will pardon me I am polluted He will purge me I am an enemy to God He will reconcile me I am ignorant He will teach me I am indebted He will be my Surety I am poor He will make me rich I am a stranger to God He will bring me into acquaintance with him What shall I say I am unfit for Heaven but He will make me meet to be Partaker of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light Though I have Riches I might be damned but if I have Christ I shall be saved Though men admire me yet God might loath me but if I have Christ the Lord will love me Though I prosper in the World in all my pomp I might be walking in the way to Everlasting Misery but if I have Christ He will lead me in the paths unto Eternal Glory Look O my Soul look round about thee and thou shalt find none so suitable to thee as the only Saviour no! then only he shall have my prevailing love Is there none for me like him then none shall have love from me like him This suitableness of Christ unto the Soul in every respect is to be more largely spoken to among the Arguments to persuade you to set and six your Love on him SECT V. The Fourth Requisite of this Love FOurthly Love includes a sight of the communicability of that good that is discerned to be so suitable to the person that should love it possibility of participation is necessary to the begetting or raising of the Affection for while we see a Good though every way suitable yet if it be impossible to be obtained we can have no hope of it but sink under despondency and despair and though Love respects its Object without the circumstances of hard or easie to be obtained but simply as good yet that which is good in it self but impossible to us is not a good to us because a good not to be possessed by us and such a Good cannot be loved with such a Love as we ought to have to Christ who is to be loved by us as good and our good or as attainable by us for good as incommunicable to us so considered may beget vexation anguish and horrour but not complacency which yet Philosophers make the formal reason of Love 1. And this I judge might be one reason why there is no love in Devils to Christ nor can be Why are not Devils under unexpressible horrour and would not deliverance be esteemed by them as a good suitable to them Do they not know that there is no Saviour but Christ why then do they hate him why the Benefits of Christ are not communicable to them The Sufferings of Christ tho sufficient to have redeemed all the Devils in Hell yet were not ordained by God nor endured by Christ for any such end or with any such intention Christ did not dye to make Salvation or Happiness possible for Devils or finally-unbelieving-impenitent Sinners Therefore though they know Christ to be good and freedom from misery would be suitable to them yet this Good being incommunicable to them they neither have nor can have sincere love unto him Hence it is they hate Christ with an implacable hatred and oppose his Kingdom and Interest with the strongest opposition Mat. 8.29 And behold they the unclean Spirits cried out saying What have we to do with thee Jesus thou Son of God art thou come to torment us before the time As if they had said There is no good that we look should come by thee to us we expect no Salvation no Deliverance from our Pain and Misery Thou art a Saviour to men but not to us Thou wilt have nothing to do with us in a way of mercy and we have nothing to do with Thee by any hopes of Redemption through thy Mediatory Undertakings men on Earth might have to do with Thee and therefore have cause to love Thee and thou art come into the World to have to do with them to seek them and to save them they may have Thee for a Redeemer and a Saviour but so may not we They are fallen and by Thee might be restored but we are fallen and must lie where we fell without hope without a possibility of recovering there is no doing betwixt Thee and us for Heaven and Salvation no dealings betwixt Thee and us for Life and Happiness none of thy Sufferings are to be for us
degrees of Love might be considered in a twofold respect 1. In respect of other Lovers of Christ of which one might have degrees of Love that is sincere more and above what another man might have whose Love is yet sincere And of this More or degree of Love is Christ's question to Peter to be understood John 21.15 Simon son of Jonas Lovest thou me more than these viz. Other Disciples love me where the comparative More respects THESE as other Agents in Love or Lovers and therefore Peter answers in the Positive I love thee not in the Comparative More than they all do love thee But the Comparative More doth not respect THESE as the Object of Peter's Love as if Christ had asked Lovest thou me more than thou lovest these To which doubtless Peter could have readily replied Yea Lord I love thee more than I love these or all men or things in this world And in this sense God doth not damn any for want of more degrees of Love or other Graces 2. Degrees of Love might be considered in respect of the things loved or the object of our Love That the word More means Do you love Christ more than the World Sin Self or do you love These more than Christ And then I say this Doctrine is so far from being offensive that I judge it is of great concernment and necessary for every man that hath a Soul that must be damned or saved to know and understand For I do not fear to say for want of these degrees of Love whereby a man's Love is less to Christ than to the World and Sin and carnal Self God will surely damn him Doth this grate upon any Christian ears That a man that loveth not Christ more than Sin and more than Pleasures and Profits hath no sincere Love to Christ nor shall be saved by him Surely such a man would judge in another case if he had a Wife that loves him yet loves another man more than himself she had not sincere Conjugal Love to him 3. The plainest fullest and I hope no offensive Answer shall be the Words of Christ himself shewing wherein sincerity of Love to him doth consist Mat. 10.37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me 38. And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me 39. He that findeth his life shall lose it and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it And all the love to all inferior things in comparison of the degrees of love we should have to Christ more than unto these is rather Hatred than Love Luke 14.26 If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters yea and his own life also he cannot be my disciple What Interpretation can these words bear This That no real Disciple of Christ may or ought to have true love to Father or Mother Brother or Sister Wife and Children or to his own Life Absurd and irreligious sense being contrary to the Law of Nature and Christ's constant Doctrine in his Word What then This That a true Disciple of Christ must and ought to love these things less than Christ and Christ with more till they be prevailing degrees and Love in the heart to Christ be like the Biass to the Bowl that make it incline more to Christ than to all other things This is that which is asserted and being the sense of Christ's Words I hope will not offend any that have more Love to Christ than to all these things and for the rest that love these things more than Christ they shall find that for this very thing Christ with them will be offended SECT IX The Eighth Requisite in Love to Christ EIghthly This Love chuseth Christ for himself and for the Excellency of his own Person tho not with the exclusion of our own Benefit and Salvation by him Our own Benefits by Christ might be looked at by the returning soul at first as ordine prima but not quoad dignitatem praecipua ultima The Soul might first be allured and drawn to look after Christ and to love him by the consideration of the matchless Good and Benefits it might have by him which the convinced sinner seeth he can find in no other but in process of time and in his progress in the way to Heaven he learns and sees that Excellency and Beauty in Christ that he is in himself more amiable than all the Objects of his former Love To ask therefore Whether we are to love Christ for himself or for his Benefits we have by him is to propound a question which yet I have not observed in the Scripture nor disjunctively answered therein for one is subordinate to the other and subordinata non sunt opposita nec pugnant I am to love Christ for himself and for the Goodness Excellency and Amiableness of his own Person and I am to love Christ for the good I have received by him and for the benefits I hope further for his sake to be made partaker of and the one is an help unto the other Though I am to love Christ more for himself than for my advantage by him yet in loving of him I do not conceive I am to cast away the consideration of the benefits by him As we should not put the seeking of God's Glory and our own Salvation in opposition but in subordination tho God's Glory and the pleasing of his Will be the ultimate end and our Salvation to be sought by us in order thereunto Wherefore in seeking after an evidence of Grace and Title to Heaven I think it is a needless and unwarrantable puzzling of our selves and that which hath sorely afflicted some gracious persons and filled them with unnecessary doubts and fears and torments of mind to demand of our selves Whether we could be content to be damn'd to go to Hell to suffer everlasting Torments and the burning fiery flaming Wrath of God poured out upon the damned so that God may be thereby glorified I shall forbear to judge the state of my Soul by this as a Character of Grace and Preaching of it unto others till some shall shew me this is propounded in the Gospel as a Condition of the Pardon of my Sin and the Salvation of my Soul which hitherto I have not observed For how can I earnestly desire to be Saved and yet be willing and content to be Damned Long to be with him and yet content to be for ever separated from him I do find God threatens men with Hell to awaken them to look after Heaven and deliverance from Hell but I do not find God propounding as a condition of Salvation to be content to go to Hell that we might be received up to Heaven That I leave and loathe my sin repent and turn to God believe and love him
that come to pray and hear and not love Christ are such Deceivers All such mens Religious Duties and Services are done in deceit and hypocrisy they are Deceivers of themselves Deceivers of other men and go about to deceive God himself What is to play the Hypocrite if this be not to give God your Words but not your Hearts what is deceitful dealing if this be not to give God and Christ outward Service and deny him your Love to do the outward Action and withhold from him the inward Affection would you be paid what is owing to you in such Coyn in that which hath the colour and resemblance of Gold but underneath is base Metal Would you not cry out of such a one as a Deceiver and is this a fault in men to you and is it no fault in you to God are you ready to curse such a man and will not God curse you Read Mal. 1.14 But cursed be the deceiver which hath in his flock a male and voweth and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing For I am a great King saith the Lord of hosts and my name is dreadful among the heathen You bring him some cold Prayers have you not an Heart to give him you bring him some outward Expressions have not you inwards Affections to bring him you offer him Words and deny him your Love Are these cursed Doings and yet not you the Doers of them accursed Arg. 8. Robbers and Thieves are accursed Non-Lovers of Christ are Robbers and Thieves For whose are you God's or your own Whose by right are your Hearts the World 's or Christ's Who should have your Love as due to whom doth it belong to the World or Vanity to Self or to Christ that which you purchase do not you call your own that which you pay dear for is it not your own and would it not be robbery in another without your Consent to keep it from you Hath not Christ bought you with a price given for you more than you are worth He made your Hearts to love him and when you defaced them and sinned away the love of God did not Christ buy you hath not he paid dear to have your Love might you set your Love upon what you please might you place it upon what Object you list for are not you Body and Soul Christ's by purchase 1 Cor. 6.19 What know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you which ye have of God and ye are not your own 20. For ye are bought with a price therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's Is it not a robbing of Christ to deny him his own and is not he that is a Robber of God and Christ a cursed Wretch If thou shouldest rob thy Father or Mother or a Stranger wouldst thou not be accounted a vile Transgressor how comes it to pass that thou robbest God and Christ and makes no matter of it but God doth Mal. 3.8 Will a man rob God yet ye have robbed me But ye say wherein have we robbed thee in tithes and offerings 9. Ye are cursed with a curse for ye have robbed me even this whole nation They are said to rob God in Tithes and Offerings and you in your Hearts and Affections And what is the taking away of Tithes to the taking away of the Heart and love thereof and yet God cursed them with a Curse that is certainly accursed them how then wilt thou escape God might charge thee that thou hast played the Thief with him and hast stoln away thy Love from him and hast gone and pawned it for a little Silver or a filthy Lust and yet hast no mind nor serious thought for to get it redeemed or fetched out of pawn Arg. 9. Those that love not Christ are spiritual Adulterers and go a whoring from God Do not you profess to be married to Christ what and give your love to the World to Pleasures to the Strumpet Sin Is that a chast Woman that loveth another man more than her own Husband to love other things more than God and Christ is called in Scripture a going a Whoring from God Hos 4.12 A playing the harlot Jer. 3.1 Thou hast played the harlot with many lovers Committing adultery vers 8. and are Adulterers Jam. 4.4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses know ye not that the friendship of this world is enmity with God Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God A Lover of the World is an Enemy of God and are not those that God taketh for his Enemies in a bad and miserable condition and will be worse when the Lord comes Some please themselves with this as an Evidence of their good Condition and hope of Salvation that they are neither Whores nor Thieves but such as love not Christ above all in a Spiritual and Scriptural Sense are both Such a one is a Thief in robbing God of that Love that is his due and guilty of spiritual Whoredom in loving other things more than Christ and if you think to escape the Curse continuing in such Sins when the Lord comes and you tried at his Bar shall find you were wonderfully mistaken and meet with a Curse when you expected a Blessing Arg. 10. Such as shall be commanded to depart from Christ and be driven from his glorious presence are accursed Final Non-Lovers of Christ shall be commanded to depart from Christ and be driven from his glorious presence Your Heart that loves not Christ is not towards God and Christ and when he comes his Heart shall not be towards you your Heart is alienated from Christ and then Christ's Heart shall be alienated from you While you will not love you say in your hearts to Christ depart from us and Christ will say to you depart ye from me As he that trusteth in the Creature his heart departeth from God so he that loveth the Creature more than God his heart departeth from God and he whose heart departeth from God either by trusting to or loving of the Creature more than God is accursed Jer. 17.5 Thus saith the Lord Cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm and whose heart departeth from the Lord. And when Christ shall command you to depart from him you shall find your selves in a cursed condition Matth. 25.40 Such as do not love the Lord Jesus do not obey the Gospel for the Gospel commands your Love and they that do not obey the Gospel at Christ's coming shall be separated from him and they that shall be separated from him then shall find and feel themselves accursed 2 Thess 1.7 When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels 8. In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ 9. Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the
this Phrase is used in Scripture a man cannot be at the same time So that such as shall then be so cursed as to be shut out of doors are past recovery past hopes of Mercy past a possibility of being blessed And therefore 10. To be Anathema when Maran-atha will be to be accursed with an Eternal Curse For be they must for ever dye they cannot shake off the Curse they cannot therefore cursed they must be for ever For a man to be accursed all his days would be a sore judgment but for a man to be accursed to all Eternity is beyond conception heavy and grievous To live for ever and to be accursed for ever is worse than never to have been or to have their being turned into nothing All the Curses that men void of the Love of Christ do lye under in this world they make light of If they are cast out of God's Favour it is a great Curse but now they are merry under it If they have no Grace it is a great Curse but they do account it no Curse they have none and they desire none But there are Curses waiting for them and shall be poured out upon them at the coming of Christ which in the other world shall be heavy indeed and intolerable and under them shall have a merry heart no more for ever For to be Anathema when Maran-atha Is to be Cursed Dreadfully because Totally Bitterly Publickly Positively Privatively Finally Therefore Uncontroulably Therefore Irrevocably Therefore Eternally CHAP. V. Eight Reasons why Love is so strictly required that Christ must be Loved or the Sinner accursed THE Fourth general Head in the Method propounded is Why there is such a flat necessity of our sincere Love to Christ for the escaping of this described Curse Why God doth so much insist upon our Love unto his Son that whosoever doth not love him shall be Anathema This is not to be understood exclusively as if other Graces and Conditions were not also necessary for in other Texts we find that for want of Faith this Curse will overtake many Mar. 16.16 He that believeth not shall be damned John 3.36 He that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him And for want of Repentance Luke 13.3 Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish And for want of Conversion Mat. 18.3 Verily I say unto you Except ye be converted and become as little children ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven Joh. 3.3 Jesus answered and said unto him Verily verily I say unto thee Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God And for want of Obedience Heb. 3.18 And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but to them that were disobedient translated believed not Sometimes the condition is expressed by the term of a new creature Gal. 6.15 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new creature Sometimes Faith and Love are put together Gal. 5.6 For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but faith which worketh by love And indeed all these are requisite and are found together in the same person for he that hath Faith hath also Love and he that hath Love doth also Repent and he that Repents doth also obey and he that doth Believe Love Repent and Obey is a New Creature Yet Love is thus insisted on for such Reasons as these 1. Love commands the whole man for it is in the Will which is the commanding Faculty Love 1. Commands and sets on work all the other affections If a man love Christ it sets Desires on work if he be absent it sets Joy on work if he be present if Christ be absent and the Soul doth see a probability of obtaining him Love sets Hope on work If there be any impediments that hinders a man in his prosecution it sets Anger on work for the removal of them 2. Love commands the thoughts and mind For love to Christ sets the mind on thinking on Christ and meditating upon him The mind doth muse upon what the heart doth love Where love is fixt the thoughts do dwell Psal 119.97 O how I love thy law it is my meditation all the day 3. Love commands all the outward members of the body Love to Christ doth set the Tongue to speak of Christ and for him the Ear on hearing of his Word the Eyes in seeing the tokens of his Love and Goodness the Hands in acting and the Feet in walking to those places and duties where Christ is to be found and enjoyment of him to be had 2. If Christ hath our love he hath our all And Christ never hath his own from us till he hath our Love Love withholdeth nothing from Christ when it is sincerely set upon him Then he shall have our time and he shall have our service and he shall have the use of all our Parts and Gifts and Graces yea then he shall have our Estates Liberty and our very Lives when he calleth for them As when God loveth any of us he will withhold nothing from us that is good for us no not his own only begotten Son Rom. 8.32 And when Christ loveth us he giveth all unto us his Merits to justifie us his Spirit to sanctifie us his Grace to adorn us his Glory to crown us so when any of us love Christ sincerely we lay all down at his feet and give up all to be at his command and service Rev. 12.11 And they loved not their lives unto the death 3. Love gives the denomination to a man according as the Object is which he superlatively loveth For as is the Love such is the man and as is the Love such might you boldly call the man If he be a lover of Honour he is an Ambitious man a lover of Pleasure a Voluptuous man and if he chiefly love the World he is a Covetous man if he love Holiness he is a Religious man if the things above an Heavenly-minded man and if he love Christ with a predominant love he is a Sincere man Cant. 1.4 The upright love thee 4. Without Love all other things tho never so many great and excellent in themselves are not acceptable unto God He regardeth not your Prayers if you do not love him He matters not your Hearing if you do not love him all your Almsdeeds are poor things in his esteem if you do not love him yea all your Suffering for Religion and for Christ are nothing if you do not love him If a man could Preach like an Angel and yet not love him he should not be accepted by him 1 Cor. 13.1 Tho I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal 2. And tho I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and tho I have all
faith so that I could remove mountains and have no charity I am nothing 3. And tho I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and tho I give my body to be burn'd and have not charity it profiteth me nothing Love therefore is above all these for all these without love are nothing 5. Love makes us most like to God for God is love 1 Joh. 4.8 And God loveth Christ above all the men on earth and above all the Angels in Heaven therefore calls him his Beloved Son Mat. 3.17 God loveth All men with a Common Love John 3.16 Tit. 3.4 Holy men with a Special Love Angels with an Higher Love Christ most of all who is the Son of his Love Col. 1.13 So our Love is gradual we ought to love all men with some degrees of Love Holy men and Angels with an higher Love and Christ with the highest Love And when we love as God loves our Love makes us most like to God 6. Love is the highest improvement of the faculties of our Souls 1. We have Vnderstandings to know God and Christ And Love to God and Christ is the highest improvement of all our knowledg for if we know him and not love him the more we know of him the more our knowledge doth increase our sin and will aggravate our condemnation 2. We have Wills to chuse the Lord Jesus Christ and when we chuse him Love is the improvement of our Wills in taking complacency in him who is the Object of our choice 3. We have Consciences that do dictate to us that Christ is best and best for us and then we improve those dictates when we love him else all those dictates of Conscience are lost and come to nothing 4. We have Memories wherein the Sayings of Christ to us the Sufferings of Christ for us and the Benefits of Christ bestowed upon us should be lodged and laid up and when we love him we shall love to remember all these things that we have by him and from him and himself that is Purchaser and the Donor of them But if our Love is predominantly placed upon any thing below Christ all the Powers of the Soul are debased the Reason of man is degraded in contriving the getting of such ignoble and fordid enjoyments as his highest end the Will is debased in chusing of them and the Memory in being stuffed with the remembrance of them forgetting God and Christ and better things so that a man is more a brute than a man without sincere Love to Christ 7. Love is the end of all other Graces and in which they terminate their Operations Our knowledge of Christ endeth in our loving of Christ our believing on him hoping in him trusting to him like so many streams at last run into the Love of Christ 8. Love is the Everlasting Grace that shall abide and be in use and exercise when the actings of other Graces shall cease There are some Graces suitable especially to our state of imperfection in this world To live by Faith to Repent and Mourn for sin to live in hope of the glory that is to be revealed to wait till we be possessed of the Mansions that are above to desire all the good that is promised to us but not yet conferred upon us But hereafter Faith shall be turned into Vision Hope into Fruition Desires into Possession waiting into Obtaining And then we shall thus believe no more nor hope nor desire nor wait but then we shall love still yea more than ever more abundantly yea perfectly without diminution continually without intermission and eternally without cessation in which respect among the three Cardinal Graces Love hath the preheminence 1 Cor. 13.13 Now abideth faith hope charity these three but the greatest of these is charity because it is the longest in duration So that those that love Christ sincerely here shall love him perfectly hereafter and be for ever blessed in that love But those that love him not on earth cannot love him in the other world and for want of such Love shall be accursed for ever CHAP. VI. The Application of the Doctrine THE last thing propounded in the method of this Subject is the Vse and Application of it to bring it down to our own hearts to work this truth upon our Minds Consciences and Affections And now O that God would help me and Christ would help me and the blessed Spirit of God and Christ would so help me and give me lively words a lively Heart lively and inflamed Love to blessed Jesus and your immortal precions Souls that I might speak and apply this great Truth as becomes a man that deth believe every one of you before God in this Congregation this day must be Anathema when Maran-atha if you live and die void of love to Jesus Christ as becomes a man that doth believe you must be blessed or cursed damned or saved for ever as you are prevailed with or not prevailed with to give Christ your Hearts and hearty love as becomes a man that doth believe your Everlasting Stare is much concerned in this one point that now is before us Alas Methinks I do foresee the great multitudes that this Anathema will fall upon Methinks I see the Lord a-coming methinks I hear the Trumpet sounding and the Voice calling to the Dead Arise and come to judgment Come ye cursed Souls that have been in the Infernal Lake and appear before my Bar come ye cursed Bodies awake arise and stand before my Judgment-Seat and let those cursed Souls be again united to those cursed Bodies and now be both cursed together and cursed for ever and let both be inseparably linked together to endure this Curse to all eternity Methinks I see them coming but unwillingly they come but with fear and trembling with horrour and amazement Now what is to do now now Maran-atha and now every one of us that loved not that Lord that now is come must be Anathema O woful Souls O miserable Sinners O cursed Caitifs What shall we now do and whither shall we now go do that we should have asked before this day that the Lord is come Do We should have done that which we did not do and now must go thither whither we would not go O that we might rather cease to be than to be what we must for ever be and go from whence we never must return and feel what will make us cry and roar toss and throw and be for ever restless and the more restless because hopeless and remediless O Sirs my Heart is pained my Bowels roul within me my Joints do shake with trembling for fear lest any of you that pray in this place and hear in this place should fall under this Curse when the Lord shall come The Uses of this Doctrine shall be 1. By way of Inference or Instruction what things from hence may be deduced and learned 2. For Reprehension or Reproof aggravating the Charge against such as love not the
shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord Almighty That is I will pity you as a father and love you as a father doth his children and much more and ye shall love me as sons and daughters love their father and much more A son and not love a daughter and not love such sons and daughters are bitterness to their Parents and so are ye to Christ 2. In not loving Christ the Threatnings of the Gospel are slighted and set at nought by thee It is dreadful to lie under the Curses of the Law but it is more terrible to fall under the Curses of the Gospel It might make thy heart to shake within thee to have the Curse and not the Blessing of thy Maker but it might make thy heart to sink within thee to have the Curse and not the Blessing of the Redeemer What else doth he do in the words of the Text What else is it but a Curse to be judged accounted declared to be unworthy of Christ Unworthy to be pardoned by him and saved by him that is not fit to be saved by Christ nor sit to be delivered from hell or taken up to heaven Mat. 10.37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me Or wilt thou bless thy self tho thou hearest this Curse Like the man Deut. 29.19 And it come to pass when he heareth the words of this curse that he bless himself in his heart saying I shall have peace tho I walk in the imagination of my heart to add drunkenness to thirst So thou Tho I do love the world and sin and self more than Christ I shall have Peace and Pardon and Eternal Life Shalt thou so How wilt thou come by it From whom wilt thou have it Will God spare such a man Shall not his Anger smoke against him And the Fire of his Indignation burn him up till he be consumed Or burn him tho by burning he shall never be consumed If it were a man thou mightest say Let him curse Psal 109.28 But wilt thou say of God of Christ Let him curse who cares Let him curse who fears his Curse Thou careless sinner God will make thee care and if thou dost not fear God will make thee feel the weight of his Anger and when thou shalt feel what now thou dost not fear thou shalt not make so light a matter of it 3. The great Command of God by not loving of him is disobeyed Matth. 22.37 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind 38. This is the first and great commandment The Lord Jesus is a great King a great Saviour The Command to love him is a great Command which if thou dost not do upon this account thou art a great Sinner If a great Swearer then ye say such a one is a great Sinner a great Drunkard and therefore a great Sinner and so he is But tho thou art no Drunkard no Swearer yet not a Lover of Christ for this I say thou art a great Sinner for thou livest in daily disobedience to the great Command 4. By not loving of Christ the Promises of the Gospel are undervalued if thou wouldst love him he promiseth thee a Crown of life Jam. 1.12 he promiseth thee all the good that thou dost want or canst desire the pardon of Sin the Favour of God deliverance from Hell the Happiness of Heaven Oh what Inducements of Love are these What Motives what Incentives what madness to lose all these for the love of the World for the love of a nasty filthy Lust Wilt thou still say all these shall never gain my love to Christ nor move me to set my heart upon him Thou sayst thou sayst not so but I say and God knows thou dost so and is it not as bad to do so and not say so as not say so and yet do so when thy doing so is as if thou saidst so So how why as if thou saidst Rather than I will love Christ I will never be pardoned rather than I will love Christ I will go without the Favour of God without the Joys of Heaven I will be damned and go to Hell rather than I will love Christ sayst thou so or wilt thou do so is the Love of Christ so grievous to thee take thy choice and when thou art in Hell and damned there thou shalt never love him VI. Not love Christ what is this but odious Ingratitude for the greatest Kindness to the Children of men Suppose thou wast in debt and unable to pay therefore must be cast into Prison one dischargeth thy Debt wouldst thou not love him if not would not all say thou art unthankful Suppose thy self to be in Turkish Slavery and one redeem thee wouldst thou not love him Suppose thou art condemned to dye and one procures thy Pardon wouldst thou not love him or bear the brand of an ungrateful Person Thou wast in debt to God and hadst nothing to pay thou wast in slavery to Sin and Satan thou wast at enmity with God condemned to dye in danger of Hell unfit for Heaven the Justice of God did flame against thee the Wrath of God did lie upon thee Hell and Devils waited for thee None could help thee but Christ satisfy for thee but Christ purchase thy Pardon but Christ save thee from Hell and bring thee to Heaven but Christ nor He neither without suffering bleeding sweating dying without bearing the punishment of thy sins giving his Soul for thine his Life for thine and after all this art not thou to a wonder unthankful if thou wilt not so much as love him wilt not let the Heavens be ashonished and the Earth amazed and all the Creation of God blush and be ashamed at the unthankfulness of sinful men that hear that for their sakes Christ was scourged buffeted crowned with Thorns his Side pierced with a Spear Nails driven through his Hands and feet was arraigned condemned accused condemned and crucified and yet will not love a Christ scourged for them a Christ groaning under the burden of their Sin a Christ sweating under the heavy load of the Wrath of God will not love a weeping bleeding crucified Christ when all this was endured in their room and stead VII Not love Christ is not this damnable contemning and despising of him Is it not a setting him at nought it is spoken of Christ Psal 22 6. A reproach of men and despised of the people And Isa 53.3 He is despised and rejected of men He was despised and we esteemed him not The Septuagint translate the word by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is used of Christ in the New Testament Luke 23.11 And Herod with his men of war set him at nought and mocked him Act. 4.11 This was the stone which was set at nought by you builders What we greatly love we highly
value what we love not at all we value not at all and that we do despise And is it not sin enough to despise the People of God but wilt thou also despise the Son of God not enough to despise the Word and Ways of God but wilt thou add this to it to despise the only begotten Son of God Not to love and to despise is all one Matth. 6.24 No man can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will hold to the one and despise the other Is this no evil in thine eyes Is Christ that is honoured by the Father contemned by thee Is he the joy of Angels the delight of Saints and is he thus set at nought by thee Is he the Pearl of great price and dost thou look upon him to be nullius pretii of no worth Is he the chiefest of ten thousands and dost thou thus disdain and vilify him as if he were the meanest of ten thousands Canst thou value thy Riches and love them and not Christ Canst thou value thy Relations and love them and not Christ Behold in comparison of Riches Children Life thou despisest Christ when thou shouldst depise these in comparison of Christ He that despiseth the word shall be destroyed Prov. 13.13 He that despiseth his neighbour sâ—â—neth Prov. 14.21 He that despiseth his father's instruction is a fool Prov. 15.15 He that despiseth his mother the ravens shall pick out his eyes Prov. 30.17 What then is he and what shall be done to him that despiseth Christ VIII Not a lover of Christ what art thou then but an hater of him there is no medium between these two Love him thou must or hate him thou dost Matth. 6.24 He will hate the one and love the other Matth. 12.30 He that is not with me is against me He that doth not so love him as to have him rule him doth hate him Luke 19.14 But his citizens hated him and sent a messenger after him saying We will not have this man to reign over us Shouldst thou hate thy Lusts and love the Lord and dost thou love thy Lusts and hate the Lord I intreat thee tell me What hath he done unto thee that thou shouldst hate him as Christ reasoned with them that so hated him that they stoned him John 10.32 Jesus answered them saying Many good works have I shewed you from my father for which of those works do ye stone me So let me reason with thee Many a good Work hath Christ done for thee for which of these dost thou hate him Hath he not come from Heaven for thee was he not wounded beaten scourged and suffered death for thee for which of all these dost thou hate him hath he not made Salvation possible for thee dost thou hate him for that hath not he purchased a Conditional Pardon for thee dost thou hate him for that hath not he intreated thee to consider thy own Soul and to prevent thine own Damnation dost thou hate him for that hath he given thee any other cause thou hast many reasons to love him but no cause to hate him as Christ himself asserteth Joh. 15.25 They hated me without a cause but for that hatred they shall not be punished without cause IX Not love Christ art thou not herein a confederate with the Devil against God and Christ And joinest in with the Devil against Christ And dost thou not in this rather obey the Destroyer than the Saviour of thy Soul Christ calls Give me thy love but thou dost not Satan perswadeth thee to withhold thy love from Christ and so thou dost Christ saith Give me thy heart Prov. 23.26 but thou dost not Satan saith Let the World have thy heart and so it hath Canst thou displease Christ more than to deny him thy Love Or canst thou please the Devil better What meaneth this perverseness of thy heart What mean these cross and crooked dealings as if Christ were thine enemy and the Devil thy friend As if thy loving Christ would be thy ruine and listning to the Devil were the way to happiness Poor Sinner Will the Devil save thee Christ would Will he help thee into the favour of God or up to Heaven Tell me what dost thou in thy Conscience think doth Christ or the Devil most desire thy real good Did the Devil suffer for thee Christ did Did the Devil dye for thee Christ hath Hath the Devil any love unto thee Christ had so much as to shed his Blood that if thou wilt hearken to him thou mightest be saved by him Why then when Christ the World and Satan are striving for thy heart and love dost thou open to the World and Satan and shut it against the Lord Jesus Christ X. Not love Christ Dost thou not herein bear the Image of the Devil and look more like a Devil than a man Hath the Devil no love to Christ Nor hast thou Oh what a thing is this that a man on earth should love Christ no more than the Devils in Hell And is the likeness of the Devil thy Glory Is his Image thy Beauty And Conformity to Satan thy Dignity Or canst thou be saved more than the Devil himself if thou lovest Christ no more than he Oh when the Accusation at the last day shall be brought against thee This man hated Christ like a Devil Did he so Away with him now unto the Devils And that mans heart was no more towards Christ than the Devils No Then let that Man and Devils go together and be Damned together XI Not love Christ Dost thou not carry thy self worse towards Christ than the Devils do And is not thy not loving of Christ worse in thee than it is in Devils because the greater love and kindness that Christ hath shewn to thee than ever he did to Devils and the more he hath done for thee than he hath for them the worse is want of love to Christ in thee than in them Did Christ dye for Devils as he hath for thee Did he bear the punishment of their Sin as he hath for thine Did he ever make Salvation possible to them as he hath to thee Did he ever offer pardon to them as he hath to thee Or did he ever sollicir them for their love as he hath done with thee for thine Might not Devils say we have not that cause nor reasons to love Christ as Men have And might not we suppose if the Devils in Hell were set in the same circumstances as Men on Earth that some of the Devils might love him when some men will not However when we consider the Texts that speak of fallen Angels and how they are irrecoverably cast into blackness and darkness and of fallen men who are saveable it is sufficient foundation for this conclusion That want of love to Christ is worse in men than it is in Devils Concerning Gods just dealing with Sinning Angels we read 2 Pet. 2.4 God spared not the Angels
that sinned but cast them down to Hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment And Epistle of Jude ver 6. The Angels which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day Not a word of a Saviour for them but of Mankind the Scripture speaks of abundance of love and mercy Joh. 3.16 God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life Tit. 3.4 But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared and denieth that concerning Angels which it doth affirm concerning Man Heb. 2.16 For verily he took not upon him the nature of Angels but he took upon him the seed of Abraham Hath he done that for you which he hath not done for Devils and is not then want of love in you to him a greater evil than it is in Devils Let this shame you that ye are not lovers of Christ XII Not love Christ What do ye make of this but the beginning of Hell By the same reason as love to Christ is the beginning of Heaven Love to Christ is the employment of the Saints in Glory and to be without love to Christ is the frame of the Damned in misery So much of hatred to Christ is in you so much of Hell is in you before you be in Hell XIII Want of love to Christ Is not this the Daughter and the Off-spring of many foul abominations that are reigning in thy heart Doth it not suppose the predominancy of many other sins As 1. Doth it not suppose Ignorance of thy misery Sins deformity and of Christs beauty excellency and necessity 2. Doth it not suppose preceding Infidelity That thou dost not believe what God saith concerning Christ nor what shall be thy portion and thy everlasting miserable condition without Christ 3. Doth it not suppose a conceit of thy own Righteousness which if thou sawest to be insufficient would Christ be thus slighted and disregarded by thee 4. Doth it not suppose Self-willedness Thou wilt love what thou wilt love and not him thou shouldst love come on it what will Is it not plain wilfulness when thou canst give no reason why thou wilt not love Christ But because thou wilt not 5. Doth it not suppose predominancy of sinful Self love Carual Self thou wilt love and because this in dominion is inconsistent with the love of Christ thou dost omit the loving of him 6. Doth it not suppose fearlesness of God and of his Indignation If this did awe thee could Christ be thus neglected by thee 7. Doth it not suppose forgetfulness of Death and Judgment Of Heaven and Hell Couldst thou without horror think of dying without love to Christ When to dye so once would be to dye for ever Without trembling couldst thou think of Judgment when for want of love to Christ thou shalt certainly be damned whenever thou appearest at his Judgment-bar Or of Heaven when thou must never enter into it Or of Hell when thou must certainly be cast into it for want of love to Christ 8. Doth it not suppose great carelesness of thine own Soul For canst thou love thy Soul and not love Christ the Saviour of the Soul Canst thou take care of the Salvation of thy Soul and take no care to love him that is the purchaser and the donor of eternal Salvation Is such a litter of sins in the heart void of the love of Christ And wilt thou after this make so light a matter of it XIV Want of love to Christ Is it not the Mother of many horrid transgressions and the Nurse Maintainer and Fomenter of them Love to Christ shuts the door of the heart against the temptations of Satan the inticements of Sinners and the allurements of the World but the want of it sets it open unto all Love to Christ would be a Dam to the stream of Sin but the want of it is the plucking up the Floodgates thereof that Sin might run out of the heart into the life with a swift current Is not the absence of love to Christ the cause of many commissions of Evil Would it not bridle thy Tongue restrain thine Hands shut thy Eyes stop thy Ears and keep all these from being defiled with finful actings upon sinful objects Is it not the cause of the omission of good Of praying hearing meditation holy discourse What goeth before and what followeth after the want of love to Christ as flowing and proceeding from it maketh it a sin exceeding sinful XV. Love not Christ Have not then all the Ordinances of God been ineffectual as to thee Have not Ministers preached in vain and spent their labour for nought And hast not thou heard in vain And followed the means of Grace in vain when by all the means thou hast not got this Grace of Love What though thou hast obtained knowledge is not that knowledge without love to Christ vain knowledge What though thou art able to discourse of God and Christ and Heaven and the workings of the Spirit without love to Christ is it not though concerning such great and weighty matters yet vain discourse Have not all the calls of Mercy the workings of Conscience the wooings of Grace the pleadings of Ministers the intreaties of Love the knocking 's of Christ the strivings of the Spirit the waitings of Patience been all slighted and disregarded by thee Are not all thy Prayers lost and will not all thy Profession come to nothing and thy hopes of Heaven perish when for want of love to Christ thy Soul shall never enter into Heaven but perish everlastingly XVI Want of love to Christ Is it not a mark and brand of a graceless Man Is not the absence of love to Christ inconsistent with the presence of any other saving Grace Psal 31.23 O love the Lord all ye his Saints No love no Saint No Saint no Grace in thee If Loveless altogether Graceless for then 1. Thou art faithless for didst thou believe on him thou wouldst have sincere love unto him for where there is Faith it worketh by love Gal. 5.6 2. Thou art fearless of God Love and fear of God do sweetly concur Love is afraid to offend 3. Thou art sorrowless that is as to any holy godly sorrow For love to Christ would make thee sorrow for thy sin for the absence of Christ and love would cause thee to sorrow that thou lovest no more 4. Thou art also hopeless for there can be no solid ground of hope in him when there is no love unto him He that hopes for Heaven by the merits of Christ without love to the person of Christ his hope is a Fabrick without a foundation the Fools Paradise It is hope without a warrant and in the end when he misseth of the end of his expectation will be found to be no
better than rash confidence bold and damnable presumption For the greatest Professor without love to Christ is a Self-deluding Hypocrite whose hope shall be cut off and prove as weak though spun as fine as a Spiders web Job 8.13 And shall be as the giving up of the ghost Job 11.20 And is the want of all Grace no evil in thine Eyes when it brings punishment that shall be endless easeless and remediless upon all that were totally and finally Graceless XVII Not love Christ Gods own Son How then is God thy Father Joh. 8.42 Jesus said unto them if God were your father ye would love me If ye be his creatures and not love him it is an aggravation of your sin not to have love to him that gave Being to you but though ye are his Creatures without love yet ye are not his Children but better never had been his Creatures if not his Children for though ye should every day with great confidence say Our Father without love to Christ God will never own you as Children nor give you Childrens Portions XVIII Not love Christ How canst thou then excuse all the love thou hast to other things from being sinful Love So that the more thou lovedst the more thou sinnest because thy love to others is not subordinate to the love of Christ but separate from it To love other things and persons in Subordination to the love of Christ is not a Sin but Duty to love other things and persons and not Christ or more than Christ is not a Duty but a Sin and thus the love of your Estates is sinful Love And the love of Husband Wife Children and of your Selves is therefore sinful Love because it is above the love of Christ for these should be loved in Christ and for Christ but you love them without Christ and more than Christ therefore all your love without love to Christ though materially good is sinful love Mat. 10.37 XIX Not love Christ Art thou not all this while treasuring up terrible Accusations in Conscience against the hour of Death and day of Judgment The time will come and is at hand when thou and all thou lovedst besides Christ must be separated Thou hast loved the World and thou must leave it thou hast loved thy Pleasures and thou must bid adieu unto them thou hast loved thy Relations and thou must take thy sarewel of them and then oh then if conscience be awakened if thou dost not go blindfold and hood wink'd by the Devil out of this World wilt in the bitterness of thy Soul lament thy woful case and say Oh! What have I done What is this that I have done to love what I must leave I loved my Riches and now Death will take me from them I have set my heart more upon my earthly Relations than upon Christ and now Death is come to tear and carry me away from them I have loved my life more than Christ and now Death will put an end unto my life And all these things that I have loved now must lose Oh! Had I loved Christ as I have loved them Christ would not have left me Death could not have separated him from me but should have removed me nearer unto him But this I did not woe is me that this I never did for now all my love proves vexatious love to think and find that what I have loved in one moment I have for ever lost XX. Want of love to Christ Doth not this make Damnation unavoidable and the escaping of Hell to be impossible For when thou dyest whither wouldst thou have thy Soul to go To one whom thou never lovedst While thou didst live thou didst not wouldst not love him and after Death canst not Canst not love him Is Heaven a place for them that cannot love Christ Heaven is a place of Love the Imployment of Heaven is to love and praise him whom they do love Without love to Christ thou wouldst not find imployment there and the life of Heaven will be no idle life where all shall live and love and love as long as they shall live therefore such as do not now and hereafter cannot love shall never enter to live in that place of Love Now Sirs What do ye think Is the want of love to Christ so small a sin as ye have hitherto supposed it to be when you have spent and past the greatest part of your lives without love to Christ and without sorrow for want of that love What do ye mean To cease to live before ye do begin to love What shift have ye made to live in mirth and joy when the love of Christ hath not liv'd nor reign'd in your hearts Let Conscience be Judge between God and you but if Conscience be dead and will not give its judgment let God himself be Judge have ye done well to love that which ye should have hated and hated him whom ye should have loved Done well God knows it is not well done and Devils themselves know you have not well done and ye your selves sooner or later God grant before it be too late shall know in this ye have not done well Done well No ye have done foolishly ye have done wickedly nay in this ye have done Devilishly in what ye have done call to mind the things that have been said ponder them in your hearts weigh them in the ballance of right reason and it will tell you ye have done abominably in what ye have done But I suspect this thought is rising in your hearts If we had not loved Christ we should yield we had done so great an evil as this is aggravated in it self and by its circumstances to be But God forbid that we should live without love to Christ we think it is pity that Man should live that doth not love Christ This supposed love I fear will keep you off from repenting for want of real love to Christ and make you set light by all these aggravations of this Sin because ye think and hope ye do love Christ and some are so ignorant of their sinful state by Nature and so vainly confident of the goodness of their hearts that they bless God they have loved Christ ever since they were born and will be ready to spit in that mans face that shall question their love to Christ Come then ye that are so confident that ye love him come unto the Trial bring it to the Touchstone of the Word of God and try of what Mettal is your Love What if it should prove but counterfeit instead of real Or suppose in some sense it should be real and not counterfeit yet should not be sincere and saving love for the discovery whereof I shall neâ—â— proceed to the third Use CHAP. IX Ten Questions by way of Conviction that many very many have no sincere Love to Christ from whence also Characters of sincere love to him by the right resolving of these Questions might be gathered and our
thereof Doth that Woman love her Husband that is gone a Journey and the tidings of his coming back is sorrowful News unto her The loving of the coming of Christ is a character of such as shall be crowned when he comes 2 Tim. 4.8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto all them also that love his appearing And the Spouse that was inflamed with Love concludeth that Song of Love with this Request Cant. 8.14 Make haste my beloved and be thou like to a Roe or to a young Hart upon the mountains of spices And when in the last words save one verse of all the Book of God Christ promiseth his last and speedy coming the Church that loveth Christ catcheth the promise out of his mouth and turns it into a Prayer Rev. 22.20 He which testifieth these things saith Surely I come quickly Amen Even so come Lord Jesus But your heart saith rather Oh not so Lord Jesus great love in the mean time in your heart Yet one that truly loveth Christ might be sometimes filled with fear at the thoughts of Christs coming not because he doth not love and desire it but because he thinks he is not prepared for his coming lest Christ should find him unfitted and unready at his coming to enter with him into his glory but while he doth defer his coming the loving Soul is hasting in his preparations for it As a Woman that is told her Suiter is coming is greatly troubled not because he is coming but because she fears he might come before she he adorned as she doth desire What say ye now Sirs Do ye love Christ or do ye not Upon the laying these things to your heart by examination of your heart by them can ye upon mature deliberation say that ye find the love of Christ is there Then I shall shew in the close of this subject what cause of joy in God ye have what comfort for the present and what ground of expectation of better greater things for the future and for ever this love to Christ might be unto you But is this the case of all you in this Congregation I would to God it were Is love to Christ in every heart among you I wish it were but I fear it is not I hope some of you do love Christ but can I hope so of you all If I would never so fain I cannot while some are ignorant and some are prophane and too many are excluded by the former characters of Love from having for the present the Grace of Love Oh that I my self had more love to Christ that I might grieve more that blessed Jesus is not loved by more among you Oh that for Jesus sake I had more love to your Souls that I could weep abundantly over you that neither for Jesus sake nor your own have hitherto loved the Lord Jesus What then Have ye not Good God pardon it Will ye not Good God forbid it What shall I do Take it for granted that many of you do not love the Lord Jesus Yea I have proved that ye do not And oh how bitter are these thoughts to me that so many of you do not love the sweetest Jesus Shall I take it for granted that ye will not This were enough if my heart were not a stone to break it to pieces Shall I let you alone without this Love I dare not Shall I try to gain your Love not to me but to my Lord I am afraid ye will deny me Deny me In this that is of everlasting concernment to your Souls shall I take a denial and be gone At your first denial I will not be gone I know ye must have love unto him or be cursed by him how then can I acquiesce in a denial from you I know the Sinner doth not know what he saith when he doth deny to give Christ his love and therefore in hopes he might come to a better understanding of himself and what makes for his own eternal good I will proceed to the fourth Use by which I hope God will change some of your hearts and minds and win the love of some of you for Christ that all you that yet do not love him will not give this as your final answer That ye will not love him CHAP. X. Where the fourth Vse is an attempt of gaining Sinners consent to love Christ a serious wish for good success OH then be perswaded as ye love your Souls as ye would escape the Damnation of Hell as ye would obtain the Happiness of Heaven as ye would avoid the punishment of Devils as ye would dye in a good condition and after Death give a good account of the Wooings of Grace this day and not be Anathema when Maranatha be perswaded to set your hearts and love upon Jesus Christ for he must be loved by you or ye must be cursed by him Abraham Gen. 24. sent his Servant bound with an Oath to seek a Wife for his Son Isaac with this proviâ—o If the Womâ—n would nor be willing he should be clear from his Oath ver 1. to 10th The Servant prepares to go on this Message and Prays O Lord God of my master Abraham I pray thee send me good speed this day and shew kindness to my master Abraham ver 10.11 12. He meets with Rebekah by the Well of Water enquireth whose Daughter she was and whether there were room in her Fathers House for him to Lodge in he is invited by her Brother Laban saying Come in thou blessed of the Lord wherefore standest thou without for I have prepared the house and room for the camels to ver 32. There was Meat set before him to eat but he said I will not eat till I have told my errand And he was desired to speak on and he said I am Abrahams servant and the Lord hath blessed my master greatly and he is become great and he hath a Son and he hath given him all that he hath and my master made me swear saying Thou shalt go unto my fathers house and to my kindred and take a wife unto my son and now if ye will deal kindly and truly with my master tell me and if not tell me that I may turn to the right hand or to the left Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said The thing proceedeth from the Lord we cannot speak unto thee bad or good behold Rebekah is before thee take her and go and let her be thy masters sons wife as the Lord hath spoken And the servant brought forth Jewels of silver and Jewels of gold and raiment and gave them to Rebekah and they said to Rebekah Wilt thou go with this man and she said I will go O that I might have such success with Souls this Day for the Lord my Master hath sent me bound with the obligation of a Woe to seek the love and
he will not be entreated Surely the infinite distance that there is betwixt God and Man might fill us with wonder that God should become a Suiter to man for his love when there is not so much distance between Man and Nothing as there is between God and Man and yet he is pleased to stoop so low to urge us to consent to him that we might be advanced as high as Heaven who else must be plunged into the depths of Hell On what is this that the Creator should seek to be loved by the Creature The Lord to be loved by the Servant The King of Saints to the Subjects of Sin that he might have our Heart and Love Whereas if we did consider that our striâ—test Service to him would be our largest Liberty our having of him our only Happiness our missing of him our greatest Misery we should know it were our Interest to prostrate our selves at his Feet to lye at his Door with Prayers and Tears with Cries and Calls with Grief and Groans to make it our daily Suit to him that he would love us and give us an Heart to love him Man was first in departing from God and in removing of that love that at first there was betwixt God and Man yet God is first in seeking the renewing of Love else Man would always hate and never love him And that God should seek to Man for his Love and be denied might be astonishment to the Angels in Heaven and make matter of joy if they be capable of any joy to the Devils in Hell that Men that may love Christ and will not might be as miserable as themselves to whom he is not propounded as an object of Faith Love or Hope But whether you will love or not love him God hath commanded me and others of his Ministers to lye hard at you for your Love he hath given us a Commission to make a motion of love betwixt Christ and you in order to your matching with him Mat. 22.2 3 4 c. and hath committed to us the Word of Reconciliation and made it our Work to Wooe you for your love unto his Son and to try to gain your consent 2 Cor. 5.18 19 20. And if you will love him to espouse you to him 2 Cor. 11.2 This is my Message and for this end am I come this day If I do not ask you I hazard my Soul if you deny you lose yours God therefore grant that I might so ask that you may not deny that both your Souls and mine might Love and so be Saved For the gaining of your Love for Christ I shall use these Arguments propounded by way of Question and when you have given a right Answer to them I hope Christ will have a good Answer from you CHAP. XI Twenty Motives or Pleas that Christ might have the Love of your Hearts I. CAN you find a more excellent object for your Love than Christ If you search through the whole Creation of God is there any like to Christ Whatsoever you think who dare say there is Are Riches Honours Pleasures Relations which you have loved comparable to Christ whom you ought to love If Good be only the object of Love is not the best Good the best object Can you love the lesser Good and not the greater Yea the greatest of all Is not all the Goodness in the Creature but as a drop to the Sea as a Candle to the Sun as a Sand to a Mountain if compared to the Goodness there is in Christ If David were worth ten thousand of others 2 Sam. 18.3 is not Christ Davids Lord better than all the World Read Cant. 2.3 5 16. Prov. 3.14 15. Phil. 3.8 Dost thou waver in thy thoughts or hesitate about this Tell me First Is not Christ a Good most suitable for thee Is Liberty so suitable to a Captive Man or Bread to an Hungry Man or Health to a Sick Man or Ease to a Pained Man as Christ is to a Sinsul Man For 1. Art thou not lost undone in danger to be Damned Christ will be thy Saviour thy Keeper and Recoverer Luk. 19.10 The son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost Heb. 7.25 Wherefore he is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them Isa 63.1 Mighty to save 2. Art not thou ignorant dark and blind knowest not the way to Heaven and eternal Happiness and mightâ—st weary thy self to find the Gate of Life and yet miss of it when thou hast done all He will be thy Teacher and thy Guide and direct thee Infallibly to it He will Anoint thine Eyes and cause thee to see such things as never yet thou sawest ver 3.18 If he Anoint thine Eyes with his Eye-salve though thou wast born blind thou shalt have thy sight 3. Art thou not Sick and full of Spiritual Diseases Abounding with Soul Distempers Even sick to Death Nigh unto eternal Death He will be thy Physician who is so able and so skilful that never any yet that he undertook to Cure Died under his Hands for rather than thou shouldst dye of thy Disease he will make thee a Potion of his own Blood which if thou Drinkest thou shalt certainly recover Therefore he came to be a Soul Physician and gave this as a reason why he did converse with Publicans and Sinners That he might cure them Mat. 9.12 4. Art thou not indebted Owest thou not Millions to God Hast thou a Mite to pay If God demand satisfaction from thee will it not prove thy Damnation If Justice pursue thee Death Arrest thee will not Devils seize thy Soul and hale it to the Prison of Hell from whence thou shalt not be delivered till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing which will never be This Christ if thou wilt but love him will be thy Bail become thy Surety and make payment of thy Debt and give thee a Discharge 5. Art thou not polluted and unclean Hath not the Leprosie of Sin overspread thy Vnderstanding Will Conscience Memory and all thine Affections So that thou art defiled all over liest wallowing in thy Blood art cast out to the loathing of thy person and canst thou in this filthy case enter into the holy Kingdom of God If thou wilt give him thy Love he will take away thy silthy Rags and give thee change of Raiment Zac. 3.1 2 3. If thou wilt come to him with Faith and Love and say Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean he in Love to thee will say I will be thou clean Mat. 8.2 3. He will make for thee a Bath of his own Blood and his Blood shall cleanse thee from all thy Sins 1 Joh. 1.7 Yea though they be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow though they be red like crimson they shall be as wooll Isa 1.18 6. Art thou not a Captive to Satan and to Sin Drudging Elbow deep in
the loathsome Service of Sin Is not thy Bondage more hard than that of the Israelites in Egypt And is not Satan and Sin as Cruel and Tyrannical as Pharaoh and his Task-masters Dost thou love thy Chains Art thou at ease in thy Fetters Wouldst thou be released Christ will be thy Redeemer by Price and by Power and make thee free and then thou shalt be free indeed 7. Art thou not an Enemy to God Born so and Lived so Take heed thou dost not dye so for then there shall be no Peace no making up the breach betwixt God and thy Soul But now Christ is the blessed Peace-maker and by the Blood of his Cross he will reconcile thee unto God Col. 1.20 21. God will never be reconciled to thee but in and through Christ 2 Cor. 5.18 19. 8. Art thou not spiritually Dead Hast thou not lost the holy Image of God which was thy Beauty Though thou art Dead he can quicken thee and give thee the Life of Grace and Glory 1 Joh. 5.12 Now if this be thy condition and Christ can and is ready able and willing to help thee in every respect how suitable is Christ to thee And suitableness being a ground of Love and a motive thereunto what an Argument is here to win thy Love Oh say then I am Lost but Christ will save me I am Ignorant but Christ will teach me I am Sick and he will recover me I am Indebted and he will be a surety for me I am Polluted and he will cleanse me I am a Captive and he will redeem me I am an Enemy to God and he will reconcile me I am Dead and he will quicken me Oh I never found one so suitable for me now even now he shall be loved by me Oh this is the most excellent Object for my Love and I will no longer hold it from him Secondly Is not Christ the most satisfying Good Thou art Indigent he will supply thee thou art empty he will fill thee thou art poor he will enrich thee Oh for Love for such a Saviour Thirdly Is not Christ the most durable Good When thy Riches shall fail thee thy Pleasures and Honours and Friends shall fail Christ will never fail Psal 73.26 Fourthly Is not Christ a peculiar Good Given by peculiar Love only to a peculiar People bringing with him peculiar Priviledges When all other things thou lovest are common to the bad as well as to the good Though a Worldly man whose Heart and Hands and House are full of the World might say Riches are mine yet he cannot truly say Christ is mine Let him have from thee peculiar Love and he will be to thee a peculiar Good Fifthly Is not Christ the most necessary Good Dost thou need Food so much when thou art Hungry or Liberty so much when thou art in Prison or Salve when thou art Wounded as Christ when thou hast sinned Without other things thou maist be happy pardoned reconciled and for ever saved but can any of these be thine without Christ Christ is needful while thou livest for if thou beest in health without him thy Soul is sick If thou shouldst be sick he will give the choicest and the richest Cordial when thou diest he will secure thy departing Soul and after Death he will be thy Friend when all shall leave thee at thy Grave he will be thine for ever Sixthly Is not Christ the most profitable Good For when thou hast him thou hast all Then God is thine and the Spirit is thine and the Promises are thine and the Priviledges of the Covenant are thine and Heaven it self shall be for ever thine Seventhly Is not Christ the most delightful Good Some delight in what they see some in what they hear some in what they taste some in recreation and some in notions but the delight of Christ doth surpass them all Eighthly Is not Christ a sure Good Other things God may give and call for them back again Hos 2.9 I will return and take away my corn in the time thereof and my wine in the season thereof and will recover my wooll and my flax But God never saith I gave such a man my Christ but I will take away my Christ again He may take Riches out of thy Hand but if thou gettest him he will never take Christ out of thy Heart Ninthly What shall I say to advance Christ in thy esteem that thou mightst love him Is he not a comprehensive Good Eminently all There is no goodness in the Creature but it is formally or virtually in Christ Is there wisdom in the Creature There is more in Christ Is there beauty power in the Creature There is much more in Christ Col. 1.19 For it pleased the father that in him should all fulness dwell Joh. 1.14 full of grace and truth This is the person for whom I beg your Love This is HE that is altogether lovely and desirable Consider now I beseech you can you be better offered Can you find a better match for your Soul Can you say all this the one half of this any one of all these things concerning the objects you have hitherto loved Oh then say I never understood the loveliness of Christ before How hath Sin befool'd me How hath the World bewitched me And how hath my foolish wicked heart deceived me that I have lavished my love upon the Creature and Sin when there was a Christ to love Such a Christ to love Such a Good as is not to be found in all the World Now shall he have my Love my Heart my All. II. Tell me Hath not Christ deserved your Love by what he hath suffered done given purchased promised and prepared for his Lovers Behold his Wounds which he hath endured for thee Behold a Crown of Thorns on his Head that there may be a Crown of Glory upon thine Behold him Dying that thou maist Live Him Suffering that thou maist be Saved Him Poor that thou maist be made Rich with the best sâ—rest and most durable Riches Behold him Condemned that thou maist be Absolved Him in an Agony that thou upon the conditions of the Gospel mightst have Rest and Ease in Glory Behold him bearing the Cross and the Cross bearing him that thou mightst not bear the Curse Him bearing the Fathers wrath that thou mightest be made the Subject of his Grace and the Object of his Love And now tell me Doth not this Christ deserve thy Love Shouldst thou love any like him when none hath done for thee like him Doth the small kindness of a Creature draw thy Love and shall not all this in thy Saviour towards thee kindle a Fire of Love in thee towards him How canst thou forbear to love him III. Will not Love to Christ be the best Love thou canst attain unto As he is the best Object of Love so Love going out to Christ is the best Acting of Love and pity it is that any other Object should go away with thy prevailing Love
rent 52. And the graves were opened and many bodies of Saints which slept arose And before ver 45. From the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour All wonderful 5. In his Resurrection John 10.18 The Dead were raised by him and he being dead was raised by himself Wonderful 6. In his Ascension Acts 1.9 10 11. The Disciples stood gazing and looking and wondring at his going up to Heaven Now was this wonderful Jesus born in sâ—â—ch a wonderful manner lived doing Wonders dyed with Wonders rose by a Wonder and wonderfully ascended into Glory and all this for the sake and salvation of lost Sinners if ye will not love him will it not be the Wonder of Angels of Devils and all the Creation of God Might not Angels wonder at you and Devils wonder at you and the Saints of God at his coming wonder at you Behold so many of you as will not love this wonderful Jesus shall be the Wonder of the World at the last day 7. Nay yet more he was the Ancient of Days from all Eternity John 8.58 and 17.5 Prov. 8.22 31. and yet he became a Babe for you 8. He was cloathed with Majesty Heb. 1.3 and yet for your sakes did subject himself to greatest Ignominy Isa 50.6 9. He was eminent for Beauty above all men Psal 45.3 And yet for you his Countenance was marred more than any man's Isa 52.14 10. He was mighty in Power by his Word commanded Devils stilled the Sea supporteth the World yet for you dyed like a weak man 11. He was perfect in Holiness without spot or guile and yet standing in your room was greatly accused of Blasphemy 12. He was full of Wisdom Col. 2.3 yet derided and laughed to scorn for you 13. He is judge of all the World and yet for you condemned at the Barr of Men to take away your sins and if ye would love him to prevent your being condemned at the Barr of God All this is wonderful And yet that such a wonderful Person did so wonderfully condescend and after all this should not be beloved by you will be and is wonderful shame 4. To draw your love to Christ consider what he will be to you For relation breeds affection The love of Christ to you should beget love in you to Christ What will he be to thee if thou wilt love him He will be thy Bridegroom and thy Husband the richest Match that can be offered or motion'd to thee He will be thy Shepherd and gather thy Soul unto his Fold and save thee from the destroying Wolf He will be thy Redeemer by price to buy thee out of the hands of revenging Justice and by Power to rescue thee out of the Jaws of the roaring Lion He will be thy Priest and Surety to pay thy Debt and reconcile thee unto God He will be thine Advocate to plead thy Cause against Satan thine Accuser and will continually appear before the Father for thee 1 John 2.2 He will be thy King and Captain to conquer thine Enemies and trample them under thy feet Is there nothing in all these things to gain thy Love to woo and win thy heart to this blessed Jesus How canst thou for shame deny him Canst thou go out of this place this day and not plight him thy truth not give him thy love Oh say this is he whom I will love 5. Moreover let this powerfully draw thy love to Christ what benefits thou mayst have by him in respect of deliverance from evil he would then deliver thee from the guilt and power of sin Matth. 1.21 from the tyranny of Satan Luke 11.22 Heb. 2.14 from the Curse of the Law Gal. 4.4 from the Wrath to come 1 Thess 1.10 Rom. 5.10 and from the sting of Death and Damnation of Hell 1 Cor. 15.54 55 56. in respect of the collation of good he will reconcile thee unto God and bring thee into the Adoption of Children purge thy Heart justifie thy Person procure audience of thy Prayers stand by thee at Death and save thee for ever Now poor Sinner what dost thou think of this Lord Jesus Christ that makes a motion for thy affection Tell me as before God would not thy love be better bestowed upon this Christ than upon the World and Sin Thou darest say no otherwise with thy mouth Oh say so also unfeignedly in thy heart and give it him as thou sayst and I have my end of preaching this lovely Jesus to thee and Christ will have the end of his dying for thee and thou wilt have that good by hearing which was not in thy heart to aim at when thou camest within these doors that camest a slighter of Christ and goest away a lover of Christ that camest from thy house to this with an heart cleaving in love unto the World and Sin but returnest from this unto thy own with the love of sin turn'd out and with the love of Christ entred into thy heart will make thee say O blessed change How much is this new love better than my old O blessed Word that it ever sounded in my ears and God brought it to my heart O blessed day the day of days the best day I ever had This day shall be recorded by me for this day Christ and I did fall in love Some come to a Sermon and by their wandring eyes and roving filthy hearts fall in love with a Creature but I came I confess I know not why nor how and God hath been in mercy pleased to change my heart and love which is the best change I ever made for this is the sweetest love I ever found But it may be this is not yet the happy Case of some others thereto to such I add V. When thou hast got this knowledge of Christ willingly entertain him and heartily receive him as offered in the Gospel and resign thy self to him and when he hath propriety in thee and thou in him love will arise in thy heart to him Faith is the Root and Love is the Flower that groweth upon it and Faith thus implanted will quickly work by love Gal. 6.5 When by Faith he is thy Christ and thy Lord and Saviour he will certainly be the beloved of thy Soul The Foundation of Love is laid in the relation to the person that is the object of love and propriety and interest doth beget it you love that which is your own because it is your own Your Children your Wife your Husband above all others And you will love Christ when once by Faith he is your own Cant. 2.16 I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine Then all other things which now are highly valued by you will be accounted as dross Phil. 3.8 Yea doubtless and I count all things but dross in comparison of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. VI. Pray much to God to work this Love in your hearts to Christ it is the Fruit of the Spirit and
wrought by him It is your Duty but it is God's Gift it is your Act but it is God's Work Eph. 6.23 Peace be to the brethren and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only Peace is from God that is the God of Peace and Faith from him the Worker of it but Love is from God that is the God of Love Love to Christ must be had from God and Christ or you will never have it For this the Apostle prayed for others 2 Thess 3.5 And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ And you may be the more encouraged to ask for this because such a Petition is pleasing to God that you beg an heart to love his Son rather than for Riches and Honours and length of Life in this world as in that of Solomon's in asking for Wisdom 1 Kings 3.9 10. And in your praying be earnest for love to Christ more than for your Life for love to him will be to you everlasting Life and take that Promise and turn it into a Prayer and then most like to be effectual Deut. 30.6 And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul that thou mayst live VII Improve the Principle of self-love to the promoting of love to Jesus Christ and say Do not I love my self Have I not so much love to my own Soul as to wish it well for ever Would I have my self miserable and accursed for ever If I be sick do not I love my self so far as to desire health If in pain to desire ease If in want to seek supply And is there any way for me to procure good everlasting good but by Jesus Christ I might love my self to please my self in sinful delights to destroy my self and damn my self without loving of Christ But such self-Self-love at last will prove Self-hatred and is that the best love I have for my self Surely if I love not Christ I hate my self VIII Make use of the sense of natural and friendly Love to raise in thee Love to Jesus Christ Thou hast some experience of the sweetness and delight there is in loving of a Friend Oh then what will be the delight of love to Christ Thou feelest what it is to love thy Parents to love thy Children thy Wife thy Husband if thou meetest with troubles Love doth make them light Is there so much sweetness in the love of a Creature and will there not be much more in the love of the Saviour If the Streams be sweet is not the Fountain much more I have found comfort and pleasure in the love of Relations I will now try what is to be found in love to Christ the Lord. IX Improve the vanity and vexation of the Creature and all thy disappointments and afflictions to raise and promote in thee the love of Christ Thou hast let out thy love upon the world how hath it proved and what hath it afforded thee Hast thou not found it to be a wearisom empty world A world of Care and Grief and Pain Thou hast looked for Ease and behold Trouble for Content and behold Vexation for Satisfaction and behold Emptiness and is this a World to be loved more than Christ Is not it's Sweetness sowre It 's Mirth Sorrow It 's Riches poor Oh then I must love Christ or have nothing to love out Vanity and Deceit When by the Word this Love is not wrought God might effect it by the Rod. When thou wast deaf to all Instructions God can open thy Ear and Heart by some Affliction and shake thee over the grave if thereby he might shake the love of the World and Sin out of thy Heart and by threatning thee by sickness that thou shalt have no longer room in the World make room for the love of Christ in thy Heart and by threatning to separate thy Soul and Body he might part thy Soul and the love of sin By some sickness he brings thee to the brink of the Grave and bids thee look where thou must lodge and then to the borders of Hell and bids thee look where thou must lie if thou wilt not hearken to his Son He lays thee on thy weary Bed and shews thee a sight of another World and thy nearness to it and doth threaten a Divorce of Soul and Body that thou mightest be willing thy sin might be divorced from thy Soul that thy Soul might love and be married to his Son of which some have had such good experience that they can say This was healthful sickness recovering weakness The view of Death the means of Love and Life If I had not been sick I had not been well if God had not shewn me Death I had never seen Life If I had not been filled with these fears I had past my days without hope if I had not been brought into these straits I had never been set at liberty If I had not been poor I had never been rich if I had not been empty I had never been filled if I had not been driven to feed on husks I had never been feasted in my Father's House if I had not found bitterness in the love of the Creature I had never tasted the sweetness of the Love of Christ X. Improve all the mercies thou receivest from God and look upon them as Love-tokens sent to gain thy love Love-tokens often take our love and such silent Gifts are very Rhetorical The Cloaths upon thy back thy Meat and Drink thy Bed thy Health thy ease from Pain bespeak the Love of thy Heart for Christ By sin thou hast deserved thou shouldst have no Bread to put into thy mouth that Sleep should depart from thine Eyes thy Bed should be filled with Thorns thy Body with Diseases thy Conscience with Horrour thy Heart with Fears thy Soul with Sorrows thy Life with Bitterness but Christ hath bought good things for thee by his Blood and hath given them to thee from his Bounty and by all these he pleads with thee that thou wouldst not deny thy love to him that is so kind to thee Nay thy very being on God's Earth thy breathing in his Air that thy Body is above ground and thy Soul on this side Hell that thou art not silent among the dead nor crying out among the damned is a great Love-token indeed For Justice would have cut thee down long since Sin these 20 40 60 years hath cried to Heaven that thou may'st be pack'd to Hell Devils have long desired the day of thy death hoping it will prove the day of thy damnation but this hath been Christ's love to thee to beg for thee longer time even time unto this day but for how much longer he might ask on thy behalf is more than is known to thee or me or any man And is not love in Christ the
cause of all this good to thee And should not Love in thee to Christ be the fruit and return of all this good from Christ to thee As the goodness and long-suffering of God should lead us to repentance for sin so also to love unto his Son Doth not the kindness of a man shewn to another beget love from him that receives it to him that doth confer it And shall not the kindness God for Christ's sake hath shewn to thee far surpassing the kindness of men allure and draw thy love to him Dost thou ask What shall I return to Christ that died to satisfie God's Justice to make Salvation possible to me I answer Love And what for the tenders of mercy and the offers of Grace made to me I answer Love And what must I return for his patient bearing with me that I am not dead and damned I answer Love Love Love And what must I return to Christ for my hopes of Heaven or eternal happiness Or if I have not well-grounded actual hope that yet I am not past hope but live in hope that by the use of means I may have a lively hope of an incorruptible Crown I answer still Love Unfeigned Love sincere and hearty Love So love and then hope love strongly and then thy hope will be lively Love him thus and then in the next and last Use I will tell thee what comfort and joy this love may bring into thy heart CHAP. XIII Ten Springs of Spiritual Comfort flowing into the Hearts of the Lovers of Christ LOvest thou the Lord Jesus Blessed Soul Lovest thou Christ Happy Man Lovest thou him that is Lord and Jesus and Christ Joy in thy Love For great is the difference between the Lovers of Pleasures and the Lovers of Christ betwixt the Lovers of the World and the Lovers of Christ betwixt the Lovers of Sin and the Lovers of Christ For the Lovers of Pleasures shall be filled with pain when their Pleasures are gone but so shall not the Lovers of Christ for their eternal Love to Christ will be eternal Pleasure to them 2. The Lovers of the World shall lose all they love though they do not love to lose yet they shall certainly lose all they love but so shall not the Lovers of Christ for they love and long to see him and in seeing him for ever shall have and love him for ever 3. The Lovers of Sin shall be condemned for their Love must to their Lodgings in Hell where Love is a stranger but so shall not the Lovers of Christ but shall be taken up to their Mansions in Heaven and shall dwell in Light and Life and Love for ever Where Light shall be the Life of Love and their Life shall be the Love of Light and Love shall shine and sparkle in Light and Life for evermore Now we believe but do not see Christ nor ever have for we walk by faith and not by sight though we have not seen him yet believing we love him believing and loving without seeing brings rejoycing unspeakable and full of Glory Oh what will that Joy then be when believing shall be turned into seeing when we shall not believe and love but see and love That Joy that now proceeds from Believing and Loving is unspeakable but that Joy that shall flow from Seeing and Loving is unconceivable 1 Pet. 1.18 Whom having not seen ye love in whom though now ye see him not yet believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory I promised to shew you the Comfort the Blessings the Joy that Love to Christ will bring unto you but I confess plainly I am posed It is above my shallow understanding here is a Depth I cannot sound it here is an Height I cannot reach it here is a Length and Breadth I cannot compass it As in the love of Christ unto the believing Soul so in the love and joy that proceeds from the love of the believing Soul to Christ The one is without measure the other is above my measure How shall I speak that which is unspeakable and utter that which is unutterable Will ye excuse me then if I do not what I did purpose to do And will ye loose me from my Promise when what I did promise I find upon the attempt of performance it is above my Power Or will ye tye me to do because I promised what I am not able If so will ye pardon my Weakness wherein I shall come short if I tell you a way whereby ye your selves shall be able to supply my defect That is Do ye so believe and love that ye might feel what I cannot speak and find that by Experience which cannot be uttered by Expressions and taste that in your selves which I cannot declare with my Tongue The Tongue is the Instrument of Taste as well as of Speech and if ye would know the sweetness of Honey ye might do it better with the tasting of your own Tongue than by the telling of mine But yet that ye may see my Will to attempt where I want Power I will not be altogether silent concerning these unspeakable things For as we should labour to know the love of Christ to us which passeth knowledge Eph. 3.19 so we may endeavour to declare things that be unspeakable To speak things that be unspeakable is impossible but to speak something of or concerning things unspeakable wherein I must acquiesce is feasible Tho' I do not undertake to bring you all things speakable concerning these unspeakable things but these few follow I. Love to Christ is an evidence of the sincerity of your Hearts and of the truth of your Conversion He that loves the World is a worldâ—y man and he that loves his Pleasure most is a voluptuous man and he that loves Christ with a predominant Love is a gracious upright man Cant. 1.4 The upright love thee Such love to the second Adam is not sound in any man that is still growing upon the old stock of the first Adam This love to Christ was not born with us but wrought in us when we were born again This new Love only is in the new Creature Love to Christ is an evidence of your Interest in Christ Such predominant Love to the Lord Jesus so Spiritual was never found in any Heart that is only carnal The Proof therefore of this predominant Affection will be a demonstration of your Spiritual Renovation Christ sifting Peter concerning his sincerity after his Fall when sifted by Satan enquires after his Love to him John 21.15 16 17. Rom. 8.28 II. All the Promises of the Covenant of Grace shall be made good to all those that sincerely love the Lord Jesus These Promises are many great precious and all suâ—e to the Lovers of Christ God in the Covenant hath promised he will be your God and all that is contained in that Promise is unspeakable for it is more than that he will be your Friend your Father or bountiful Benefactor or however
more is contained in these explicatory words than I am able to explain Heb. 8.10 God hath promised the pardon of sins Heb. 8.12 That he will justifie us Ezek. 36.25 and take away the old Heart and give a new one the hard and stony Heart and give a soft and fleshy which shall not be a fleshly Heart ver 26. to give his holy Spirit to help to quicken to guide to comfort you ver 27. To give persevering Grace Jer. 32.40 And I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good but I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me If God neither turn away from his sincere People nor they from God their Perseverance is sure that neither shall be is secured by the Promise of God Now these Promises concern the Lovers of God and Christ and to them shall be performed Neh. 1.5 O Lord God of Heaven the great and terrible God that keepeth Covenant and Mercy for them that love him and observe his Commandments The same words in Dan. 9.4 there are promises to them that love God and Christ and there are promises for the performance of those promises to such Deut. 7.9 Know therefore that the Lord thy God he is God the faithful God which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments He did he doth but how long will he do so To a thousand Generations But what will he do to them that do hate him What Read and Tremble ye that are haters of God and Christ Ver. 10. And repayeth them that hate him to their face to dâ—stroy them He will not be slack to him that hateth him he will repay him to his face III. Predominant sincere love to Christ is an evidence of Gods special and peculiar Love to you How fain wouldst thou know that God doth love thee and Christ doth love thee Then thou saist thou shouldst not care though all the wicked in the World should hate thee and if I knew that God did love me it would resolve my Doubts expell my Fears lighten my Burdens sweeten my Mercies make me chearful under the Cross be a Cordial to me in Sickness and be Life to me in the Gates of Death Canst thou prove thou lovest Christ Then I can prove that both God and Christ do love thee for thy love to God and Christ is the fruit and effect of Gods and Christs love to thee God loveth first or thou hadst never loved at all God loveth us with a preventing Love never any prevented God and Christ in Love We love with a following Love Prov. 8.17 I love them that love me Joh. 14.21 He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him 23. Jesus answered and said unto him If a man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him 1 Joh. 4.19 We love him because he first loved us And now what Spiritual Comfort What Heavenly Joy What Ravishing Delights might a Lover of Christ take in this That God and Christ is a Lover of him because his Love is such that is above all Expression beyond all Conception above all Comparison Eph. 3.18 May be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height 19. And to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge The properties of this Love will make your Joy to be abundant 1. Christ loveth his Lovers with a free Love ye had motives to love Christ his Beauty his Wisdom his Fulness The Necessity ye had of him the Good ye expected by him were attractives of your Love to him but what was in you to move Christ to Love you when ye were Deformed Polluted Guilty Condemned Poor full of running Sores and wallowing in your Blood Ezek. 16.6 And when I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thine own blood I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood Live yea I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood Live 8. Now when I passed by thee and looked upon thee behold thy time which might have been the time of loathing was the time of love As he hath Mercy because he will have Mercy so he Loves because he will Love Deut. 7.7 The Lord did not set his love upon you nor choose you because ye were more in number than any people 8. But because the Lord loved you 2. Christ loveth his Lovers with a pure Love The Love of most is Selfish-love loving others for their own ends and indeed there was something of Self in your loving of Christ that ye might be Pardoned by him and Justified and Saved by him But what can Christ gain by loving of you What advantage redounds to him Or what profit hath he thereby 3. Christ loveth his Lovers with an unparallel'd matchless Love Great was the Love of Jonathan and David great is the Love of tender Parents to their Children but Christs is greater than all Joh. 15.13 Greater love hath no man than this That a man lay down his life for his friends 4. Christ loveth his Lovers with a constant abiding Love for it is eternal and unchangeable The Love of Creatures is sickle and waveringlove sometimes sades and fails while they live or dyeth with them when they dye or when we dye their Love to us doth also dye At least they love us not as in that relation for Death hath null'd that relation But the Love of Christ is without end he doth Live for ever and he will Love for ever and neither our Love to him nor his to us doth dye when we do dye but after Death we love him more than ever and he doth manifest his Love to us more than ever Jer. 31.3 I have loved thee with an everlasting love IV. Christ makes the hearts of his Lovers the seat and place of his special Residence Lovers love to dwell together and Christ hath prepared Mansions for us that we might dwell with him hereafter but Christ through the greatness of his Love being impatient of so long absence till we come to be present with him in Heaven makes our Hearts a Mansion for himself that he might dwell with us on Earth till we are lodged with him in Glory Joh. 14.23 Jesus answered and said unto him If a man love me he will keep my words and my father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him Oh blessed Change When thou lovedst not Christ Satan the World and reigning Sin had their abode in thee These were the Lodgers in thy Heart that had the best Room and chiefest Seat in thine Affections While thou wast in the World and not in Christ the World was in thee and noâ— Christ While thou wast in thy Sin thy Sin was in thee as Lord and Ruler but now thou
hast changed thy Love thou hast changed not only the Lodgers but the Governours and Rulers of thine Heart for now the Father is come and the Son is come and the Holy Ghost is come and have taken up their abode in thee Will God dwell in Hearts of Clay Yes if Love to him dwell there V. Christ will manifest himself unto his Lovers He will discover his Love and that in the worst condition ye can be in While ye are in Prosperity many may manifest much Love unto you but when ye are afflicted distressed and stand most in need of their Help and Love will with-hold it from you Job 19.13 He hath put my brethren far from me and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me 14. My kinsfolk have failed and my familiar friends have forgotten me 15. They that dwell in my house and my maids count◠me for a stranger I am an alien in their sight 16. I called my servant but he gave me no answer I entreated him with my mouth 17. My breath is strange to my wife though I entreated for the childrens sake of mine own body 19. All my inward friends abhorred me and they whom I loved are turned against me But Christ that dwells in the Hearts of his Lovers is to them a Bosom friend that he makes the time of their greatest Troubles and Distresses to be the time of the discoveries and manifestations of his love Isa 63.9 In all their afflictions he was afflicted and the Angel of his presence saved them in his love and in his pity he redeemed them and he bare them and carried them all the days of old And if he withdraw and for a time conceal his love it is to make them more earnest in seeking after him and for fuller discoveries of his love to them afterwards Cant. 3.1 2 3. VI. All things shall work together for the good of them that love God and Jesus Christ Nothing shall befall them but first or last shall further them in their way to Heaven and tend to their advantage Many things seem to be against you but all shall work for you If you be in Prison your Heart shall be the more enlarged If you lose the things of the World your Heart shall be the more set on the things of Heaven If you be sick and weakly it shall quicken you and stir you up to make more haste to get ripe for Heaven If you be Poor in the World it shall further your Riches in Grace Whatever be the Cross it shall increase the weight of your Crown Rom. 8.28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are the called according to his purpose VII Sincere love to Christ is a mighty help against Apostacy If a man be a Professor and a Lover of the World a Professor and a Lover of Pleasure of his own Ease and Life more than of Christ when these come in danger to keep them he parts with Christ but he that loveth Christ above all will part with all to cleave to Christ Love to Christ hath carried his people through great difficulties and dangers out of love to Christ they have contemned the Allurements and laughed at the Affrightments of this World have gone through Shame and Reproach endured Stripes and Imprisonments Bonds and Bondage and Death it self Rom. 8.35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ Whether it be understood Actively or Passively of the love wherewith we love Christ or the love whereby we are beloved by Christ is not material for concerning both we might ask Shall Tribulation or Distress or Persecution or Famine or Nakedness or Peril or Sword 37. Nay in all these things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we over-overcome we are more than conquerors through him that loved us 38. For I am perswaded that neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come 39. Nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. If any leave Christ it is for want of love for so far as love prevails we shall in greatest Troubles and Sufferings for him cleave unto him VIII The Lovers of Christ shall be always under his Eye for good He will be looking upon them in order to the shewing of Mercy unto them He looks upon the Lovers of the World and Sin with an Eye of Observation and Indignation he looks and takes notice of their sinful love he looks and is angry with them for such love but he looks upon his Lovers with an Eye of Compassion to pity and to tender them Psal 119.132 Look thou upon me and be merciful unto me as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name God useth to do so it is his way his manner and custom of dealing so with such as love him it is not a strange thing to God nor a thing that he doth but now and then but it is his daily custom to look upon his Lovers and shew them Mercy Psal 145.20 The Lord preserveth all them that love him but the wicked that do not love him will he destroy IX The Lovers of Christ have great preparations made by God himself for their entertainment in the other World For all the Lovers of the World and Sin and Vanity is Wrath and Hell prepared but for the Lovers of Christ such things as do transcend the most refined Wit to conceive the most eloquent Tongue to express or the ablest Pen to describe 1 Cor. 2.9 Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him 1. The Eye of Man hath seen admirable things Coasts of Pearl Golden Mines stately Monuments Kingly Palaces costly Raiments but never Eye hath seen such things as God hath prepared for them that love him 2. The Ear hath heard of more than the Eye hath seen and many hear of the joys of Heaven whose Eyes shall never see them 3. The Heart of Man can conceive more than the Eye hath seen or the Ear hath heard it can imagine all Pebles to be Pearls all the Earth to be a silver Heap the Sea to be liquid Gold the Air transparent Chrystal every Star to be a Sun And if all these were so they would be but as a Sand to a Mountain a Beam to the Sun a Drop to the Ocean a Grain to a Golden Mine compared with the things that are prepared for such as love God and Christ for those things are so great they cannot be measured so many they cannot be numbred so precious they cannot be valued so long and lasting they will never be ended they exceed our Faith they are beyond our Hope above our Desires they might be possessed hereafter but they cannot be comprehended here because For Sublimity they are Incomprehensible for Transcendency
blamed when you thus do vilifie that Blessed Lord that none can over-value Will not you pass for a sinful wretch among all wise and serious men nay with God and Angels that you have a will for the world and for the empty vanities of this life but no will for Christ for a full and All-sufficient Christ When you do prefer fading enjoyments of a transitory life before a durable good in eternal life Tell me I beseech you is not he deservedly a wretch whom neither the Excellencies of Christ himself nor all the benefits he might have by him will move him to set his heart upon him What do you think What do you say Have you done well or ill in not loving Christ Well you dare not say Ill you are loth to say because by so saying you will condemn your self What then Condemn your self because you have not loved him and love him now that you might not be condemned by God and cursed by Christ for not loving him at all But because the want of love to Christ is such an horrid loathsome sin and yet lamented but by a few as if it were in our days almost accounted for no sin at all I shall endeavour to aggravate the hainousness thereof in Twenty particulars propounded to you by way of questions and let me intreat you to weigh them with a serious mind and when Right Reason shall dictate a true answer seek out some secret place where you might weep bitterly for this odious sin want of love to the Lord Jesus Christ I. Not love Christ What is this but a crossing of the end of God in making thee a man In setting thee above the beasts of the field In giving thee a more noble and more excellent soul than he hath given to the unreasonable creatures Hath not God given thee a soul capable of knowing Jesus Christ And what shouldst thou know him for if not to love him Hath not God given thee a will to go forth in its actings upon the most sweet and suitable Objects And what is that but Christ Hath he not put such an affection as Love into thy heart And dost thou think in thy Conscience it was that thou mightest love the world and not his Son Thy self and not his Son but thy self in opposition to his Son Thy sin and not his Son Canst thou imagine that God made thee a man and not a beast that thou mightest love him no more than beasts can love him Then it had been enough if God had made thee a beast and not a man Or dost thou repent that God hath given thee the Nature the Reason and the Love of a man that thou wilt not place it upon himself for which end he made thee a man If thou dost repent that thou art a man and not a beast then chuse the Love and Pleasures of a beast and refuse the Love and Pleasures of a man and that as a man thou art capable of If not why dost thou not answer the end of thy creation Dost thou not see that all the Visible Works of God do that for which they were made Did not God make the Sun to give light unto this World And dost thou not see what haste it makes to set and in the morning thou perceivest when out of view it kept its course and hasted to rise to give its light to this our Hemisphere again Did not God make this Earth to bring forth Fruit for the comfort of man And dost thou not daily eat thereof Did not God make other Creatures for the use and service of man And do they not do so And hath not God made thee and made it thy duty to love him Why then dost thou not do it Oh monstrous perverting of the Creation of God! And that in the best of his visible works If the like were done by other creatures how soon wouldst thou be weary of thy life If the Sun should withhold its light what a dungeon would this world be If the Earth should bring forth nothing but Briars and Thorns it would yield thee nothing but vexation and sorrow If the creatures should use their power and strength against thee as they do in serving of thee thou wouldst judge it better to want them than to have them And shall all that was made for man answer their end and not man that was made more immediately for God himself But a man that wants Love to Christ is become worse than the beasts that perish Psal 49.20 Better thou hadst never had the heart of a man if Christ hath not thy heart II. Not love Christ What is this but a thwarting the end of all Christ's undertaking for thee as thy Redeemer When man had sinned away the Holy Image of God and turned his heart and affections from God to the Creature man might have feared him but never have loved him Gen. 3.10 I heard thy voice in the garden and I was afraid Sin had brought such an aversation in the heart of man from God and all good that without Christ's undertakings for man man could have loved him no more than Devils Why did the Son of God become the Son of Man Why did he shed his Blood lay down his Life Why did he suffer sweat bleed and dye Why did he bear our Punishment satisfie Divine Justice endure the Wrath of God the Rage of Men and Devils but to bring man back again to God from whom he had departed And that the stream of man's affections might be turned again into its right Channel Couldst thou not have loved the World and Self if Christ had never dyed Couldst thou not have loved thy Pleasures and thy Sins if Christ had never died And having died wilt thou love no better Hath he come from Heaven to gain thy Love and shall he not have it Hath he given himself a Ransom to deliver thee from thy Captivity and paid thy Debt for which thou shouldst have gone to the Prison of Hell to gain thy Love and shall he not have it Hath he given his Life for thine his Soul for thine in dying when thou shouldst have dyed and all this to gain thy Love and shall he not have it What thinkest thou Was Christ weary of the Bosom of his Father Was it more honourable for him to dwell in flesh on earth than with the Father of Spirits in Heaven Was it not infinite Condescention for his Deity to be vailed with the rags of our Humanity Or was Christ prodigal of his Blood or weary of his Life or did he love and chuse such cruel Scourgings such Contempt and Scorn such a cursed shameful painful Death for themselves Surely all this was for some great and noble end which end thou doest as much as in thee lies by thy not loving him frustrate and render unattainable for if all men should deny him their Love as thou dost where would be the Reconciliation betwixt God and man Remission of Sins or Salvation