should no more Lye or Curse or Swear and he that was given to Tipling and Drinking should no more be intemperate this will not prove a Man Sanctified You may be civilized and yet not sanctified For a Man to argue thus I am not guilty of open profaneness therefore I am a Saints is no better arguing than to reason thus I have not the Plague or Leprosy therefore I am a Sound Man But who knoweth not that a Man may be Sick of diverse other Diseases who is free from these And may not one die of a Feaver or Consumption though he have not the Plague 2. If we are sanctified by Faith there is not only a negative but a positive change wrought in us One that is Sanctified hath put off the old Man and put on the new He may say by the Grace of God I am not what I was sometimes and by the Grace of God I am what I am He is not now what he was before he is now what he was not before Once he was Proud Self-conceited but now humble self-abhorring Once very vain and it may be profane but now strict and serious Once altogether selfish but now self-denying Once he was at least in his Heart an Enemy to the Power of Godliness and perhaps a scoffer at Holiness but now a lover and follower of what before he had so great a Prejudice and Antipathy against Once he was very backward to Religious Duties to the strict observation of the Sabbath to the reading of the Word to Family-Prayer and secret Prayer c. but now his delight is in Holy Duties and he could not live without them Once his Heart was wholly set upon Sin and the World but now in a good measure weaned from the World now resolved and set against Sin now set upon God and Christ set upon Holiness and Heaven and heavenly things 3. If we are sanctified by Faith then there is a thorow change wrought in us As the Apostle prayeth 1 Thes 5.23 The very God of Peace sanctify you wholly your whole Spirit and Soul and Body 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 Behold q. d. this is a thing to be well observed Sanctifying grace makes a great change indeed Mark it Behold all things are become new The new Creature hath a new Heart a new Tongue a new Life The new Creature walks by a new Rule is for new Designs new Employment new Company new Delights Sanctification is a renewing of the whole Man As in our natural state corruption overspreads the whole Man for which reason it may be called the old Man So if we are sanctified Grace makes a change on the whole Man for which cause it may be called the new Man though it makes not a perfect change here in this Life The new Creature is renewed in every part though he be renewed but in part while here He has a perfection of Parts though not of Degrees As a Child hath all the Parts of a Man though not aâ— Mans Proportion As when Day breaketh the whole Air is immediately enlightned though not in that degree as when the Sun is up and shineth in its Strength As Fire quickly enters all the Pores of the Iron put into it though it is not presently red hot Sanctifying Grace worketh upon the Judgment Will Affections upon the whole Soul all its Powers and Faculties And hence ariseth a main difference betwixt the Conflicts of the Regenerate and those Contests which are in the Unregenerate There is oft a great Contest in an Unregenerate Man betwixt his Conscience convinced and awakened and his corrupt Will and vile Affections Conscience calleth him one way while his Will and Affections draw him a contrary way But in the Regenerate there is warring in the same Faculties As all the Faculties are renewed though but imperfectly Hence as the Twins Jacob and Esau strove in Rebeckah's Womb so there is Flesh and Spirit the remainders of Corruption and a Principle of Grace striving in every Faculty Not only an enlightned Conscience against Sin but the habitual bent of the Will and Affections against it too The renewed part of the Will and Affections or to speak more properly that new gracious quality in the Will and Affections against the Unregenerate part or what remains of the old Man in them And though that better Principle is sometimes born down through the impetuousness of Temptation c. yet hence it is that a Regenerate Man sinneth not with full Will and Consent as he did before he was Regenerate Again Sanctifying Grace maketh a thorow change turning the Soul from all Sin to hate every false way So that no Iniquity is regarded in the Heart One that is Sanctified is for cleansing himself from all filthiness both of Flesh and Spirit Again It makes a thorow change inclining the Soul to Obedience unto the Will of God in all things To have a respect to all God's Commands An holy Rule and an holy Heart do well agree As the Apostle saith Rom. 7.22 I delight in the Law of God after the inner Man 4. If we are Sanctified by Faith we are for making progress in Holiness till we come to Perfection As we may see natural things growing up to Perfection in their kind the Seed growing up to a flourishing Plant the Set growing to a Tree the Child growing till he becomes a Man So Sanctifying Grace is of a growing nature And though all that are Sanctified are not of the same pitch and stature in Grace yet all are endeavouring and breathing after Perfection The least Saint would be perfectly Holy and the highest Saint cannot but see great imperfection in himself and so is grieved that he is no more Holy Such never think they have Grace enough while they may have more But as for such as cry up a mean in Religion and conceit they need be no better than they are and desire to be no better they that like to stand at a stay are not right Certainly there is no good Man but desires to be better than he is 3. Mors fidei est separatio charitatis Bern. True Saving-Faith worketh by Love Gal. 5.6 It worketh it begets Love and it works by Love Indeed Faith and Love are two most active Principles that will set the Soul on work How doth Faith beget Love Why thus As it perswades the Soul of the love of God to us miserable lost sinners in giving his Son his only begotten Son and the love of Christ in giving himself for us for our Redemption As it perswades the Soul of the rich and free Grace of God in offering his Son and of Jesus Christ in offering himself to us together with the greatest benefits we can think of or desire to make us for ever happy That such things should be done for and offered unto such undeserving and illdeserving Creatures that Christ
the Beloved and only begotten Son of God should die for us Sinners for Enemies to reconcile us to God and not only offer us a Pardon written in his Blood but a Kingdom an heavenly Inheritance purchased by his Blood how admirably taking are such expressions of Divine Grace and Love Shall not such love constrain us 1 Joh. 4.10 Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our Sins And ver 16. with ver 19. We have known and believed the love that God hath to us We love him because he first loved us Suppose a condemned Traitor that could have expected nothing but the stroke of Justice and a shameful Death should yet have a Pardon offered him under his Princes Hand and Seal with a Promise of the greatest Dignity and Promotion in the Court and Kingdom that a Subject was capable of if he would heartily acknowledg his offence and faithfully promise Loyalty for the future how would his Heart melt as overcome of such kindness and Clemency But we may well say here Is this the manner of Man O Lord God Is there any parallel to be found or thought of to the love of God and Jesus Christ towards poor lost Sinners When David had spared Saul's Life 1 Sam. 26. how it wrought upon him Is this thy Voice my Son David I will no more do thee harm because my Soul was precious in thine Eyes this day But Faith will give us to see that our Souls were much more precious in the sight of Christ who gave himself a ransome for them Again As Faith shews the Soul the wonderful and matchless love of God and Christ to Sinners so likewise it presents God in Christ to the Soul as the most desirable Object in all the World and the most worthy of Mans Love By Faith Moses indured as seeing him who is invisible and by Faith Souls fall in love 1 Pet. 1.8 A sight of God and Christ by Faith will work love to him Faith discovers the greatest amiableness to be in him And thus indeed there is some degree of love in the very first act of Faith as saving It is impossible to conceive that a Man should accept of Christ without a desire of him without affecting and embracing him as a most sutable Good Though the Act of Assent be before the Love of Desire yet this Love ever goes along with the Act of Consent and Acceptance As one sayes We do not accept Mr. Baxter or marry Christ first and only love after but lovingly accept him When we give up our selves to God and Jesus Christ to be saved by him in his appointed way surely we have a liking of him to whom we give up and make over our selves We must needs prefer him in our Judgment and Will in our desire and choice before all other Therefore our Faith is not Saving if it worketh not love yea if it doth not cause us to love God and Jesus Christ above all so that we could forsake all for God and Christ And the predominant love of God and Holiness as Mr. Cathol Theol. Book 1. Part. 2. §. 17. p. 91. B. hath it is the very Heart of the new Creature And as Christ as Mediator is the summary means and way to the Father to bring Man home to his Creator So Faith in Christ is a mediating Grace to work in us the love of God And then Faith worketh by Love Indeed when this Love is kindled in the Heart it is a most powerful a leading and commanding Affection it will work upon all the Affections Then there will be grief and sorrow for having offended God there will be fear of displeasing him an hatred of what is offensive to him a desire to please and enjoy him delight in his Service and in ways of communion with him So Love will put a Man upon Action This would make us active for God to promote his Honour and Interest And his Commands would not be grievous to us Yea this would make us ready not only to do but also to suffer for him This would help us to hold out in a way of Obedience and patient Suffering If we love the Lord we shall cleave to him with full purpose of Heart But of the Grace of Love see more afterwards 4. True Faith overcometh the World 1 Joh. 5.4 5. This is the Victory that overcometh the World even our Faith Who is he that overcōmeth the World but he that believeth Faith is a victorious Grace and every true Believer is a Conqueror He is a greater Conqueror then Alexander the Great He obtaineth a better Victory a more gainful and glorious Conquest of the World It is true that Believers do not here obtain a full and absolute Conquest of the World And where Faith is but low and weak this Victory is less discernable But as the more a Christian is raised above the World the more doth the Truth and soundness of his Faith appear so while a Man is at the Worlds command and plainly captiv'd by it he may know that his Faith is not sound and saving That Faith will never bring a Man to Heaven that cannot raise him any degree above the * Nee sane mirum videri potest si nequaquam vincit quae nec vivit quidem Bern. World 1. True Faith will overcome a smilling flattering enticing World The World indeed as it is God's Creature is to be loved and used for him But as Man's Corruption hath made an Idol of the World as it is that wherein Men commonly place their Happiness as it is set in Competition with God and Christ or set in Opposition thus it is to be despised renounced and crucified Thus the World is an Enemy indeed an Enemy that we did vow and covenant against in our Baptism when we were solemnly listed into Christ's service It is a deadly Enemy if we do not overcome it it most certainly overcometh us and a we shall fall and perish by and with the World The Apostle hath told us plainly That their End is Destruction whose God is their Belly and who mind earthly things Phil. 3.9 And such as are Lovers of Pleasures more than Lovers of God have no more than an empty Form of Godliness denying the Power thereof 2 Tim. 3.4 5. When Man fell from God he fell to the Creature he fell down to the World and he cannot return to God without being loosened from the Creature and raised above the World While a Man rests in the World he stayeth at a broken Cistern he neglects and forsakes God the Fountain of living Waters And how can ye believe which receive Honour one of another and seek not the Honour that cometh from God only Joh. 5.44 So such cannot be sound Believers that are more for the World's favour than for the favour of God Such cannot be sound Believers that are more for carnal Pleasures than for
freed from but there is some special Sin or other that they are wedded unto and in league with and this they seek to hide palliate and excuse all they can whether it be Pride or Sensuality Voluptuousness or Covetousness c. that that is a Mans special beloved Sin a natural Man is for cloaking that Sin and cannot endure to hear his Herodias spoken against he studies Evasions and Distinctions to defend that Sin and to put off Convictions Thus the natural Man and Hypocrite will beat about the Bush I remember Mr. Hooker compares the Confessions of such to the Cries of the Lapwing As the Lapwing will cry and flutter and make most ado when furthest from her Nest or from her Young So such whose Hearts are unsound whatever Sins they take notice of yet they use to keep aloof off from their special Sins But the Doves of the Valleys they mourn every one for his Iniquity Ezek. 7.16 And this is a good Sign when a Mans sowrest looks are on his Dalilah his darling-Sin 3. Godly Sorrow is not only moved for open miscarriages which others may take notice of but is also stirred and working upon secret Sins As Judah said Gen. 38.23 Let her take it to her lest we be shamed Many would blush to have their Sins discovered who are not troubled while they can keep them close under-board If they have been guilty of lying and are found out or guilty of some theft or wrong done to their Neighbour and it is brought to light then they are vexed and disquieted The Thief is ashamed when he is taken But might they have gone on in Sin undiscovered it would not have troubled them That cannot be Godly Sorrow where there is no respect unto God And there is no respect unto God where secret Sins are not a Burden God sees in secret He sets our secret Sins in the light of his Countenance And so if we have godly Sorrow we shall take notice of cast a sorrowful Eye even on our secret Sins As it is more that God knoweth and is displeased at them than if they were known to all the World 4. Godly Sorrow is stirred in a sense of spiritual Impurities and not only moved at some gross Immorality Natural Conscience may fly in a Mans face for grosse Sins though secretly and closely committed Sins that defile the Hands that defile the Body stare a Man in the Face and he cannot so easily look off from them The filthiness of the Flesh disquiets the Conscience of many a natural Man while he is not sensible of the filthiness of his Spirit he quite overlooks other Sins seated within that defile the Heart and Soul But a gracious Soul is burdened with Unbelief spiritual Pride Hypocrisy with the inward Distempers of his Spirit yea many times he observes and is humbled for the first risings of Corruption first Motions to Sin 5. Godly Sorrow is moved as upon a sense of the prevalence and stirring of Corruption so upon a sense of the Souls being so wanting and weak in Grace A natural Man will complain when his Conscience is like a raging Sea for want of Peace while he complains not that his Heart is like a dead Sea he is not troubled for the want of Grace He could pray with the Psalmist Psal 51.9 Hide thy face from my Sins but not go on with the Psalmist ver 10. Create in me a clean Heart O God and renew a right Spirit within me Or if he prayeth for a clean Heart an holy Heart it is without Heart Confes lib. 8. â—7 As Austin confesseth he did when a young Man Da mihi Castitatem Continentiam sed noli modo timebam enim ne me cito exaudires cito sanares à morbo concupiscentiae quam malebam expleri quam extingui The natural Man loves Sin and therefore while such cannot truly desire Grace nor mourn for the want of Grace But the gracious Soul is weary of Sin Sin is its greatest Burden He sees a beauty in Grace and Holiness is taken with it and is ashamed to see himself so short here Like him that cried out with tears Lord I believe help thou mine Vnbelief He desires indeed to love God and is ashamed that he loveth God no more He would prize Jesus Christ and is grieved that he prizeth Christ no higher He is grieved for Sin and this further is his trouble that he can grieve no more He follows after Holiness and mourns to think that his Heart and Life are no more holy 6. A gracious Soul is humbled for the Iniquities of his holy Things When others are highly conceited of their formal heartless Services he sees cause to be ashamed of his best Performances is troubled for sinful defects in his best Duties As the Church confesseth Our Righteousnesses are as filthy Rags As Nehemiah when he had shewn great Zeal for God and his Service yet prayed Neh. 13.22 Remember me O my God concerning this and spare me according to the greatness of thy mercy Others rest in the Work done when they do Duties they care not how indeed take God's Name in vain yet they think they thereby make God their Debtor Like those Isa 58.3 who said Wherefore have we fasted and thou seest not wherefore have we afflicted our Souls and thou takest no knowledg As if the Lord did them wrong if he did not take notice of them and reward them A gracious Soul sees need of much Incense as Rev. 8.3 to perfume the best Prayers and Services that ever he presenteth unto God And it is God's free-grace that these are accepted as well that his Transgressions and Sins are pardoned Yea such a Soul is more troubled and afflicted in Spirit that he prayeth so weakly with so little Faith and Fervency than others are for not praying for their many sad and sinful Omissions of the Duty He is more troubled for hearing no better with no more reverence and trembling at the Word than others for their often turning away their Ear from the Word 7. A gracious Heart is ordinarily touched with a sense of the least Sins Others may be troubled for great Enormities but such a Soul would not make light of the least Infirmities Indeed no Sin is to be called or accounted little positively and absolutely but only comparatively There is not the least Sin but deserveth Death and can that be a small matter that deserveth Death Yet some Sins are more hainous deserving a greater Condemnation and a sorer Punishment But it is with a tender Heart as it is with the Eye that tender part a small Mote in the Eye offends it and makes it run over So not only gross Sins but lesser Miscarriages will grate sore on a tender Heart It is oft smitten for vain thoughts idle words inordinacy in following lawful Employments a little Excess in the use of Creature-Comforts or outward Recreations such things as others account venial Matters yea think it a foolish
odious One that hath true Grace sees himself to be more vile by Sin than all the Afflictions in the World could make him 2. There is a greater dislike of and displicence against Sin in the Will It 's possible that a Man might dye with less pain than he must indure in some cases to preserve his Life and yet he would chuse to submit to great pain rather than to the most easy Death A Womans travelling Pangs may be more grievous to sense than the Pangs of Death would be yet ordinarily Women would chuse to endure the former rather than the latter Thus a gracious Soul had rather any Affliction should befal him here than to be left under the Power of Sin And he is so grieved for his Sins past that he could wish he had been sick in his Bed taken up with pains at that time he was taken up with the pleasures of Sin He would submit to any Affliction and acknowledg God's Faithfulness in afflicting him may he find this Fruit of it even the taking away of Sin He would kiss the Rod that whippeth Folly out of his Heart 3. One that is truly gracious is often grieved that he has been apt to exceed in his grief for and under his Afflictions and that he hath grieved no more for Sin that here he falleth short He repenteth of his immoderate worldly Sorrow revoketh what he hath done is heartily sorry that any of his Sighs and Tears should run waste or have been mispent when he hath spent too few on his Sins Thus by an after-Act he would substract and deduct from his worldly Sorrow and make what addition he can to his Sorrow for Sin It is a real grief and burthen to his Spirit that Sin hath not been a greater grief and burthen to him Which one calleth a Reflexive Grief Besides a direct grief for Sin there is also in a gracious Heart a reflexive grief as it is oft sad to think how far short it falleth in mourning for Sin as it ought And thus immoderate worldly Sorrow is oft an occasion of the increase of godly Sorrow a sinful dejection under some outward cross is an occasion of deeper Humiliation for Sin A gracious Soul upon a serious reflection and review of it self is ashamed of his being so cast down under worldly troubles and that he is no more humbled under all his Sins 4. One that is truly gracious may be more moved at some great Affliction for a fit but his Sorrow for Sin is deeper rooted and of longer continuance It is true that commonly as Mr. Greenham said When Affliction lieth heavy Sin lieth light But the greatest worldly troubles do not affect the Heart of one that is gracious at such a distance as his Sins will do In a little time he gets over that perturbation of Spirit raised by an Affliction while his trouble for Sin still remaineth He can think of many an Affliction past and bless the Lord for his Faithfulness in the same As grievous as they were for the present yet he sees he could not well have been without them But he is oft renewing his Sorrow for old Sins When he may be grown old yet he oft calls to mind the Iniquities of his Youth with shame and grief Quest 3. Whether can one mourn and grieve too much for Sin Answ 1. As grief is seated in the rational Faculties so it is hard for any one to exceed As it implieth a sense or apprehension of the evil and vileness of Sin One can hardly think worse of Sin than it deserves unless he conceit erroneously that God suffers dammage in his very Being and essential Glory and perfection by it whereas it is not in the Power of all the Sinners in the World to hurt him in the least Job 35.6 8. He is over all God Blessed for ever Rom. 9.5 Or unless a Man should think his Sins so great that the Satisfaction and Merits of Christ could not expiate them or that the free Grace of God could not pardon them * Tanta est autem benignitas Omnipotentiae Omnipotentia benignitatis in Deo ut nihil sit quod nolit aut non possit relaxare converso Fulgent Epist 7. But otherwise not derogating from the Honour of God and Jesus Christ I know not how we can have too bad thoughts of Sin As it is against an infinite Majesty against the Will of God against his declarative Glory which shineth forth in his most wise and righteous Laws and should be held forth by all his Creatures especially by Man a reasonable Creature thus there is more intrinsick evil and vileness in Sin than our narrow Capacities can fully conceive And as Grief for Sin imports the Will 's dislike of it it is not possible that we should be too averse from Sin that we should hate Sin too much or be too much displeased at it 2. But as Grief is in the sensitive part and as it is expressed outwardly by Sighs Groans and Tears it may be too much Though indeed there are very few that erre on this hand But what the Apostle writes to the Corinthians concerning the incestuous Person 2 Cor. 2.7 that upon his repentance they should comfort him lest perhaps he should be swallowed up of overmuch Sorrow is observable here as it implieth that even Sorrow for Sin may be overmuch 3. The Passion of Grief is required to be exercised about Sin not meerly for it self but in order to a further end As ver 9. to imbitter Sin to us to endear Christ to us to make us more willing to part with Sin and to close with and accept of Jesus Christ And therefore that Sorrow which reacheth not the End how great soever it may seem is not enough 4. There are other and higher Duties that Christians are also called unto And Duties must be so managed that one may not clash and interfere with and exclude and justle out another They ought to be so carried on as one may not obstruct and hinder but further on and promote another Now a Life of Faith in Christ and a Life in the Love and joyful Praises of God is that which indeed all Christians should desire to live and study and endeavour by all means to attain unto And our Sorrow for Sin should be a Preparative to Joy and Delight in the Lord and should be an Help to close and comfortable walking with God And for a Christian to be wholly taken up in poring on his Sins and mourning over them neglecting the exercise of Faith and the drawing out of his Heart to God and Jesus Christ in love and thankfulness is a very great practical Error which must needs keep his Soul low in Grace as well as in Comfort 5. That Sorrow which is without Hope which casts the Soul into * Qualecunque sit ergo peccatum a Deo quidem potest remitti converso sed ille sibi remitti non sinit qui des
not the Love of God in them Alas shall not such be judged out of their own Mouths Even these to whom our Saviour here speaketh were the People of God in Profession and would have spoken him as fair as we can do With their Mouths they shewed him much Love whereas it was not found in their Hearts As he that knew what was in Man and whose Judgment is ever according to Truth pronounceth of them But I know you that ye have not the Love of God in you And when you have the Notes of true Love to God plainly laid down then you may know and judg whether the Love of God be in you or no. To be loved of God is the Creature 's highest Felicity and to love God is its highest Duty yea it is the Sum and Abridgment of the whole Duty of Man The Love of God is as the Heart and Soul of Religion It is a necessary Principle of all sound Obedience And the most specious Acts that any Man can possibly perform though one should give all his Goods to feed the poor or give his Body to be burned are not acceptable unto God without it It is the Rule and Measure as it were of other Graces Charitas est virtus virtutum reliquae virtutes sine charitate Figuram habere possunt Veritatem habere non possunt Lud. Carthus in Psal 47.12 Sorrow for Sin is not kindly if it proceed not from the Love of God and tend not to promote our walking with him in holy Love No tears are desirable as * Mr. Baxt. Christian Directory p. 147. §. 21. one says but those that tend to clear the Eyes from the filth of Sin that they may see the better the Loveliness of God Absque hoc timor poenam habet honor non habet gratiam Servilis est timor quandiu ab amore non manumittitur qui de amore non venit honor non honor sed adulatio est Bern. in Cant. Serm. 83. And Fear degenerates when it is not joyned with Love when it begets hard and black thoughts of God when it drives not the Soul to God but rather from him All Grace in the kindly exercise thereof tends to cherish and increase this of Love The Love of God is as the Queen Regent on whom the whole Train of other Graces must attend whom they must serve Faith and Hope are eminent Graces yet the Apostle gives the preheminence to Charity or Love 1 Cor. 13.13 Now abideth Faith Hope Charity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Love but the greatest of these is Charity Where some Copies instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the greatest of all is Charity And Charity first and most properly agrees to that Love we ow to God who ought to be summè charus dear to us above all other The account that is commonly given why Love hath the preheminence of Faith and Hope is because of its everlasting duration Faith and Hope abide here but Love abideth in Heaven where Faith is swallowed up in Vision and Hope in Fruition And yet note further that it is not simply for its duration that it excelleth but because of its excelling Nature it is to endure The moral Image of God true Holiness eminently consists in Love And Faith and Hope though necessary Graces here while we are in statu viatorum yet they cannot properly be exercised by those who are Comprehensores in the actual enjoyment of full and compleat happiness whereas Love is not only necessary in the way to Happiness but in the full fruition of it Yea it is a main part of our happiness And without perfect Love we could not be perfectly happy There is no perfect enjoying of God without perfect Love to him and perfect delight in him And as Christ as Mediator is the principal means of bringing us to God so Faith is a means to beget and increase the Love of God in us True Faith worketh this way And this is the end and principal scope of the Commandment 1 Tim. 1.5 Whereby it sufficiently appeareth that it is a matter of so great concern that every one ought seriously and strictly to inquire whether he hath the love of God in him or no Now the Love of God in short is an intense willing of God More plainly it is the disposition or motion of the Will the rational appetite renewed and rectified by the Holy Spirit whereby the Soul cleaveth to God is united to him and fixed on him as the chiefest Good Or thus It is a being well pleased with God above all things in the World with a desire to please him in all things The most proper principal and formal act of Love is a complacency or wel-pleasedness with the Object loved So the Love of God if it be right is the highest complacency of the Soul a being most taken with God as the most transcendent as an Universal and Infinite Good And hence though the Love of God and the Love of Christ be inseparable yet they must be distinguished The Love of Christ as Mediator is the Love of the principal means to our ultimate end as he is the new and living way by whom we must come to God but Love is terminated upon God as our very ultimate end that we look no further Now to the Question How we may know whether we have the Love of God in us or no Answ 1. Sound Love to God is founded in a sound Knowledg of God Ignoti nulla cupido There may be some knowledg of God where there is no true Love to him but there cannot be Love to God where there is no knowledg of him But the eyes of the understanding being truly enlightened with the knowledg of God by this means the heart comes to be affected Ex aspectu nascitur amor We read Psal 9.10 They that know thy Name will put their trust in thee So they that know his Name aright will set their love on him And therefore Psal 91.14 Because he hath set his love upon me and because he hath known my Name are used promiscuously And so the Apostle praveth Phil. 1.9 that their love may abound in knowledg As the Saints the more they know God the more they love him As in Heaven where they have the clearest sight of Gods excellencies and fullest manifestation of his Love there they have perfect Love to him are as full of love to God as their Souls can hold The Love of God is founded in Knowledg And there is especially a knowledg of these two things viz. of his Love to Man and of his loveliness that makes the soul in love with him How great is his Goodness and how great is his Beauty to enamour us 1. There is a knowledg of the Love of God especially of his Love in Christ A knowledg of God in Christ and so a love to God in Christ As we read of love in Christ Jesus 2 Tim.
1.13 O the unparallel'd love of God in Christ Joh. 3.16 God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son Rom. 5.8 Herein God commended his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us 1 Joh. 4.9 10. In this was manifested the love of God towards us c. Herein is love such love was never read or heard of What is there in all the World that should take so much with lost sinners as the love of God in providing such a Saviour Indeed there are some who have a kind of love to God grounded on those outward Mercies and temporal benefits they receive from him as Health and Wealth Plenty and Peace and temporal deliverances These things take more with them than the richest offers of Divine Grace Alas they are so far from a loving and hearty acceptance of God's Grace in Christ that they most ungratefully reject it Now such as slight and despise the highest expression and manifestation of God's Grace with what face can they pretend to love God upon this account Others speak sometimes as if souls must know their special interest in God and that God loveth them in special before they can love him But certainly that is a great mistake It is true the Assurance of God's Love is a special means of heightning and inflaming our love to God for which end more than for our own peace satisfaction or comfort we should use all diligence to attain Assurance Yet our first Love is not the effect of such an Assurance but a necessary Antecedent to it How can we know that God loveth us with a special Love till we know that we are such as believe and such as love God as Faith and Love are inseparable But though we have not this particular Assurance is there not ground enough to love God that he is infinitely Good and therefore most amiable in himself and further that he hath so loved us when most unworthy of his love and fit objects of his wrath yet that he hath so loved us as to give his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life That it is possible we may have yea certain that we shall have his special Grace and favour towards us we coming to him in and through Christ that in Christ he is reconciling Sinners to himself that it is a principal design of the Gospel and a chief errand that his Ministers are sent upon to beseech Souls to be reconciled to God is not this a drawing with cords of a Man with bands of Love That God hath prevented us with such a demonstration of his Love and Goodness towards sinners in general setting forth a way of Peace and Reconciliation Are we not all bound upon this account to love God though all are not presently to conclude that they are elected or that God loves them with a peculiar Love Now have we been drawn with these cords of Divine Love scil God's giving Jesus Christ the Son of his Love for us his offering Christ to us and with him all that our Souls can desire to make us everlastingly happy if we will but heartily accept of him Are we drawn with this his lovingkindness Jer. 31.3 are we overcome of that kindness and love of God our Saviour towards us 2. There is a Knowledg of God's Beauty and Excellencies of his most glorious and infinite Perfections that is to be laid as the foundation of our Love Thus God will appear most amiable We cannot love him as God Quid est Deus Quo nihil melius cogitari pot est Bern. de consid l. 5. but we must love him as most perfect as infinite in all Perfection We must see all Excellencies in him and nothing in him but what is excellent That he is infinitely more worthy to be loved than any or all the Creatures in the World as they all come infinitely short of him We must know that the virtue and goodness found in any creatures for which they are to be loved is but as a drop of the Ocean or not so much compared with his infinite Goodness We must see so much in God an infinite Fulness and Alsufficiency that there needeth no more to make us for ever happy while there is a scantiness and deficiency in creatures that we could not be happy in the enjoyment of the whole World without God It is true the knowledg of God admits of degrees And the holiest and most knowing creature in the World is far short of knowing God to Perfection But such as are meer strangers to God without the true knowledg of God cannot love him aright This Love is never blind It is impossible Men should love God for that which they see not to be in him And such as have very low thoughts of God it is plain neither know him aright nor truly love him 2. We may know we love God in truth if we love him for himself and not meerly for our selves Yet we cannot love God but we shall love our selves We cannot love him but we shall desire above all things in the World to be happy in the fruition of him And is not this to love our selves to desire the greatest happiness to our selves that we are capable of And God never requireth this that we should love him without seeking our own happiness in him And further he is to be loved as our gracious Benefactor Psal 116.1 I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice and my supplications Yet observe the benefits we do or hope to receive from him must not be the only or chief reason of our love We must rise higher even to love God as God We must love him for what he is in himself Qui hoc desiderat propter aliud non hoc desiderat sed aliud and not only for what he doth or promiseth to do for us As Dr. * Vid. Of effectual Faith p. 133. Preston distinguisheth betwixt the love of Harlots and the love of Virgins Harlots look only at what they shall have by him but they that have right holy and chast Affections look as well at his own Excellencies for which he is most worthy to be loved Sound Love is not meer Self-Love Love which is regular is not only loving a thing or person good to us but loving that which is good in it self whether we have benefit by the same or no and loving the same according to the degree and measure of goodness which is in it Thus if our love be regular we love God most he being infinitely good not only best for us though in this respect we are allowed to love him but also as infinitely Good in himself Good in that sense as none are to be acknowledged good besides Mat. 19.17 There is none good but one that is God He alone is perfectly universally originally immutably infinitely good And hence a modern School Divine concludes Zanch.
tom 4 col 304 c. that God alone speaking properly is to be the object of our love He deserves all the love our hearts can hold yea all that is nothing to what he is worthy of Mat. 22.37 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy mind And though our Saviour subjoyns v. 39. Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self yet we are not allowed to love our selves or Neighbours in that sense after that manner as we are required to love God As a great School-Divine of our own Mr. Baxt. Christian Directory p. 183. §. 23. We are to love God totally not only in degree above our selves and all the World but also as God with a love in kind transcending the love of every Creature We are to love God for himself but to love others only in God and for him And so our love of Creatures is a secondary love of God Vid. pag. 184. §. 29. when we love them with respect had unto God and for his sake Ita ut à Deo incipiat Zanch. per creaturas transeat in Deum desinat sanctus amor noster Holy love takes its rise from God passeth through the Creatures and does not terminate in them but in God The grace of Love Charitas est dilectio qua diligitur Deus propterse proximus propter Deum vel in Deo P. Lombard Sent. lib. 3. Dist 27. p. 627. respecting others is but a stream of the Souls love to God it flows from this Fountain The grace of Love is a loving God for himself and others in God under him and for him Now that God is to be loved for himself hence it follows that our love is greatly defective privatively sinful when we love him only or chiefly for our selves And this further appears in that the love of God is a chief and eminent part of that Worship we owe to God Deut. 6.5 yea sometimes it is spoken of as the sum of all The love of God is the abridgement of the first Table as the love of our Neighbour is the abridgement of the second But certainly this is not to glorify God as God to love him but for our selves for this is to love our selves more than God this is to set our selves above him to deify our selves And further if we acknowledge him to be God we must acknowledge him our ultimate end that the pleasing and glorifying of God is the great work and chief design on which we ought to be most intent whereas to love God but for our selves this is to turn Mans highest ultimate end into the rank of a means as Mr. B. well noteth This is instead of serving him as God only to seek to serve our selves of him Yet it is granted that God useth the principle of self-Self-love which is naturally implanted in Men and by this brings on Souls to the love of himself even for himself Though there is no greater obstruction to the love of God than a base corrupt sinful Self-love following a corrupt fancy yet Self-love regulated true Self-love which is according to Reason is no enemy to the love of God There is a lawful and regular Self-love by which we are led on to the love of God as best in himself and best for us If we truly love our selves it makes way for the love of God when we are convinced we can never be truly happy without him without making our choice our portion our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our chiefest good esteeming and desiring him above all and loving him even for himself and being willing to take up with him alone And God in himself is such an object for our love and complacency as would infinitely delight us but that our faculties are finite as we are our selves And suppose a Soul to lose it self as it were in the loving admiration of God so as not to have any actual thought or intention of its own Happiness yet it would be nevertheless happy while so taken up with God and ravished in the love and admiring contemplation of him It s happiness certainly would not be one jot less for not being actually designed and looked at in such holy heavenly raptures and ascensions of the Soul Thus a right judgment will determine that God who is infinite in all Goodness and Perfection is infinitely more amiable and delectable than our selves and therefore to be loved chiefly for himself and above our selves And that in loving God above our selves we do most truly love our selves as thus we should come to the enjoyment of God the chiefest Good that which is best for our selves Yet it is further granted that we are allowed yea we ought to love God for his Benefits We must both love and praise him as the Author of all the Benefits he hath conferred and that he hath promised to confer upon us only we are not to rest here but must come on to love him as the Ocean of all Goodness and infinitely amiable in himself And this also must be granted that Believers who love God for himself and have their hearts carried out towards him as their chief ultimate end yet can hardly discern it at first that they love God for himself and above themselves The love of our selves being more passionate is more easily felt and if we go to the common experience of Christians I doubt not but it will tell us that they were first most sensibly drawn to the love of God by a principle of Self-love working in a desire of happiness and a fear of misery And yet a Man is no sooner brought home to God but he is humbled and ashamed that before he was led away so with corrupt Self-love and inordinate love to Creatures that he hath not lived in the love of God nor made it his chief care and study to please and glorify God which is the life he now desires to lead He de sires that now and for time to come he may love God for himself and be addicted to please and serve God before himself and he would account himself more happy could he find his heart and life brought up to this than if he might enjoy all the pleasures and contentments of the whole World Now here is the beginning of love to God as God And let us be never so intent upon our own happiness yet so long as we practically judge and account our happiness to consist in the perfect love of God as infinitely good and perfect and Gods love to us here God is made our ultimate end But for a man to love God as one who he hopeth will not damn or for ever torment him as one who he hopeth will at last bring him to an Heaven of he knows not what sensitive pleasures and delights while he apprehends not at all what the enjoyment of God in Heaven is while he is without any sense of that infinite excellency and
from them Without doubt the wicked and impenitent are bound to believe God's threatnings denounced against such in his holy Word and so to conclude themselves at present in a miserable state subject to God's wrath and curse and final condemnation that if they die in their present state they are sure to be damned And certainly they that are bound to believe and conclude thus of themselves ought thereupon to be moved with fear Can there be any greater fool-hardiness than this for any to see Hell before them to see themselves ready to drop into that Lake that burneth with fire and brimstone for ever and yet not fear and tremble only indeed such are not to despair to conclude there is no hope There is hope yet upon condition and supposition that if they repent and turn they shall live they shall not die 4. There is a penal Fear not only a fear of punishment but a fear inflicted as a punishment Terror and consternation of mind is threatned as a punishment Lev. 26.16 I also will do this unto you I will even appoint over you terrour And v. 36. and if Men sin sin wilfully after they had received the knowledg of the truth there remains nothing for them but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries Heb. 10.27 This penal fear in its full strength and perfection is upon the Devils and the Spirits of disobedient ones in Prison with them They cannot but tremble Jam. 2.19 Horrour hath taken full and fast hold of them which they can no more any ways shake off This is one part of the punishment and misery of the Damned that they can never think of God and of his Wrath without Horrour and while they lie under the fierceness of his Wrath while they feel the weight and heat of it while they are scorching in the flames of his Wrath how is it possible to put off such thoughts 5. There is also a gracious holy filial Fear A Godly Fear and a Fear proper to the Godly Which is not only a fear of God as a Judg but as a Father not only a fear of Punishment but of the Offence a fear proceeding from Love An humble and reverent respect to his Presence Majesty and Excellency a careful shunning of what we know to be displeasing to him not only in regard of his Greatness Power Holiness Justice but also in regard of his Goodness and Mercy Psal 136.4 Hos 3.5 There is a Natural Fear as we have heard but this is a Spiritual Fear A Grace a choice fruit of the Sanctifying Spirit who is therefore called the Spirit of Fear Isa 11.2 There is a Sinful Fear which is forbidden as the Fear of Man c. but this is a great Duty commanded A special means to keep from sin Exod. 20.20 There is a Servile Fear but this is a Fear of Sons not of Slaves it well agrees with the Spirit of Adoption There is a Penal Fear but this is no Punishment but a special Blessing a rare and excellent gift of God As that is a precious Promise Jer. 32.40 I will put my Fear in their hearts Now I shall apply these things to the Text objected in these following Conclusions 1. It is not to be expected that the highest degree of love found in any Saint upon Earth should quite expel and cast out all natural Fear Christ's Love was absolutely perfect yet was he not without a natural fear of Death only that natural passion was in a perfect subjection to his Reason and Will the higher powers of his Soul and these in perfect subjection to the will of God his Father Note it is the work of Grace here not to extirpate natural Passions but to rule and govern them And the Self-denial Faith Love Patience Constancy of the Saints would not be tried by their sufferings if these were things that they had no fear of no natural reluctancy unto 2. So far as the love of God prevails so far carnal fear is expelled And some very learned Men think Quem timorem intelligi praestat nisi negation is auctorem quam dilectionem perfectam adfirmat nisi fugatricem timoris animatricem confessionis Tertull advers Gnostic the Apostle John speaketh of this kind of fear So Grotius and Dr. Hammond As the Fearful that are joyned with the Vnbelieving Rev. 21.8 may well be understood of such as are overpowrâ—d with carnal fear Such as are possessed with that spirit of fear 2 Tim. 1.7 of such a base cowardly timerous spirit that they dare not own the truth and ways of God when any danger may attend it Much might be said for this exposition It cannot well be denied but carnal fear is a tormenting thing But such is the power of holy love that it will raise the Soul ordinarily above such fear It will endue a Christian with a spirit of fortitude to bear the greatest torments Men can inflict as was seen in the Martyrs But as love in the Saints is not absolutely perfect here so neither are they wholly freed here from carnal fear nor are they wholly under the power of it It riseth sometimes and puts them into great disorder and confusion for a time but it is quelled and suppressed again 3. As the love of God gets ground in the heart servile fear is giving place The more vigorous and lively our love to God is the clearer evidence we have of his love to us that ordinarily we shall be more freed from that tormenting fear of being under his wrath And while we act from love it is certain we are not only or chiefly irrepelled by fear If love to God and his service be the chief moving principle then fear of punishment is not the chief And further the more we love God the more unwilling we shall be to entertain hard and black thoughts of him The more we love him the more lovely he appears to us And while our hearts are united and cleave to him in love we are secured from that fear which drives Souls from him 4. A true filial Fear of God is so far from being contrary to that it is a good evidence of love to God As on the contrary if we do not stand in awe of him if we care not to offend and displease him it is an argument that we do not love him True love to God will make us tender of his Honour and most sollicitous to keep in his Favour Res est solliciti plena timoris amor Thus if we have the Love of God in us we shall fear and shun what we know to be displeasing and a dishonour to him And when we fear sin more than punishment it argues that we love God above our selves that his Honour is dearer to us than our own ease or interest Yet all fear of punishment is not contrary to the love of God nor will prove one of a slavish spirit A Child of God is
for their outward Man but are still shifting for themselves without eying God's Will and Word or Providence or if they know not how to help themselves are presently sinking in despondency and quite swallowed up with distrustful fears cares and grief Thus far of the several Acts of Faith It s proper Elicit Acts. I shall further add a few Scripture-notes whereby Saving-Faith may be known 1. Where Faith is Christ is precious 1 Pet. 2.7 Vnto you which believe he is precious That which is called precious Faith will teach us to account Jesus Christ precious and all of Christ precious Thus to Believers the Person of Christ is precious 1 Pet. 1.8 Whom having not seen ye love Believers that never saw him with their Eyes yet believing him to be such an one indeed as he is set forth in the Word they are exceedingly taken with him they cannot but admire him As the Spouse in Canticles was at a loss for expressions high enough to shew the loveliness and excellency of her Beloved After all that she had said in her description of him Cant. 5. she thinks her self very short and therefore concludes ver 16. Yea he is altogether lovely There is no true Believer but has high admiring thoughts of Christ sees him to be the chiefest of ten thousands To such his benefits are precious The Blood of Christ how precious 1 Pet. 1.18 19. And how precious are the benefits purchased by his Blood How do Believers prize a pardon How do such prize an Interest in Christ counting all things but loss and dung to that The Graces the Fruits of the Spirit how do they prize these above Riches above the most precious Fruits of the Earth The Love and Favour of Christ how do such prize it far above the Favour and Friendship of the World Lord do thou smile will such a Soul say and I can then be content though the World do frown Thy love is better than Wine Cant. 1.2 Nothing in the World would so chear the Hearts of the Faithful The presence of Christ Communion and Fellowship with Christ is highly prized of every believing Soul The Name of Christ is precious unto such and those things that bear his Name His Day the Lords Day accounted of above all other Days His Ordinances are prized The Doctrine of Christ as precious Ointment poured forth Cant. 1.3 His Word more precious than Gold His Promises exceeding precious 2 Pet. 1.4 And Prayer is accounted a precious Priviledg even that we may ask the Father in his Name Believers would not for a World be without this Priviledg Thus Chist is precious to Believers and all of Christ his Person his Offices his Benefits his Ordinances all are precious But further that you may not be mistaken here thinking that you prize Christ when it may be the Lord sees you are yet such as dispise him take these two or three notes to try your selves by 1. If now Christ be precious to us as he is to them that believe then certainly we are come to see our former vileness when we had base low unworthy thoughts of him and when our carriage was nothing less than a contempt of him How oft was Christ with all his precious benefits graciously offered to us in the Gospel while we did most unreasonably and ungratefully reject him we would none of him How long did we prefer the World and our base Lusts before him when we were called on to follow Christ how shy how backward have we been as ashamed of him or having better thoughts of our old Masters the Lusts and Pleasures we have served which we were loth to forsake for him Oh our Sin and Folly that ever we despised such a precious Saviour What a shame is this that ever any of the Sons of Men should be ashamed of Christ And what horrible vileness is this for any of us to have base thoughts of Christ And have not they base thoughts of Christ indeed who prefer some base Lust before him Hath he deserved to be so slighted and set at nought As he said to the Jews when they were ready to stone him Many good works have I shewed you from my Father for which of those works do ye stone me What After such unparallel'd Love and Compassion as he hath shewn towards us poor lost Sinners even when we were Enemies shewed in such a costly way as that of his most wonderful humiliation even to his dying a most painful shameful and accursed Death for us to purchase Pardon and Salvation for all that will accept him should we requite him so even reject him preferring his and our most deadly Enemies before him Was so great folly baseness and ingratitude ever heard of Surely if now we are come to see the worth of a Saviour and to prize him indeed we cannot but be greatly ashamed to think how we for trash and dung have sometimes trampled on that Pearl of greatest price Our former Sin of making light of Christ will now lye heavy and we shall be deeply humbled for it 2. If now Christ be precious to us as he is to them that believe then we have learnt to prize him above all things in the World Pray observe this we prize not Christ at all till we prize him above all You may perswade your selves Sirs that you have very good thoughts high thoughts of Christ as you can speak honourably of him but if you do not really prize him above your Profits your Pleasures your Credit or Honour or any thing you can have or expect in the World I must tell you you do shamefully undervalue him What low thoughts had Judas of the Lord Jesus who sold him for thirty peices of Silver the price of a Slave as some have noted from Exod. 21.32 the lowest price that the vilest of Men were rated at So do not they prize Christ at a goodly price that prefer worldly things before him Yea suppose one to have an equal love and estimation of Christ to that he hath of worldly things though indeed the Scales here are never even never at an aequipoise but the one or the other will weigh down yet if that were so it would not do Christ is set too low while any thing in the World is equalized to him and suffered to stand in competition with him Luk. 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 Hate not comparatively Loving in a less degree is sometimes termed hating in Scripture As Jacob is said to have hated Leah loving Rachel much more Gen. 29.30 31 33. But it would not have agreed with Jacob's Piety to have hated Leah taking the word strictly And to hate natural Parents is unnatural and impious and to hate ones self is against Nature and impossible That we must there understand a less degree of loving And as Christ will
amiableness which is in God for which he is to be loved above all and in respect of which Mans nearest conjunction with him must needs be his highest felicity while a Man is a stranger to all this he cannot love God as God for himself but only for some fancied happiness and self-advantage expected from him See more of this and so the Mystery of the love of God and of our selves accurately opened in Mr. Baxters Christian Directory pag. 182. c. 3. That is a right holy love of God indeed if we love him as an holy God And it is not enough to love him as our great and gracious Benefactor but we must also love him as our Righteous and Holy Ruler and Governor A Gracious Soul feareth the Lord for his Goodness and loves him even for his Holiness but graceless ones contemn him for the former and hate him for the latter Psal 119.140 Thy Word is very pure therefore thy Servant loveth it So this is comfortable indeed if we can say the like of God himself if we love him not only for his Kindness and Benignity but also for his Holiness and Purity Flesh and blood would never teach this Corrupt nature is contrarily inclined Sinners either suppress the notion of God's Holiness and take up a most false blasphemous conceit that God is like to them and approveth well enough of them and their wayes as in Psal 50.21 Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thy self Or if they have an apprehension of his Holiness in that respect they love him not but have a great aversation from him and contrariety to him Now it is not being taken with a false Idea or representation of God which will pass for love to God This is but setting up an Idol in the heart Neither is it enough to love God as the God of Nature the Creator and Preserver of all things He from whom we have our beings and well-beings our great Benefacter who giveth us life and breath and all things who giveth us rain from Heaven and fruitful seasons filling our hearts with food and gladness c. I say it is too short to love him as our Creator and Preserver but we must love him as our Righteous and Holy Governor Sinners do not take distaste at all that is in God or at all he does but his Holiness exprest in his most Righteous and Holy Laws this is that in special which they cannot be reconciled unto So they are far from loving him as their Holy Ruler and Judg as one that cannot but be displeased at Sin which is so contrary to his Holy Nature and to his Righteous Will They are not so much taken with God in any other respect as in this respect they are displeased with him But Holiness is as essential to God as any other Attribute of his Exo. 15.11 Who is like thee glorious in Holiness So they that would deprive him of his Holiness would spoil him of a chief part of his Glory Yea if he were not Holy he should not be God That Sinners who wish in their hearts that God was not so Holy and that his Laws were not so strict or that they might be exempted from his Laws or from giving account to God they interpretatively wish that there was no God And if it was in their power it is in their hearts to dethrone and un-God him Now surely such are so far from loving God that indeed they are haters of God Rom. 1.30 And well may his soul loath them while their souls abhor him Zech. 11.8 How many alas who love not God for all that he is pleased to do for them as they dislike him upon this account that he hath imposed upon them Laws that are contrary to their Lusts such will be found in the rank of those that hate him Exod. 20.5 The love of God as our Holy Ruler is so necessary that it will nothing advantage a Man if he should dy in God's cause as a Turk may chuse to dye rather then to deny his Mahomet If one of us should chuse to sacrifice his life rather than renounce his Religion professed I say this would not avail at all while his heart was more for his lusts than for God As indeed this is not to love God to prefer any lust before him what ever else one may part with for him So 4. If we love God sincerely we love him suparlatively we love him above all Psal 73.25 Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee True love to God will not admit of any corrival with him will suffer nothing to stand in competition with him We cannot love him as God if we love any creature as much or above him For a Wife to love her Husband but as she loveth another Man this is not in a moral sense to love her Husband this is not true conjugal love So we do not love God sin cerely as God if we love any thing in the World as much Therefore certainly they that are lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God as 2 Tim. 3.4 and they that love the praise of men more than the praise of God Joh. 12.43 they that are lovers of the World and worldly things 1 Joh. 2.15 that have their hearts chiefly set on these things they are spiritual Adulterers and Adulteresses as the Apostle James calleth them Jam. 4.4 their hearts depart go a whoring from God The love of God dwelleth not in them It dwells not where it rules not where it is not predominant prevailing over carnal sinful love and subjugating natural love though they are not totally eradicated here But hereupon some sound upright hearts may be questioning the truth of their love to God not finding those strong passionate workings in their hearts towards God which they have towards some creatures towards their dear relations c. To satisfy such As we distinguished before in speaking of Godly Sorrow there is a passionate Sorrow and there is a rational Sorrow so we must distinguish of Love There is a passionate Love which may express it self more towards creatures God being a Spirit is removed further from our senses and not so near unto our passions he is not directly the object of a passionate Love But as he is manifested and shewed to the enlightned understanding as most amiable and the chiefest Good the renewed Will preferreth chuseth and adhereth to him before all other And this is a rational spiritual Love Now do we in our setled judgment esteem and prefer and in our will chuse and imbrace him before all Do we indeed prize and desire an interest in him above all things in the World Had we rather part with all Possessions Relations c. than to have no part in him Should we account our selves really miserable without him what ever else we may enjoy but happy and blest in him though we were deprived of all
worldly comforts Would an interest in God with us weigh down all the World This is a surer evidence of true love to God if the settled bent and inclination of our Souls be towards him than any sudden transports and flashes of affection or passionate workings or ravishments that come and go and leave not the Soul in such a frame Well lay up this Note and try and judg of your selves by it So much as the Will is inclined towards God and the Heart set upon him above all things in the World so much there is of the Grace of Love so far a Soul loveth God in sincerity 5. If we love God indeed than we cannot be satisfied without an interest in God and we cannot but earnestly desire to have our interest in him cleared to us I do not say we must know our special propriety in him that he is our God before we can truly love him No but a true love to God is that which must evidence God's especial love to us and our special interest in God By being such as love God we may know we are in special relation to him of the number of those who are the Called according to his purpose Rom. 8.28 But if we love him indeed we shall long to come to a sense of his love and to see our special interest in him As the Psalmist Psal 119.58 I intreated thy favour thy face with my whole heart Lord one good look one smile from thee A little in the World with God's favour would give us more content than the whole World without it As the Spouse says Cant. 6.3 I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is mine So if God hath our love we shall be restless till we can say that he is ours till we can call him our own As they that are in love cannot injoy themselves unless they may obtain their Beloved As they say Love would be paid in its own coin If we love God we cannot be content unless we may be in his Eyes as them who find favour So we shall desire rather to enjoy the light of his Countenance than the greatest affluence of worldly comforts as Psal 4.6 7. But are not most of us of another mind How many that are more intent upon the World to get Estates here than to get an interest in God How many who if they may have the World smiling on them never regard though they are under God's frowns How many that seek the favour and friendship of Men more than the favour of God Doubtless such have not the love of God in them 6. If we have the love of God in us then we shall greatly desire and delight in his presence and mourn take on sadly in his absence Psal 42.1 2. As the Hart panteth after the Water brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God Psal 101.2 O when wilt thou come unto me If we love God we shall long for his gracious visits It will be our delight to draw nigh to God in holy Duties in his Ordinances and especially when we can find the Lord drawing nigh to our Souls as we are joyed at the coming of a special friend And as intimate friends are not content to be long asunder we shall not be satisfied without God's presence As Moses said Exod. 33.15 If thy presence go not with me carry us not hence He would have chosen to be in a Wilderness with God's presence rather than to enjoy a Canaan without it so if we have the love of God in us we shall rather desire to be in affliction and have his presence with us than to enjoy great worldly prosperity without him So we shall account this one of the saddest afflictions if the Lord withdraws and estrangeth himself from us as the Psalmist Psal 30.7 Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled We know not how to bear his frowns In such a case we shall have many sad and serious self-reflections often asking our Souls What is the matter what have we done that the Lord takes unkindly that has set him at such a distance We shall not rest till we have found out the cause and removed it till this sad breach be made up and we restored to our communion with God If indeed our hearts be with him we can no longer enjoy our selves than we enjoy him A soul that loves God cannot but say It is not good Lord for me to be alone counting it an Heaven upon Earth to enjoy him but an Hell to live without him in the World As the Needle touch'd with the Loadstone will be turning to such a point the Heart being touch'd with the love of God will be moving and inclining towards him it cannot rest but in the enjoyment of him as Psal 63.8 My soul followeth hard after thee Such a soul is in a trembling posture and is fainting for him when the Lord carrieth more strange when he hides his face 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 my soul even fainteth This is Love's sickness Are we thus sick of Love as the Spouse was Cant. 5.8 There is a lamenting love as well as a delighting love As the Child crieth for its Mother As we are grieved at the loss or long absence of a dear friend Absence is the Lover's night God's absence makes the darkest and faddest night to the souls of his People My soul fainteth for the Courts of the Lord because there he was wont to have fights of God Psal 63.2 there he was wont to enjoy sweet communion with him And my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God He would send his hearty and carnest cries after him So if we love God we shall seek him still though he be a God that sometimes hideth himself Isa 45.15 Thus the Spouse shewed how her heart went after her Beloved whenshe sought him in the streets of the City sought him in the broad ways Cant. 3.2 went about up and down seeking him and could not rest till she had found him As they shewed how they were taken with their Idols Jer. 8.2 Whom they have loved and whom they have served and after whom they have walked and whom they have sought By love the Soul is knit to the Lord and cleaveth to him Deut. 11.12 and it must needs go fore with such a soul to be parted to be separated from him Nothing in the World can be more grievous to it 7. If we have the love of God in us while we are our selves are in our right frame and act like our selves we are breathing after and longing for the full enjoyment of God in Glory We desire and are glad of his presence with us here yet are not satisfied therewith but set a longing after Heaven where our love to God shall be perfect our communion with him more immediate and our joy in him full so if we love God how
of God in us our indignation will be moved when we hear the Name of God profaned and see his Majesty affronted his Laws violated his truth and interest opposed Now what say you to this If you can be sensible enough of any injury done to your selves but no way touched or affected with the great indignities you oft see and hear offered unto God If you can see Sinners as it were flying in God's face and yet remain sensless and speechless having nothing to say in God's cause as the Psalmist was dumb in his own cause Psal 38.14 as a Man that beareth not and in whose mouth are no reproofs If you can have fellowship with Sinners delight in their company and rather countenance than discountenance the Ungodly and love them that hate the Lord will these things shew any love to God Would you take him for your friend that could see others evil intreat you and yet stood by as one wholly unconcerned And can you be friends with those who shew themselves enemies to God and no way manifest your displeasure against them and their evil ways and will you yet pretend to love God 11. If we love God we have a desire to win and draw in others to him Cant. 1.4 Draw me we will run after thee When she was drawn she would be for drawing others to him She was not content to come alone but would endeavour to bring in others with her As the Psalmist Psal 34.3 O magnify the Lord with me So one that loves God will be ready to call upon others O love the Lord with me O serve the Lord with me If we have the love of God in us it will grieve us to see others enemies to God As the Psalmist I beheld the transgressours and was grieved And especially it will be our grief to see any of ours alienated from God to see any of our friends enemies to God any of our Relations such as are near to us afar off from God to see any of our Children backward to that which is good Children of disobedience carrying so that we may know they have not the love of God in them We shall be earnest with God in Prayer that he would change their hearts that he would circumcise their hearts to love him What is it that we would chuse for ours if we might have our choice Whether would we chuse God or the World Had we rather see them in a state of Grace and in favour with God though they were never so poor and low in the World than see them rich and graceless And would we in the first place acquaint them with God Are we still admonishing perswading charging them to come in to him If we are less afraid of displeasing God by a sinful silence here than of displeasing them by plain and faithful dealing with them is not this to honour them above the Lord And if we can be well enough pleased with Children though we cannot see the least spark of Grace in them if they are but likely to thrive and prosper in the World and if we regard not though our Servants are backward to God's Service while they follow our business close if we take no pains with them to get them better principled such things would shew as little love to God as to their souls 12. If the love of God be in us then we are no longer in love or in league with Sin Psal 97.10 Ye that love the Lord hate evil How can we love God who is Holiness it self and yet be in love with Sin that is so contrary to God He that loves his Prince hates Treason and Rebellion against his Prince He that loves his Father Ubi regnat charitas non regnat cupiditas Lud. Carthus does not delight to walk cross to his Father The predominant love of God and reigning Sin are things utterly inconsistent If we love God we cannot but hate and dread that which would separate betwixt us and our God Here I may allude to that Text Deut. 13.4 6 8. Ye shall walk after the Lord your God and cleave to him And if thy friend which is as thine own soul entice thee secretly saying Let us go and serve other gods Thou shalt not consent unto him nor hearken unto him neither shall thine eye pity him neither shalt thou spare neither shalt thou conceal him But thou shalt surely kill him thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death So if we love God and cleave to him we shall not be for concealing and sparing any sin how dear so ever it may have been though it hath been as a right Eye or as a right Hand to us we shall no longer connive at any Darling Lust that would entice and draw away our hearts from God we shall be resolved on the mortifying and crucifying of it The love of God and friendship with Sin will not stand together Oh! think seriously of this While thou art wedded to any lust to thy Pride to thy Flesh-pleasing Sensuality or to thy Covetousness c. thy heart is not with God Thou canst not cleave to God and Sin both Thou canst not be for two Masters so contrary but if thou lovest the one thou must needs hate the other if thou cleavest to the one thou must needs forsake the other If thou lovest evil more than good as Psal 52.3 if thou art so far linkt in and in league with any lust that thy Will is more for keeping than for parting with it more for serving and gratifying than for subduing and crucifying it the love of God is not in thee 13. If we love God then it is our delight to serve and obey him 1 Joh. 5.3 This is the love of God that we keep his Commandments and his Commandments are not grievous So in 2 Epist v. 6. This is love that we walk after his Commandments To love him and keep his Commandments are joyned Exod. 20.6 Neh. 1.5 When a friend says If you love me do such a thing for me his Intreaty useth to have the force of a Command If God's Commands have no force with us it is a sign we love him not If we have the love of God in us Nunquam est Dei Amor otiosus Operatur etenim magna si est Si vero operari renuit Amor non est Gregor Mag. Hom. 30. we shall delight in his Law as the Psalmist did Psal 119.70 we shall delight to do the will of God and chuse the things that please him As we must shew our faith so our love by our works Qui non placet Deo non potest illi placere Deus Bern. As I told you before Love is a well-pleasedness with God above with a desire in all things to please him Now if we are more for pleasing our selves than for pleasing God more for having our own wills than for doing the will of God if we are more at Mens command at the command
a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a natural tender affection to their young and in part also commanded being a duty becoming such Relations a necessary Principle and help to the discharge of other relative duties To be without natural affection towards Parents or Children is a great Sin and a cause of other Sins against those Relations And if such as are in a married state have not a true conjugal affection other conjugal duties can never be rightly performed It is certain Grace breaketh not but rather strengthens Natures bonds So 2. We are ordinarily bound to do more for near Relations though ungodly than for strangers be they Godly We are not always to do most for the most needy and worthy because we may be under a specialâ—ty and obligation to do for others and we may not be able to do so well for both The Law of Nature layes a special obligation on us to take special care of Wife and Children being nearest to us And if we do not who should This is a necessary order for the good and preservation of Mankind as that love which is naturally planted in bruit creatures towards their young is necessary for the preservation of their kinds And 1 Tim. 5.8 If any provide not for his own and especially for those of his own house he hath denied the faith and is worse than an Infidel 2 Cor. 12.14 Parents ought to lay up for the Children Parents ordinarily are bound to provide especially for Children though sometimes also Children are bound to relieve their Parents and that before others As Joseph nourished his Father Jacob in the Famine Thus therefore we are especially to look to those whom Nature has devolved on our special care whom God hath especially committed to our charge not neglecting others as if we owed nothing to them but in some expressions of love preferring those to whom our obligation is greater 3. And yet in our estimations and rational spiritual complacence we are to prefer such as are godly before the nearest Relations if ungodly So likewise must we prefer such as are more eminent in Grace before a godly Relation that is not so eminent As Christ said Mat. 12.48 50. Who is my Mother and who are my brethren Whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in Heaven the same is my Brother and Sister and Mother The best are to be preferred in honour though not in point of maintenance Quest 2. Then by a parity of Reason are we not to love the weakest Christian whose sincerity we do not question more than a Professor or Minister whose sincerity is very questionable let their gifts be never so great and let them be never so serviceable upon that account Answ 1. It is certain That gifts of edification are very desirable and amiable yea they give a lustre to Grace it self As the Gold did beautify the Temple though the Temple did sanctify the Gold So says one though Grace do sanctify Gifts yet Gifts do beautify Grace No doubt but Gifts to edify to profit withal Gifts that promote the conversion and salvation of others are to be highly esteemed 2. Grace is more lovely and excellent Gifts are desirable in ordine ad aliud as Hand-maids to Grace but Grace is desirable even for it self 3. He that is both gracious as we cannot but judge and also of eminent Gifts is to be esteemed above another who hath not the like Gifts though he may have the like measure of saving Grace 4. He that hath Gifts without Grace is to be esteemed for that good and benefit others may receive from his Gifts and so for the service and honour God may have by them He is to be esteemed for others sakes But one that is truly godly though his Gifts be never so small is to be esteemed for his own sake And there is that real worth and excellency in true Grace which will weigh down the greatest excellencies a natural Man can have 4. Now I proceed to another note of true love to the Godly If we are taken with them for their godliness then we are for godliness in our selves We do not barely commend it in others but follow after it our selves We honour the Godly not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in speaking well of them but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by imitating them If we love them aright we desire to be like them If we are taken with God's Image in them we would be followers of them so far as they are followers of God And wherein we see our selves to come short we are ashamed of our selves and so far out of love with our selves As the Stoicks said Laert. in Zeno. l 7. p. 513. that true friendship was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inter solos probos virtutis studiosos only among the good and vertuous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom a likeness of disposition and manners uniteth Certainly they that care not for godliness themselves cannot truly love others for it They that delight to see it in others will much more desire and be pleased to find it in themselves To love it only at a distance would argue deceit in our love 5. If we love the Godly as such then we delight in godly society As the Psalmist Psal 119.63 I am a companion of all them that fear thee and of them that keep thy Precepts I am for the company of all such even the poorest the meanest of them and for no other company All his delight was in the Saints Psal 16.3 He had no delight to be so familiar and intimate with others When we are for holy society and holy conference it is both an expression of love to the Saints and a means to encrease it But to despise a poor Saint because poor to think such unworthy of our acquaintance to shun familiarity and converse with such would shew a sinful respect of Persons and partiality in our love that we have not a love to all Saints or to any as such So it is an ill sign if we are pleased with the society of vain and vile persons such as we ought to contemn Psal 15.4 A Man is known what he is by the Company he keeps and most affects 6. Another note of true love to the Godly is a fear of giving scandal a desire and care to walk in-offencible towards them Yea if we love them it will grieve us to see others casting stumbling-blocks in their way 2 Cor. 11.29 Who is weak and I am not weak who is offended and I burn not And much more we shall fear to offend them our selves As we would not offend and injure our friends It is true some are so weak that they will take offence where none is given And we may not decline our duty offend God for fear of offending or displeasing our weak Brethren Indeed this to comply with them in their Errours and Mistakes and by our practice to encourage them in any sinful way this I say would
11. True Zeal is for expedition in God's Service As Phinehas Ignis est maxime actuosus maximè mobilis who was zealous for God could not sit still when he saw God so greatly Dishonoured Psal 106. Then stood up Phinehas and executed Judgment Then stood up Phinehas The word may import his readiness and forwardness to appear for God against Sin as occasion was then offered So Nehemiah testified against the Merchants that had lodged but once or twice without Jerusalem under the Wall on the Sabbath threatning to clap them up If they did so again he would lay hands on them Neh. 13.20 21. So David Psal 101.8 I will early destroy all the wicked Though it may point at the usual time of sitting in Judgment in the morning yet withal it may import that he would not be delatory in the work Thus Zeal will set Men early on work for God will make Men quick and speedy in giving check to Sin as they have power and opportunity to put a stop to it as soon as they can Sinful sluggish demurs delays put-offs are contrary to the nature of true Zeal So a listlesness to Duty is no sign of Zeal It is cold that benummeth So it is a sign of the want of Zeal a sign of extream coldness when we cannot find our hands to turn them to any good work when we are like the slothful Prov. 19.24 that hides his hand in his bosom 12. True Zeal makes souls as forward unto so free and lively in God's service What a Man does zealously he does very heartily To be zealous of good Works is not barely to do some good Works but it further implieth earnestness alacrity and fervency of spirit in the doing of Good Works To pray with Zeal is more than saying a Prayer it is no less than to be fervent in Prayer to pray earnestly To be zealous in works of Charity is not meerly to give to such that stand in need but to give willingly and freely Like those of Macedonia 2 Cor. 8.3 that were willing of themselves That needed no spurring on What the Apostle sayes of Love 1 Cor. 13.4 It is kind bountiful this may well be said of Zeal which is the fervour of Love Zeal is bountiful at least in will and desire Cold has a condensing and contracting quality but heat rarifies and extends So Zeal in the Heart enlarges it A zealous Christian would not serve God at an ordinary rate he desires to abound in the work of the Lord. The flame will be mounting upwards A zealous spirit is a raised spirit raised in God's Service But a cold dead heart is still bearing downward We read of Jehoshaphat that his heart was lifted up in the wayes of the Lord 2 Chron. 17.6 So one of a zealous spirit never thinks he does enough for God He will desire still to serve him more and to serve him better 13. True Zeal gives courage in the Cause of God filleth the Soul full of resolution for God And indeed that may be the meaning of Jehoshaphat's heart being lifted up in the wayes of the Lord. A zealous Spirit is a magnanimous Spirit An holy Zeal is indeed Cos fortitudinis the Whetstone of Valour As Esther's Zeal for God and his People put courage into her though she might naturally be timorous as is common to her Sex What an heroick resolution was there Esth 4.16 I will go in unto the King and if I perish I perish If we have no Spirit no Courage to appear for God his Truth and Wayes sure we have no Zeal forthem Indeed of all things Sinners are most offended at holy Zeal They that have nothing to say against Christian Meekness or Charitableness and some other Graces yet can ill endure the heat of Godly Zeal O it is scorching and tormenting to them Here they are ready to cry out Fire fire as one says This oft puts them into a great combustion Yet true Zeal will break thorow opposition Many Waters cannot quench Love neither can the Floods drown it The like may be said of Zeal It is not quenched or cooled but oft more intended and increased when others would discourage it 14. True Zeal that is a cause of such courage and resolution for God that giveth confidence and boldness before Men yet is joyned with Humility and Holy Fear and Trembling before God One gracious disposition is not contrary to another And true Zeal is not blown up with high thoughts of ones self but with high thoughts of God The Dread and Reverence of the most High of an infinitely Glorious and Holy Majesty promotes true Zeal for God helpeth to set an edge upon it and steeleth the Soul with an holy boldness hardeneth it against a base carnal fear of Man Mr. Vines But it is not right when as one says Zeal that should eat us up is eaten up of Pride 15. Right regular Zeal will more dispose and fit us for our Work and Duty not take off from Duty or transport into Sin That is not Zeal but distempered Passion it is not from Grace but from the workings of Corruption when we are discomposed and unhinged 16. If we have true Zeal for God it will be a joy to us to see any zealous and active for God As on the other hand it will be our great grief to see Men generally cold indifferent lukewarm in Religion To see others regardless of God and of the interest of true Religion will move our displeasure and indignation But it will not offend us to see any acted with regular Zeal for God Indeed the Apostle did and would rejoyce that Christ was Preached though some preached Christ out of envy Phil. 1.15 18. How much more would he have rejoyced to have seen as good proof and evidence of their pure Love and Zeal as he saw of their Envy carrying them out in the work If we are truly zealous for God we shall be taken with those whom we see or hear to be zealous for him our hearts will be towards such yea knit to them as Jonathans was to David And we shall bless God for such As Deborah Judg. 5.9 My heart is towards the Governours of Israel that offered themselves willingly among the People Bless the Lord. She desired that the Lord might be praised that put such a spirit into them If others out-shine us here yet if we have true Zeal for God we shall be so far from envying them that the more zealous any are the more we shall honour and be taken with them 17. If we are truly zealous we have an holy emulation a desire to follow yea if it might be to outstrip those that excel in vertue As the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 14.12 Forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts seek that ye may excel As the Corinthians Zeal and forwardness provoked very many 2 Cor 9.2 We should not envy such as have got the start of us and yet should in a good
THE Christian Temper OR A DISCOURSE concerning the Nature and Properties of the Graces of Sanctification Written for Help in Self-Examination and Holy Living By JOHN BARRET M. A. LONDON Printed for Jonathan Robinson at the Golden Lion in St. Pauls Church-yard and Samuel Richards Bookseller in Nottingham 1678. THE Epistle Dedicatory To the Honoured Mris ANNE CHARLTON of S. in the County of D. Much Honoured I Present You with this ensuing Treatise as an Acknowledgment of my special Obligation to You heartily wishing it may be of as good use to you as it is offered with good will I know you will not expect flattering Titles from me and hope you would blush to read or hear your own Praises And I may not cross intention so as when I am putting you upon the trial of your Humility and Self-denial among other Graces withal to tempt you to the contrary Vices and Corruptions Our good old Friend Mr. Rich. Whitchurch for whose sound and profitable Labours you and I have cause to bless God I hope or else I am sure we have great cause to blame our selves He had much satisfaction a little before his Death in the love he had to Uses of Examination the delight he took in reading or hearing them well handled And for a Christian to delight in frequent and serious Self-examination is the way to a more full and profitable Self-acquaintance and to a comfortable Assurance You have seen some Changes in your outward condition Have you not sometimes met with great Trials here O how good how comfortable to have your Spiritual Estate secured and settled How would this prepare one for any Changes in this World even for that great Change by Death Methinks the uncertainty of all outward Enjoyments that we are not sure of enjoying Estates or the dearest Friends and Relations or Health or Life one day more should be a prevalent motive to excite and quicken us to make sure of better things than natural and Worldly comforts those better things that accompany Salvation The best things may be made most sure And what comfort would this yield when there is such a terrible shaking of Nations to see our Interest in that Kingdom that cannot be shaken Now may these following Pages bring good Tidings to your Soul may I herein be an helper of your Joy this would also rejoice my Heart even mine who am Your Servant in Christ J. B. A PREMONITION TO THE READER THis Portraiture of the New Creature I have here drawn and set before thee though not drawn at full length this Description of the Spiritual Man by several Scripture-Caracters as parts of him as by the Eye of Knowledg the Face of Repentance turning from Sin to God the Hand of Faith the Heart of Love and the like may serve as a Looking-Glass wherein beholding thy own Face thou mayest come to know thy self better both what manner of Person thou art and oughtest to be so it may serve as a Touchstone whereby true Grace may be discerned from that which is counterfeit Now if thy cause both concerning Estate and Life all thou hadst in the World was trying wouldst thou not attend diligently and with fear and trembling wait for the issue and narrowly observe whether the Verdict and Sentence was for or against thee And does it not as much concern thee to be very serious and observant about the trial of thy Spiritual and Everlasting State Here I would borrow a weighty saying of Mr. Glanvil's Meer Speculative mistakes about Opinions do no great hurt but error in the Marks and Measures of Religion is Deadly Indeed if upon trial thou findest thy self in a Graceless state at present yet thou shouldest not thereupon conclude thy case desperate So long as the time of God's Patience is not expired the Long-suffering of the Lord is for our Salvation while the day of Grace lasteth while the Lord affords any means continues to make any offer of Grace to thee thou art yet in a possibility of obtaining Saving-Grace notwithstanding thy former rejecting and resisting of his Grace That as yet thy condition is not altogether hopeless but rather there is more hope of thy coming on to Saving-Grace when thou art made truly sensible of the want of it Or if upon Trial thou findest some Grace in thee but very low and weak almost not to be discerned if it be but in the bud or but as smoaking Flax thy Faith but as a grain of Mustard-Seed thy Love thy Zeal but as a spark c. whether thy weakness be like that of a Child a new-born Infant or like that of a sick Man one that has lost his strength by some Disease prevailing on him how should it humble thee that thou hast so little Grace How should it quicken thee to labour after more And especially if thou hast declined if thou hast lost thy first Love thy former liveliness and tenderness Oh Repent and do thy first Works Now stir up the Grace of God in thee blow up that little spark that is almost buried under an heap of Ashes Now strengthen the things that remain and are ready to die Delayes would expose thee to further deadness and decayes Or if thou canst discover Grace in lively and kindly exercise in thy Soul if thou seest it in growth and vigour O how may this heighten thy Joy in the Lord even raise thee to a life of Joy Praise and Thankfulness But there are two or three things I would lay down here by way of caution to prevent Souls mis-judging themselves 1. Let none conclude themselves in a state of Grace because they are in a good mood sometimes Even such as Pharaoh Ahab Herod Felix c. were in a good mood sometimes Learn to distinguish betwixt a good Mood and a Gracious Frame We are in God's account which is the true account what we are most ordinarily and habitually I mean in respect of prevailing habits There is no reason that God should take Sinners at best in an unusual fit 2. Let not any poor trembling Hearts who are ever forward to suspect and conclude the worst of themselves judg of themselves and the frame of their Spirits by what they may seem in a Paroxism of Temptation The best upon Earth are not at all times alike Even eminent Saints have sometimes bewrayed weakness and imperfection in those very Graces wherein they were most eminent As Abraham who was strong in Faith yet sometimes staggered through distrust Meek Moses is once noted upon a great provocation to have spoken unadvisedly with his Lips And patient Job was once heard to curse the day of his birth But as God takes not Sinners at best so neither will he take his own Children at worst 3. Though all ought to be pressing after full Perfection in Grace and Holiness yet let none look for it here And though we should have an holy emulation and desire to overtake and if it might be to excel the most eminent
had rather be from under Christs Yoak set free from his Laws might it be at your choice and after your minds than live in Obedience and Subjection to him if it be thus it is a clear case your Faith is unsound you do not yet consent to the terms of the Gospel or consent but partially You have often heard what a rich and great Match Christ is and how willing he is to bestow Himself with all his Riches unsearchable Riches upon the Children of Men and hereupon 't is likely you wish to have the Estate An Estate of Happiness to be freed from all Misery and a Kingdom of Glory to have and to hold for ever who would not but be glad of such an Estate There is so much Self-Love in the most wicked Man on Earth no doubt that he would be happy when he dies he would not be damned but would chuse Heaven before Hell if he might have Heaven in his own way and time But hold you cannot have the Estate without marrying the Person If you like well of Christ to take him for your Head and Husband and are willing to give up your selves to him to be guided and governed by him then you shall be for ever enriched by him and glorified together with him otherwise not If you say We would have Christ we are willing to take him for our Saviour if that be all you cannot have him on any such terms Here is an Errour of the Person And though it be disputable in other Marriages what Errour of the Person is nulling yet there is no question in the case before us but this Errour of the Person will make it no Marriage It is another kind of Person who is offered to you in the Gospel The Gospel knoweth no such Christ as is a Saviour only and not a Lord as well What! would you have Christ to Crucify him would you have him to dethrone him So you do what in you lyeth if you are not willing to receive him as Lord as well as Saviour Now how can you think that Christ should consent to be yours on such terms But on the other hand if thou canst say Lord I assent to the Promises of the Gospel as true and embrace them as good indeed and worthy of all acceptation Lord I accept of thy terms I consent to take thee for my God to be ruled by thy Laws and led by thy Spirit and to take up with Thee for my Portion I consent that Christ be my Lord as well as Saviour I am willing to come under his Yoak yea to take up his Cross too when called to it I am satisfied that I cannot have him on too hard terms nor be a loser by him I am willing to be saved by him in his own way willing to be at his Command and at his dispose surely this is a Practical Faith a sound and Saving-Faith Wouldst thou know whether thou hast true Faith such as uniteth to Christ and may prove ones Interest in him Then ask thy Soul this Question Am I willing to have whole Christ willing to receive him as he is offered Do I accept of him on his own terms If so then know thy Faith is Sound and Christ is thine Then indeed the Match betwixt Christ and thy Soul that happy Match is made up Christ says his part in the Gospel wherein he freely offereth himself to Sinners and when we come to consent and take Christ as he is there offered then we say our part and thus the Match is made up If the Match break as one says it must be either because Christ is unwilling Vid. Method for Peace of Conscience pag. 58. Aphor. pag. 278. or because thou art unwilling not because Christ is unwilling for he makes suit to Sinners He freely offers himself and whosoever will may have him on his terms So that if thou art willing to accept of Christ on his terms it is done Christ and thy Soul are agreed This is the receiving of him which the Scripture maketh equivolent to believing on his Name In all that I have here said I do not deny but we are allowed to look at our own benefit and Salvation in coming to Christ and receiving him by Faith As one describes it to be perfugium peccatoris poenitentis ad Dei in Christo misericordiam Jo. Mestrezar cit prim Le Blanc p. 193. A penitent Sinners fleeing for safety and succour to the mercy of God in Christ According to the common experience of Christians the obtaining of Pardon and Salvation is the ratio motiva the first inducement drawing them to Christ yet this is not the ratio terminativa it is not all that Believers look at in closing with him Though that which first moves a poor Sinner to accept of Christ for his Lord and to forsake his old Masters Sin and the World be this that Christ is a Saviour to those who take him for their Lord too yet not till the Soul is made willing thus to receive him that it can be said to have a Gospel-Faith Saving Faith A partial consent in a Moral and Law-sense is no consent And God and Souls are not agreed while they only consent to one part of the Covenant refusing other terms he hath made necessary to the Agreement Such a lame consent will never bring a Soul to Christ or Heaven 2. A true Believer consents deliberately He can give a good account why he thus closeth with Christ He sees himself lost perishing undone for ever without Christ but that he is made for ever and hath all he can desire in the Promise and therefore shall have it in possession too having Christ He comes not to Christ upon slighty reasons but being fully convinced and assured that this is the best the only course he hath to take Here we may take notice that as the Law of works given to Man at first was very suitable to Man's innocent estate So is the Law of Grace the remedying Law suited to Man's lapsed nature And God in bringing Men to Grace to Faith in Jesus Christ worketh upon Men as Men as reasonable Creatures who have Vnderstanding and Will and have a natural principle of self-Self-Love and desire of Happiness and a natural principle of self-preservation dreading the thoughts of Destruction and everlasting Misery And God hath so framed his Law suitable to Man's nature that what he promiseth hath the force of an Argument Ball of the Covenant p. 225. Armin Disp priv Thes 43 §. 1. or strong motive to draw Men to what he requires As Mr. Baxter speaks fully There are some of Christs benefits that the very natural Man desires and some that corrupted nature is against Now it is therefore the established way of Christ to promise us those which we can desire on condition that we will also accept of and submit to those that we are against Not but that his Grace doth dispose Men to the performance of
of a Sermon that toucheth them but their trouble is soon over Vid. Dyke Deceitf of the Heart p. 92. They are as one says sometimes Sermon-sick but no otherwise than as Men are Sea-sick who are well again as soon as they come on Shore Yea this presently heals the matter with them they are ready to conceit that hereby they have made God amends And thus the Storm that was raised in their Consciences is laid and all is quiet again Sinners have their sad moods sometimes but like a Morning Cloud which is soon blown over and as the early dew which soon goes away Whereas a gracious Soul retains an humble broken frame of Heart for Sin has a Spirit of Mourning As the Psalmist says My Sin is ever before me I cannot look off from it neither can I think of it without Sorrow Even when he may have good hope through Grace that God is reconciled to him yet he cannot for all that be reconciled to himself He is still grieved at the remembrance of his Sins even when the Lord is pacified towards him We read Mat. 5.4 Blessed are they that mourn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they that are mourning As the Participle there used may denote a continued act Yea one goes further and layeth it down as not improbable but that Godly Sorrow though without any bitter ingredients mixed with it shall be in Heaven All Tears indeed are wiped from those Blessed Eyes But the Question is of the Act of the Vnderstanding apprehending the evil of Sin and of the will disliking and being displeased with Sin whether these are not for the perfection of Nature and no oppression of it And whether a clearer sight and fuller taste of God's infinite Goodness which the Saints have in Heaven be not joyned or attended with a clearer and deeper sence and apprehension of the evil of their Sins committed here against so good a God Vid Symonds Case and Cure p. 239. Which I leave to the discussion of better Judgments 6. Godly Sorrow is a deep intense Sorrow not slighty and superficial It is called a great Mourning Zach. 12.11 As it is a mourning for Sin as the greatest evil As Sin is the greatest evil our greatest Sorrow should be for Sin If outward troubles be as a Thorn in the Flesh we should be pricked to the Heart with a sence of Sin Sin should be as a Sword piercing thorow our Souls As the Apostle Paul that was never heard to say O miserable Man that I am in regard of the Bonds and Afflictions that did abide him here in the World yet cryed out O wretched Man that I am in regard of a Body of Sin A Body of Sin was more grievous to him than all his Sufferings in the Body And proportionably to the measure of Grace any one attains to as he grows in Grace so his Sorrow for Sin riseth his displicence against Sin encreaseth But here two or three Questions are to be answered Quest 1. Are Tears necessary to evidence the Truth of our Repentance and Sorrow for Sin Answ 1. We find that the godly mentioned in Scripture ordinarily were such as could weep for Sin yea such as wept for the Sins of others As Ezra confessed weeping Chap. 10.1 Josiah his Heart was tender and he wept before the Lord 2 King 22.19 And what Floods of Tears think we did David pour out for his own Sins while as he says Psal 119.136 Rivers of Tears ran down his Eyes for the Sins of other Men And see a weeping Convert Luk. 7.37 38. Who even washed Christs Feet with her Tears So Peter after his great Sin in denying his Master went out and wept bitterly Mat. 26.37 2. Men are oft called to Humiliation and Sorrow for Sin in Scripture under the term of weeping See Isa 22.12 Joel 2.12 And Jam. 4.9 Be afflicted and mourn and weep 3. God hath promised such a frame to his People in general that they should lament after him and follow him with Tears See Jer. 31.9 and 50.4 4. Yet Tears sometimes may be repressed through excess of inward Sorrow The Heart is fullest of Sorrow sometimes when it has no vent Seneca Leves dolores loquuntur ingentes stupent 5. Some how great soever their inward Sorrows are have so dry a constitution as will not afford Tears Thus in regard of that difference there is in their natural constitutions sighs and groans are more to some than plenty of Tears to others And they may have far more inward Humiliation and Sorrow for Sin though they cannot shed one Tear than others who have Tears at will 6. Tears are not pleasing to God but as proceeding from a contrite Heart God is pleased with a contrite Heart though it cannot command one Tear when the greatest abundance of Tears are not acceptable without a contrite Heart There are hypocritical Sighs and Tears as there are hypocritical Confessions 7. But if we can weep freely for outward losses or crosses that befal us and yet never weep for Sin this is a shrewd sign that we are Strangers to Godly Sorrow Thou that hast Tears enow and too many to spend about thy Worldly Troubles sure it is not from the dryness of thy Brain or from unaptness in thy natural temper and constitution but from the hardness of thy Heart if thou never sheddest Tears for thy Sins Quest 2. Whether one truly gracious may not have more grief for some great outward Tryal as the loss of some dear Relation c. than he hath for Sin Answ 1. However it is de facto yet de jure every one ought to grieve more for Sin than for Affliction The Love of God requires it In the Afflictions that befall us the will of the Lord is done and whatever we suffer we should say The will of the Lord be done but in Sin his will is crossed and disobeyed There is nothing so contrary to God as Sin Yea as the love of God so a regular self-self-love requires it that we grieve most for Sin There is nothing so contrary to our Souls Interest and Happiness as Sin 2. We must distinguish betwixt grief as seated in the sensitive Faculty as it is a Passion and as it is seated in the rational Powers Understanding and Will So the Passion of Grief may be greater for some sadly pressing pinching and smarting Tryal and Affliction than for Sin in one that hath true Godly Sorrow As Grief is common to us with brute Creatures and as they say the Hart when taken by the Hounds sheds tears the sensitive Faculty and one truly gracious may feel a deeper impression of trouble from outward Afflictions that are nearer to our sences and yet the rational part has a deeper sence of Sin and is more disquieted for it As 1. The practical Vnderstanding and Judgment accounts Sin a greater evil than all Afflictions A worse kind of Evil. An Affliction may be grievous but Sin is odious and is accounted
no fear of God before his Eyes Such as live in presumptuous Sins are plainly under the Dominion of Sin and such as are under the Dominion of Sin cannot be upright So much we may gather from Psal 19.13 Keep back thy Servant from presumptuous Sins let them not have Dominion over me then shall I be upright Such are Conscience-wasting Sins What should one think of such as live in gross known Sins but that they are dead in Trespasses and Sins But continued Sins of Infirmity will not prove the utter absence of Grace but only weakness and imperfection in Grace A Man may be sincere and have a true love to Holiness and a real hatred of Sin as Sin that shall never be absolutely freed from Sins of Infirmity while he lives yet such a one bears them as his Burthen he complains of them as worse than any natural Infirmities he desires to be rid of them more and more And thus in voto conatu in desire and indeavour he forsakes all known Sin breathing and pressing after perfect Holiness though here he cannot attain to it Quest But may not one that hath true Grace yet fall into gross Sin as David and Peter did Answ This is possible we must confess and more than possible but I hope not common Much less is it the common practise of such to commit gross Sins If it was what difference would there he betwixt the Godly and Vngodly 1 Cor. 6.11 Such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified Though Peter fell fouly yet he arose quickly as we read he went out and wept bitterly And it is probable David had some remorse for his Sin before Nathan was sent to him though his Repentance was not answerable to the greatness of his Offence but we no more find him guilty that way It was a warning to him Though we cannot determine how oft a Godly Man may fall into gross Sin Yet certainly there is a difference betwixt a Godly Mans falls and the wicked Mans walk Indeed such gross Sins being evidently known to be Sins and great and grievous Sins more hainous in their own nature use terribly to allarm the Conscience when committed that without an hatred of and fixed resolution against them a Man can have no evidence of the truth of his Repentance And a fixed Resolution against such Sins will not stand with the frequent and ordinary practice and commission of them 5. It is an hopeful Sign that a Man truly forsakes his Sins when he is for undoing what he hath done amiss so far as in him lieth That is 1. Heartily wishing he had never done so wishing he had rather been suffering under the Hand of God at such and such a time Poenitentia est reflexio intellectus ad improbandum malefactum affectio nolendi fecisse Scalig. Subt. p. 1010. when he was sinning against God wishing he had rather begged his Bread than got an Estate by Injustice Fraud Theft wishing he had been lower in the World so that his Corruptions might be brought down As one says He that doth not wish he had never committted such Sins hath a will to commit them still supposing the like Opportunities and Temptations 2. Being ready to make Satisfaction and Restitution in such Cases and so far as he is able Indeed as Sin is against God no meer Man could ever make Satisfaction but that Work is proper and peculiar unto Jesus Christ God-Man Yet as we may have wronged others in many Cases we may and ought to make them Satisfaction and thus we should after a sort undo what we have done amiss If we have wronged the Souls of others by drawing or encouraging them to Sin we are under a greater Obligation to do what in us lyeth to draw them to Repentance and turn them from Sin that they be not undone by us and it We must indeavour to do as much good this way as ever formerly we have done hurt The penitent Thief indeavoured to bring his Companion in Sin and Suffering to Repentance as we see Luke 23.40 41 Dost thou not fear God seeing thou art in the same Condemnation And we indeed justly for we receive the due Reward of our Deeds c. If we have wronged others in their good Names by unjust Censures false Reports c. We must willingly take shame for it and be ready to unsay what we have unjustly said against them If we have wronged others in their worldly Goods and Estates we must be for repairing the Damage they have suffered by us if it may be by Restitution or if we cannot make Restitution of the same thing unjustly taken or kept from them then by Satisfaction with something of as great worth and use to them as the thing it self would have been This is so plain a Duty that none can deny it how few soever there are that will practise it But true Repentance will put upon the practice of it See a notable Instance Luk. 19.1 So Ezek. 33.14 15. If he turn from his Sin Neque enim peccare desistit qui alienum retinet Grotius Si res propter quam peccatum perpetratar reddi potest non restituitur poenitentia non agitur sed simulatur Aug. and do that which is lawful and right if the wicked restore the Pledg give again that he had robbed A Man turns not from his Sin of wrong-doing but continues in it till he is willing to make Restitution or a Recompensation for the wrong he has done Question But what if the Party wronged be dead Answ Then what was due to him becomes due to his Heirs or Executors c. to whom he hath left his * Si debet ei pecuniam reddit eam haeredibus ejus si non novit ullos haeredes relinquit pecuniam in Curia confitetur In lib. Musar fol. 18. p. 2. Vid. M. Pol. Synops in Mat. 5.24 Estate and we have no right to it Or if the Man have no Kinsman for one to recompense the Trespass unto let the Trespass be recompensed unto the Lord Numb 5.8 What you are not lawful Possessors of it is good to discharge your selves of separating it to pious and charitable Vses that is to the Use of the prime and absolute Owner when you cannot restore it to the proper Owner But otherwise the Lord hates Robbery for Burnt-Offering Isa 61.8 It is abominable that any should steal and take away any thing unjustly from their Neighbour with an intent to serve God with what is not their own And the like Course is to be taken when a Man knoweth not whom or how many he hath wronged Dan. 4.27 Break off thy Sins by Righteousness and thine Iniquities by shewing Mercy to the poor Such as have been scraping Estates together by covetous practices by oppressing over-reaching and defrauding others such as have made it their Trade to injure as many as they could who have had dealing with them such as can never
to wallow in the Mire 6. This is a sure Sign that a Man is not under the Dominion of Sin when his Heart is turned to hate all known Sin As the Apostle though he was not without Sin yet he was not in love in league with any Sin no it was the thing he hated Rom. 7.15 If thou art an Enemy to Sin to all known Sin then certainly thou art not a willing Subject to it A Man would not take and chuse him for his Master whom he hates If now it is thy great care to shun and avoid Sin as an Enemy and the greatest Enemy thou hast in the World and if thou settest against Sin as thy worst Enemy and nothing will satisfy thee but the Death of Sin if thou art daily bestirring thy self to beat down a Body of Sin to mortify thy earthly Members to crucify the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts thereof this Hatred and Opposition of Sin is one of the clearest and best Evidences thou canst have that thou art not under the Dominion of Sin And where Sin is not habitually more hated than loved it has Dominion But where there is such an habitual Hatred of Sin though remaining In-dwelling Corruption prevails too oft so far as to draw a Man to commit the Act of Sin yet he is not thereupon reconciled to Sin and for a sinful Course But when the Temptation is over when he comes to himself to act according to the Principle and Habit of Grace within him he cannot but loath himself and abhor that Sin As Zanchy Ac certum est electos renatos Tom. 7. p. 257. antequam peccent odisse peccatum malle mori quà m peccare postquam peccârunt dolere odisse peccatum quum peccant peccare non cum odio Legis aut contemptu Dei sed ex infirmitate Fidei Thus though Sin gets Victory sometimes yet it never obtains a full Conquest A gracious Soul though he hath been worsted again and again will be for renewing the Fight So the Dominion of Sin cannot be concluded from its violent assaults on the Soul but rather one may conclude the contrary from the Hatred and hearty Opposition of it If the Sins which most prevail against thee are the greatest trouble to thee and nothing in the World would so glad thy Heart as to be rid of them If the Pardon of Sin alone would not satisfy thee without Power against it 't is a good Sign that Sin has not Dominion over thee 7. Thou mayest know thou art not under the Dominion of Sin if indeed thou hast chosen and heartily accepted of a new Lord if thou hast sincerely resigned up thy self to God and Jesus Christ If it be so that Christ is now Lord and Master in thee then certainly thou art not a Servant of Sin Thou canst not be under both these Masters While thou wast a Subject and a Servant of Sin thou wast a Rebel against God a Rebel against Jesus Christ But if now thy Heart and Will is to be governed by God and Christ to come under his Laws the Government of Sin is cast off If the prevailing Bent of thy Will and the general Course of thy Life proves thee to be most for obeying God and subjecting thy self to the Rule of his holy Word if thou wouldest not allow thy self in any thing thou knowest to be cross and contrary to his Will if it is the grief of thy Soul that thou canst not obey him perfectly if thou wouldest not have a Dispensation to break any Command of his but have Grace and Strength to keep them Then thou hast changed thy Master Rom. 6.16 Know ye not that to whom ye yield your selves to obey his Servants ye are More I might add but I chuse to conlude with some Passages out of Reverend Mr. Baxter Thus he saith He that seldom or never committeth such external Crimes and yet loveth not God Christian Directory pag. 428. and Heaven and Holiness above all the Pleasures and Interests of the Flesh is in a state of Death under the Dominion of Sin Again It is certain that his Love to God and Holiness is not prodominant whose carnal Interest and Lust hath ordinarily in the drift and tenour of his Life more power to draw him to the wilful committing of known Sin than the said Love of God and Heaven and Holiness have to keep him from it Rom. 6.16 He that will sin thus as oft as will stand with saving Grace shall never have the Assurance of his Sincerity or the Peace or Comfort of a sound Believer till he repent and lead a better Life Again He that in his Sin retaineth that habitual Divine Love hath also habitual vertual Repentance for that very Sin before he actually repenteth because he hath that habitual Hatred of it which will cause actual Repentance when he is composed to act according to his predominant Habits Again There are some Sins which all Men continue in or the best are not freed from while they live as Defect in the degrees of Faith Hope Love c. Vain Thoughts Words Passions c. Where the evil is prevalent in the Will against the good so far as to commit those Sins though not so far as to vitiate the Bent of the Heart or Life Again That which is apprehended to be either of doubtful evil or but a little sin will be much less resisted and oftner committed than Sins that are clearly apprehendeded to be great Now if this Apprehension be wrong and come from the predominancy of a carnal or ungodly Heart which will not suffer the Understanding to do its Office nor to take that to be evil which he would not leave then both the Judgment and the Sin occasioned by it are mortal and not mortified pardoned Sins Again Though it is true that all good Christians should not indulge the smallest Sin and that true Grace will make a Man willing to forsake the least yet No good Men rise up with so great and constant watchfulness against an idle Thought or Word or Disorder in Prayer c. as they do against an hainous Sin Some things I pass over being touched at before I shall only add one Note more though already hinted at There are some Sins so easily known to be Sins Cathol Theo l. part 2. pag. 104. and so notoriously calling the Conscience to repent that to lie in them unrepented of long when the sudden violent Temptation and Passion is over and a Man hath opportunity to act according to his setled Habit will not consist with the truth of an Habit of Love to God and Holiness and of Hatred to Sin Of Love to God John 5.42 But I know you that ye have not the Love of God in you HOw sad is it if the like may be said of us How many that will say He is not worthy to live that does not love God And yet the Lord knows they are such themselves as have
should we love the appearing of Christ 2 Tim. 4.8 how should we rejoyce to think of the day when Christ will come and take us up to himself to enjoy God in Glory If it be so desirable to enjoy his presence here how much more to enjoy his presence in Heaven So this would shew that we love God if we are looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God as 2 Pet. 3.12 and if we heartily lament it that we are at so great a distance from him that we enjoy so little of him and desire the clearest manifestation of his love and the nearest fellowship with and fullest fruition of him above all the riches pleasures and honours in the World Then certainly we are taken with him Yet it is granted many times such as have the love of God in them cannot find in themselves such willingness to be absent from the Body to be present with the Lord as would become them and which they would attain unto But generally it is because they are clouded and full of doubts and fears about their spiritual estates or because they are conscious of present great unpreparedness they see themselves so unmeet for Heaven They are ashamed that the Bridegroom should come and find them so unready But yet they would not build Tabernacles and set up their rest here They could not be content with the World for their Portion might they always enjoy it They look higher And if they may not hope at last to come to the enjoyment of God in Heaven they must despair of ever being as they would be But alas how many are there who might they but have their lives perpetuated here and so enjoy the World for ever would never think of Heaven would desire no other Heaven and when they desire Heaven it is only in a second place when they can enjoy the World no longer but if they were put to their choice they would not leave Earth for Heaven And they desire not Heaven at all for the enjoyment of God there and to live in the perfect love of God and full conformity to him but only to be free from trouble and secured from the pains and torments of Hell and to enjoy a Paradise of delights to please their senses The Heaven that cornal minds are for is but a dream a fancy of their own That which is the Heaven of Heavens scil the full enjoyment of God in his love and likeness they have no mind to 8. If we have set our love upon God then our thoughts are much upon him Thus the Psalmist proved his love to the Word of God Psal 119.97 O how I love thy Law it is my meditation all the day As he says ver 24. Thy Testimonies also are my delight Where the Septuagint read my meditation It was his delight to meditate on them Thus his love to God was acting in frequent and most pleasing contemplations of God As it is the covetous Worldling's delight to think on his riches and the Sensualist's delight to think on his pleasures so his meditation of God was sweet to him Psal 104.34 which shewed his love to God As the Lover delights to behold the party with whom he is enamoured The thoughts of the soul are its glances and serious meditations its fixed looks And if we have set our love upon him our most intent and powerful affecting thoughts are fixed on him Our best our most deliberate advised if not our most frequent thoughts are on God The soul is where it loves rather than where it lives You may be in company with one that is deep in love you may talk to him and yet he little minds you or your discourse his thoughts are elsewhere taken up with his beloved Therefore when you see one mindless of his business you will oft say surely he is in love So indeed the the soul that loves God is much with him in its thoughts As the Psalmist would remember him upon his bed and meditate on him in the night-watches And sayes he when I awake I am still with thee Thus one that loves God will ordinarily have his thoughts on God both lying down at night and rising up in the morning So when he is at work in his Calling his thoughts are ever and anon ascending up to God And when he is in Company he oft leaves his Company unespyed his heart and thoughts going out after God But now when it is so that a Man does what he can to banish God out of his thoughts when the thoughts of God are unwelcome guests are not kindly entertained when God is not in all his thoughts from morning to night at least not with his good will surely such a one does but vainly pretend to love God How canst thou say that thou lovest him when thy heart is not with him when thy thoughts are not on him Such as love not to think on him it is plain they are great strangers or rather enemies to God in their minds 9. If we love God we shall delight to speak or hear of him to put us in mind of him or to set forth his praise It will be pleasing to us to hear of God and the things of God if we hear the things that are right To hear his Word and to hear Men speak well of him according to his Word So we shall delight as to think on his Name so to make mention of his Name Though we shall dread to speak slightly carelessly of him though we shall abhor the abusing and profaning of his sacred and reverend Name we shall desire to speak reverently and affectionately of him Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh Where the heart is full of love to the World a Man's delight will be to speak of worldly things such as he loves most And he cannot relish other discourses but it sounds harsh is unpleasing to him On the contrary when the heart is taken up with the love of God it will be ones delight to speak of him and to speak in his praise to speak good of his Name As we are forward upon all occasions to speak in the commendation of those whom we most affect so if we love God we shall be speaking well of him we are oft setting forth his goodness we love to speak of his excellencies and of his glory 10. If we love God it will be a great grief to us to see or hear God dishonoured Psal 69.9 The reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me He took them to himself Yea to hear himself vilified would not have moved him so much When Shimei cursed him he could hear and bear it patiently So if we love God we shall be grieved at those that rise up against God with the Psalmist Psal 139.21 22. we shall count those our enemies that are enemies to God Who could endure to see his friend abused to see his Father wronged If we have the love
of the World than we are at God's command and that habitually and ordinarily it is plain we prefer our selves and honour the Creature above God and while it is thus how can we say that we love him If we love God we shall follow him and love to walk in his ways As they said of their Idols Jer. 2.25 I have loved strangers and after them will I go Had they loved God indeed they would have been for following him and not strangers The counsel of a special friend is much regarded and surely if we love God we shall not despise his counsels Psal 119.128 I esteem all thy Precepts concerning all things to be right He approved of them all he would not have any one of God's Laws nulled and abrogated To love the Lord to walk in all his ways and to cleave to him are conjoyned Deut. 11.22 And to love the Lord and to walk ever in his ways Deut. 19.9 So the love of God will incline souls to sincere impartial and constant obedience 14. If we love God we shall desire to be more like him Eph. 5.1 Be followers of God as dear Children 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Imitators though we cannot be like him in respect of those Attributes stiled incommunicable Our first Parents fell from God when they affected to be as Gods And in some other respect too we may not be like him We may not act for our own glory as God does This would entrench upon the glory due from us to God and cross the end of our beings Yet if we love God we shall desire to be like him so far as we may There is an assimulating vertue and power in love We are ready to imitate those we love Their example is very moving and is wont to take much with us If we love God we shall desire that we may have hearts after his heart to love that which he loves and to hate that which he hates Amicorum idem velle idem nolle We shall desire to be holy as he is holy and merciful as he is merciful and perfect as our Father in Heaven is perfect Though it is impossible for any Creature to be as holy as merciful as perfect as God is Though an equality here is not to be thought of yet a likeness and similitude a conformity to God in our measure such as we may attain to we must study and endeavour and this the love of God would put us upon But if we rather wish that God was altogether such a one as our selves if we rather desire that he would come down to us and comply with allow of our crooked Tempers and Manners than to have our souls raised up to him by the restoring of his Image and a divine Nature wrought in us it would shew indeed that we are little taken with him but rather how little cause soever there is for it we are still in love with our sinful selves 15. If we love God we shall highly account of his favours We shall not despise common benefits as coming from him but we shall most prize any special Love-token he hath given us We set a value on Mercies according as God's love appears in them When Tamar had got Judah's Signet and Bracelets she would not part with them for a Kid. One would have prized a kiss of Cyrus above the golden Cup he gave him The soul that loves God will value spiritual Mercies above temporal enjoyments The consolations of God will not be small in such a ones account His comforts will be more desired longed for or if enjoyed will more delight and refresh the soul than any worldly comforts And the more we love God the more we shall praise him for any intimations and expressions of his love We shall delight to tell others what he hath done for our souls as the Psalmist Psal 66.16 Come and hear all ye that fear God and I will declare what he hath done for my soul Psal 103.1 2 3 4. This would in part shew we love God for himself and not only for his Benefits if indeed we set the highest value and account on those Benefits wherein we might read his special love But they that would account more of the Birth-right than of the Blessing and set more store by Corn and Wine than they could do by the light of God's Countenance shew little love to God 16. If we love God we are for putting a good construction on his severest dispensations We would not take any thing unkindly from him We are not for entertaining hard thoughts of God Si mihi irascatur Deus num illi ego similiter reirasear non utique sed pavebo sed contremiseam sed veniam deprecabor Ita si me arguat not redarguetur à me sed ex me potius justificabitur Nec si me judicabit judicabo ego eum sed adorabo Bern. in Cant. Scr. 83. though he shew us hard things We shall desire to keep up good thoughts of God still but have worse thoughts of our selves When he afflicts us we shall fall out with our selves fall out more with Sin not be displeased at him We shall still follow him even though he walk contrary to us as Isa 26.8 9. When we are chastened of him we shall not censure his dealings but judge our selves We shall be ready to justify God and to condemn our selves acknowledging God to be righteous and to punish less than our iniquities deserve If we cry to God and he seem not to hear we shall not hereupon take pett but conclude with the Psalmist Psal 22.2 3. Yet thou art holy Indeed we shall be ready in our troubles to complain to him as we use in trouble to complain to our friends but we would not complain of him If we love God Afflictions will not ordinarily drive us from God but rather drive us nearer to him If he shews his displeasure it will grieve us most that we have displeased him that we have offended our good and gracious Father that we have provoked the God of Patience a God so rich in Mercy And so we shall be for humbling our selves and making our peace with him But if when we are afflicted instead of accepting of the punishment of our Iniquities and humbling our selves and seeking his face our hearts do nothing but fret against the Lord we are strange Children We have had Fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence and if we are not much rather in subjection to the Father of Spirits we shew not a childlike disposition And how sad is it if in our afflictions we are ready to say with him of whom we read This evil is of the Lord why should I wait on the Lord any longer How sad is it when Crosses that should crucify and deaden our hearts more to the World have this contrary effect deadning them towards God and towards holy Duties That we have less heart to serve God have less
heart to Pray to Read and Hear the Word c. It is noted of the Hypocrite Job 27.9 10. When trouble comes upon him will he delight himself in the Almighty will he always call upon God 17. If we love God indeed we shall desire to love him more and more and to express our love more and more We shall never think we love him enough or that we do enough for him or that what we do in God's service at any time is done well enough It will be our unfeigned desire to honour God more and to serve him better As the Psalmist 71.14 I will yet praise thee more and more Love in the Heart will set the Head on contriving the Tongue on pleading the Hands on working for God Love is kind is bountiful Amicorum omnia communia If we have the Love of God in us we shall desire that all we have may be at his service that our parts interest estate may be imploy'd and improved for him Love to God will put us upon holy Projects for God As it is very pleasing to us to serve a special Friend it will be our joy and delight to serve God to act for his Glory to do any thing to promote his interest And such as abound in Love to God will also abound in the work of the Lord. Whereas a Soul without Love is like a Bird that has lost his Wings or like a Chariot without Wheels it moves very heavily What such may seem to do for God is done without heart with no alacrity or delight but rather with pain and trouble further than self-interest and self-love carries them out Thus if what is done for God be done grudgingly and if we are weary of his service and if we are setting our selves bounds and think we have done enough already these things would not shew any love to God 18. If we love God it will be a joy to us to see others active for God Though we shall be ashamed to think how little we have done for God though it will grieve us that we can do no more yet withall it will be a pleasing sight to us when we can see his Interest and Honour promoted and advanced be it by others Though we shall desire in our places to do as much as those that do most for God yet it will be no eye-sore to us when we see others out-stripping us We shall honour them the more and shall desire to imitate them we shall not envy or stomach them But if we are offended at those that are more forward and zealous if we grudg that any cloud us by their shining brighter if we have a secret dislike of those that excell in Holiness and Vertue and quite out-do us in the service of God though the Lord hath more honour by them this is an ill sign a sign that we prefer our own interest before Gods interest and prefer our own reputation before his Glory and so that we love him not as we ought 19. If we love God we shall be ready not only to act but to suffer for him too Be willing to suffer any thing for God rather than forsake him Amanti nihil difficile Love makes any cross tolerable They that endure temptation or trial and they that love God are made all one Jam. 1.12 True Love is fugatrix timoris et animatrix confessionis according to Tertul. Many Waters cannot quench Love Where this divine spark is kindled it oft flameth forth more the more it meeteth with opposition It is intended by an Antiperistasis as Fire burns hottest in cold frosty weather How oft have the Faithful rejoyced in tribulation gloried in their sufferings Though we are not to run upon Sufferings uncalled yet how many have counted it à joy and pleasure when they have fallen into them I grant some may be carried on to suffer for God and his Truth who are only animated with vain-glory or with a vain proud conceit of meriting highly by their sufferings and not with a principal of Love Yet that Mans Love to God is to be suspected or rather concluded unsound that will not carry him through sufferings and tryals here He that loveth Father or Mother Wife or Children Liberty or Estate or Life it self more than God does not love him sincerely If we had rather incur God's displeasure than Man's had rather forgo an interest in God than forgo Estates in the World for him if we had rather venture on an everlasting separation from God than lay down our lives here for him surely we care little for him 20. If we love God we shall love others for his sake Love all Men love Enemies and especially love the Godly for his sake The Love of God includes under it the Love of our Neighbour and Love of the Brethren As it is well defined thus It is a Grace whereby we love God for himself above all and all others for God and in God 1 Joh. 4.20 21. If a Man say I love God and hateth his Brother he is a liar c. And this Commandment have we from him that he who loveth God loveth his Neighbour also Here I should say something of Love to Men. 1. Of Love to Men in general 2. Of Love to Enemies in particular 3. Of Love to the Godly in special 1. The Love of God will incline the heart to love all Men As it is a thing that God requires And as there is something of God to be seen in all Men Yea more than in Sun and Moon or the most excellent Creatures in the World that are without life and void of Reason All Men are worthy of our love as they are God's Workmanship as they are reasonable Creatures and capable of enjoying God and Happiness though such in a special manner are worthy of our love who are more especially God's workmanship being created again in Christ Jesus It is true the Damned are none of our Neighbors but removed quite out of all society with us and out of all capacity of ever loving and enjoying God And such as have sinned unto Death if we can certainly know them we may know to be utterly outlaw'd and lost Creatures to all Eternity for whom there remains nothing but a certain fearful expectation of Judgment and fiery Indignation which shall devour the adversaries But excepting such do we bear an universal Good-will to Men for God's sake with respect to his holy VVill and Command and to his Honour and Glory Then certainly it will be our Prayer and hearts desire that his way may be known upon Earth his saving health among all Nations And then we cannot but pity those that sit in darkness and in the region and shadow of Death And then we shall have aking and bleeding hearts for those that enjoy the Gospel and ordinary means of Salvation but plainly reject the counsel of God against themselves and will not attend to the things of their peace Then it will affect us
with grief and horrour to see sinners posting on in the broad way to Hell and Destruction As the Psalmist 119.53 Horrour hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy Law Then it would greatly rejoyce our hearts might we be a means of stopping any such in their desperate career a means of converting any Sinner from the errour of his way and consequently of saving a soul from death Now what should they think of themselves who are wholly unconcerned I mean carry as not at all concerned how it goes with the Souls of others Such as would say with Cain Am I my Brothers keeper Such as make no conscience at all of but grosly neglect that plain and necessary duty of reproving Sinners though they have never so loud a call and never so fair opportunity Are not they said to hate their Brother in their heart that will not rebuke but suffer Sin upon him So what enemies are they to Souls that are enemies to the Gospel and the faithful preaching of it 1 Thess 2.15 16. True love wisheth the best good to Men and so the means of it without which it is not ordinarily obtained But though sound love respecteth the Souls of Men and their spiritual welfare chiefly yet not only So Are we far from envying others prosperity Charity envieth not 1 Cor. 13.4 Are we grieved for others calamities As the Psalmist 35.13 14. Is it our desire not to be wanting in any Office of love to others Ubicunque homo est ibi beneficeo locus est Sen. would we do good to all as we have opportunity Are we for helping and shewing mercy to any in misery so far as we are in a capacity Do we not know how to hide our selves from our own flesh Yea do we not only deal our bread to the hungry but draw out our Souls our Bowels to them And are we for setting aside all base self-respect in the love we bear and the good we do to others Are we willing to do good to such as either will not or cannot recompence us Do we not some way aim at our own ends advantage praise c. Charity seeketh not her own To love another but for and with respect to our selves is not properly to love another but only to love our selves But if we can find our hearts going out in love and good-will towards all Men though we cannot expect so much as thanks from one of many this is very comfortable But here you may ask Quest 1. Should we not with the Psalmist 139.21 22. hate the wicked How than are we to love all Men Answ As we are to loath and abhor our selves so far as we are sinful and yet notwithstanding we must love our selves so we are both to love and hate the wicked As God hath a love to them as his Creatures and many ways is doing good to them whom yet he hates as they are wicked So must we In hating a sinner we must neither hate his nature for his sin as one notes nor his sin for the Man but hate Sin as sin Dr. Burgess Chain of Graces p. 239. and love the Man considered as a Man There is a Physical or natural goodness which is found in wicked Men as they are Men which includes in it a capableness of moral goodness for which they are so far to be esteemed and loved And while the wicked are in a possibility of being reclaimed from their wickedness we must pity pray for and heartily wish well unto them and indeavour to promote their Conversion and Salvation as it may lye in our way to contribute thereunto Quest 2. Is it not sometimes lawful to imprecate God's Vengeance on the wicked Answ This is not to be done ordinarily First of all Supplications Prayers Intercessions must be made for all Men 1 Tim. 2.1 Contrary to the custom of the Jews as Dr. Lightfoot notes who use to curse the Heathen and pray for none but themselves and those of their own Nation and Religion In praying for all we should pray for the wicked that God would restrain convince and convert them if it be his will If we pray that God's hand may find out his enemies his right hand those that hate him it must be conditionally that is If they be incurable incorrigible implacable obstinate in their malice against God his Church and Interest Before we pray absolutely against any particular Persons we should look well to our warrant Charity hopeth all things 1 Cor. 13.7 while we cannot certainly know or pronounce such without all hope of mercy we should not dare in our prayers to devote them to Justice What some holy Men have done here as David c. seems to be extraordinarily Spiritu praevidentis non voto optantis from a spirit of Prophesie rather than from the spirit of Supplication Unless we had their spirit we have not their warrant to pray directly against any Mens persons Quest 3. May not the righteous sometimes rejoyce seeing Gods Vengeance on the wicked as Psal 58.10 Answ As God is glorified by the Judgment which he executeth and as it may tend to promote his Interest and the good and safety of his Church and People so they may rejoyce at the cutting off and fall of wicked and mischievous Instruments but may not rejoyce meerly in their destruction Not as it makes against them but as it makes for Gods Glory and the good of others Qu. 4. Is it not lawful to desire that Justice may be done on notorious offenders Now is this to love them to will their punishment Answ We may desire that such may be punished without breach of Charity 1. When it is not from any private grudge but from a love to publick justice and with respect to the glory of God thereby 2. When we have respect to the good of the Community As we owe more love to the publick Society of which we are Members than to particular Members in the Society and much more then to corrupt gangren'd Members that endanger the whole Body When great notorious crimes go unpunished the Community may suffer for it Blood desiles a Land so Whoredom Drunkenness c. And where Men care not to let such sins go unpunished it provokes the Lord to punish for them It is better that the Offenders should suffer punishment than the whole Body should suffer for them Again when great crimes go unpunished more are encouraged to commit them That this is a sparing cruelty There is Credulitas parcens and there is Misericordia puniens Civil Magistrates are ordained of God to be a terror to Evil-doers And it is better that such should suffer than be suffered to go on to corrupt and infect others It is sinful against Charity to will the punishment of another meerly sub ratione mali as evil to him But the punishment of notorious Offenders hath also Rationem boni is good being a means of keeping up justice and order
and of preserving the community both from guilt and punishment And thus the due execution of justice on Evil-doers is to be willed 3. When we desire not their punishment so much as their repentance and reformation We may will their temporal punishment and yet earnestly desire that it may go well with their souls And this is not inconsistent with true love to will their punishment but not for it self as punishment to them but as a means to reclaim them to bring them to a sense of their sin c. So much of love to all Men. 2. More particularly the love of God will incline a Man even to love those that hate him to love his very Enemies Amicos diligere omnium est Tertul. lib. ad Scapul inimicos autem solorum Christianorum It is common to all to love their friends but proper unto Christians to love their enemies Diligere enim diligentes est naturae Ludol Carthus in Evang. diligere non diligentes est gratiae Nature teacheth to love those that love us but only Grace teacheth to love those that love us not So this would be a notable proof that our love to God is sound if for his sake we love our enemies Therefore let us search and enquire how our hearts stand affected towards those that manifest and declare enmity and ill-will to us Mr. Baxt. Christian Directory Par. 4. p. 186. qu. 2. As one says Anothers enmity must not blind and pervert our judgment of him and hinder us from discerning all that is amiable in him nor must it corrupt our affections and hinder us from loving it and him I grant we may be sensible of others enmity and the injuries we receive from them yet their sin should be a greater trouble to us than our own affliction or suffering by them We may reprove an Enemy but in love we may not reproach an Enemy We may in many cases defend our selves yet must we take heed of a spirit of revenge and take heed of being injurious our selves under pretence of defending our selves from injury We may be cautelous and watchful not to expose our selves to the will of an Enemy yet not uncharitable in our censures and speeches making him worse than indeed he is We may not presently judg every one an Enemy to God that is contrary to us It may be from Prejudice and Passion not from rooted Malice what they do against us But however it is with them the Lord hath taught and commanded us to love and carry well towards them and we must do so as we would shew our selves his Children Mat. 5. 44 45. We cannot tell but they may belong to God He can make them Vessels unto honour And though they are unprofitable yea injurious to us yet they may be helpful and beneficial unto others whom we are bound to love We ought to love them for any good in them for any good that any other may receive from them And if we can love them when no self-respect moveth us thereunto it is a clearer evidence that we love them for Gods sake But if you cannot forgive their trespasses how can you hope that God will forgive you yours See Mark 11.25 26. Thou that sayest and speakest thy very heart I can never love such or such a one I shall never be friends with them while I live know this is sad language it speaks thee to be in the gall of bitterness And as one says Cor. Burgess Chain of Graces pag. 252. He that hath not grace to love an Enemy did never love his Friend from his heat Flee his friendship that cannot love an Enemy If ever thou move him he will be ready to remove thee for ever from his heart Now what say you to this Some indeed have an Art of carrying fair and smooth they can keep in their wrath that it shall not appear in their looks or speeches But can you truly say that you love and bear an hearty good will towards others how ill soever they carry towards you Do you wish no worse to them than to your own souls Do you pray for them a kindness which they cannot reject Father forgive them Lord lay not sin to their charge Would it rejoyce you to see them come on to a participation of Grace with you here and so to have fellowship with you in Glory hereafter And do you desire their prosperity here so far as may be good for them And would you not be unwilling if it lay in your way to promote it Are you so far from desiring to revenge your selves on them that you wait for opportunities to befriend them Oh! how few of such a spirit and yet how plain a duty Exod. 23.4 5. If thou meet thine enemies Ox or his Ass going astray thou shalt surely bring it back to him again If thou see the Ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden and wouldst forbear to help him or wouldst cease to leave thy business for him thou shalt surely help him Rom. 12.20 If thine enemy bunger feed him if he thirst give him drink Mat. 7.12 All things whatsoever you would that Men should do unto you do ye even so to them Not as others do to you but as ye would that others should do unto you and that with a regular will a will guided by a right and sound judgment So on the other hand Quod tibi non vis fieri alteri nè feceris Do not that to another which thou wouldst not have another do to thee Rom. 12.21 Be not overcome of evil but overcome evil with good It was said of Julius Caesar Benignitate adeò praedictus ut quos armis subegerat clementiâ magis vicerit He was so gentle courteous that whom he subdued with force of Arms he overcame more with clemency and yet might he be far from loving Enemies as the Word of God and the Spirit of Grace teacheth But do you unfeignedly desire your enemies welfare and would you gladly be instruments of promoting it Are you for doing good to them that hate you unless where it may be more to your own hurt or danger than to their benefit and advantage And are you sorry grieved for them when evil befalleth them Prov. 24.17 Rejoyce not when thine enemy falleth and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth Job 31.29 30. If I rejoyced at the destruction of him that hated me or lift up my self when evil found him Neither have I suffered my mouth to sin by wishing a curse to his soul Is it no joy to you to see an enemy fall into misery much less a joy to see him fall into sin Charity rejoyceth not in iniquity 1 Cor. 13.6 And are you ready to take notice of any good and commendable thing in an enemy and to speak well of him for it Have you no delight to hear or speak of his faults and miscarriages Are you for hiding rather than discovering his nakedness Had
you rather err on the hand of Charity in making his faults less than they are than make them greater And would you not grieve so much for the wrong an enemy does you as for the wrong he does his own soul Would you not have so deep a sense of the greatest trespasses against you as of his transgressions against God as Psal 119.139 Then indeed it is to be hoped notwithstanding sometimes your passion is too much moved on a suddain yet that in cool blood you do love your Enemy 3. The love of God will incline one especially to love the Godly And every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him 1 Joh. 5.1 If we love God we cannot but love the Children of God for their Fathers sake There is no living Christian but is a loving Christian 1 Joh. 3.14 But here many deceive themselves and others Some only pretend love to the Godly to purchase others love and gain more esteem of others As Dyonisius maintained Philosophers not that he did much esteem or admire them but because he hoped to be esteemed for them Some love them from meer self respects As those they have been and further may be beholden unto as having received kindness from such and being convinced of their love and good-will towards them as having a dependance on such or being tied to them by natural bonds They that are not without natural affection will love their own Some love them for other common worldly respects As some of them are Men of Wisdom and Prudence able to advise in difficult and weighty matters or learned Men c. But first If our love to the Godly be sound such as will prove and evidence the love of God to be in us then we love them for their godliness Do we see a beauty in Holiness Are we so taken with it that we cannot but love those in whom we see it cannot but highly esteem such as the excellent ones in the Earth Do we love the Children of God eo nomine because they are his Children because they resemble their Father bear his Image As the Cynick Philosopher could say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Laert. l. 6. in Diog. p. 397. that good Men were images of God Are we taken with them for what of God or of a divine Nature we see in them As we are pleased with the Pictures of those whom we love and honour As on the contrary if we should see a Man expressing an hatred and contempt of anothers Picture scratching and tearing it soiling bespattering and defacing it we would conclude that he hated the Person much more whom the Picture did represent Do we love the Godly as such Mat. 10.41 42. He that receiveth a righteous Man in the name of a righteous Man shall receive a righteous Mans reward He that gives a cup of cold Water only to a Disciple in the name of a Disciple shall in no wise lose his reward In the name of a righteous Man and in the name of a Disciple that is as such upon that very account and not for any lower by-respects The Apostle had a great love to Timothy he thought on him daily he had him daily in his best thoughts and what was it that drew out his heart so towards him calling to mind says he the unfeigned faith that is in thee 2 Tim. 1. 3 4 5. Do we love the Godly for their Godliness in its full latitude for the whole of it and not for some parts only We may love them in part as godly or love some parts of Godliness without any true love to God and without loving them for his sake As many a natural Man is convinced and will confess that the Godly are better than they As Saul to David Thou art more righteous than I. So several parts of Godliness are lovely even in the eyes of a natural Man Plain-heartedness upright-dealing in ones Calling faithfulness in matters of trust peaceableness charitableness things which Godliness teacheth are commendable and amiable even our enemies themselves being judges And as godliness teacheth the best discharge of Relative duties so far a natural Man may love it in relations As it teacheth the Wife a chaste conversation coupled with fear thus a carnal Husband may love it in his Wife As it teacheth the Child to honour his Parents to carry reverently and dutifully towards them ungodly Parents may so far like it in a Child and love such a Child the better for it As it puts a Servant upon diligence care and faithfulness in his Masters business that he serveth not with eye-service but in singleness of heart so far a bad Master may love a good Servant While Godliness in the full latitude of it and taking in all its essential and integral parts is not pleasing but distasteful unto such Where it crosseth their corrupt Wills Affections and their carnal Interests and Designs where it reproveth and condemneth them for their sinful omissions or commissions where it galleth them they cannot away with it or be so well pleased with others where they see it 2. And if we love the Children of God aright for the Grace of God appearing in them for their Godliness then we love all that appear to be such we have a special love to all that are godly so far as we can judge So the Colossians had a love to all Saints Col. 1.4 So Philemon Phil. v. 5. So the Apostle Peter enjoyneth to love the Brotherhood the whole Fraternity all that were of the houshold of Faith 1 Pet. 2.17 To love all parts of Godliness all Grace as was said before and to love all Saints would be good evidence of the soundness and sincerity of our love But partiality here would bewray unsoundness and hypocrisy Surely that is a partial love if we love some while we despise and lightly esteem others who yet give as good proof of their godliness Some are ready to Saint all that are of their own Party and to un-Saint any that differ from them though the difference be not in any fundamental and essential point of Faith and Godliness and though perhaps the errour and mistake be in themselves Do not such love for an Opinion or for some self-respect rather than for real Godliness who look but shily on carry strange towards any though sound in all points necessary to Salvation and strict and conscientious in their lives yea though eminent in Godliness that are not of their Opinion Such have not learnt to love Saints as Saints and to love all Saints Suppose such as differ from them to be but weak in the Faith yet Christ would not have his little ones despised 3. And if we love the Children of God for God and Godliness sake then the more holy and the more like to God any are the more we shall love them and be taken with them the more our hearts will be knit to them as Jonathan's Soul was knit to
David 1 Sam. 18.1 And here is no respect of persons but a respect of goodness to love them best who are best But if on the contrary a Man only beareth with Holiness in a lower degree and with such as may be Godly in the main but very remiss too much complying with the manners of the World or perhaps can afford such a good word sometimes saying such are honest sober moderate Men when he would thereby condemn those who are more forward when he utterly dislikes and his heart is rising against those whose hearts are lifted up in the ways of God when he cannot endure such as are more exactly conscientious and more zealous for God when he is barking at them as Hot-spurs Fanaticks and I know not what or if he lash them not with the tongue yet his heart is full of envy against them what can this shew but a graceless spirit And let such a one know that the love of God is not in him If the holiness of a Saint be such an eye-sore to thee for which thou canst not affect him how canst thou love God who is Holiness it self There is none holy as the Lord he is infinitely holy If the light of the Moon offends thee which yet shines not without its spots how canst thou bear the surpassing brightness of the Sun it self And how unmeet art thou for fellowship with the Saints in Heaven with the Spirits of Just Ones made perfect who canst not away with such as have attained to any eminent degree of holiness here The Saints in Heaven are more holy than any of those thou thinkest too strict too precise Perhaps thou wilt say 1. Thou couldst love and honour them if they were as good as they seem but they are Hypocrites they do but make a show Answ And dost thou indeed hate Hypocrisie O then take heed that thou beest not guilty of Hypocrisie in this very plea pretending that thou canst not love them because they are not so good as they seem when in very deed thou couldst like well of them if they were worse than they are Again Though it is true Hypocrites there will be among the Saints here yet take heed that thou dost not censure and condemn those as Hypocrites whom the Lord accepteth and approveth of as sincere and upright Thy hard censures cannot hurt and prejudice them so much as thy self The Devil accused Job to be no better than an Hypocrite As he is called The Accuser of the Brethren Rev. 12.10 That this is a Diabolical Practice And to justifie the Wicked and to condemn the Righteous are both of them an abomination to the Lord. How angry was the Lord with Job's three friends for their rash censures of him and harsh dealing with him The Vpright though they are abhorred of many in the World are God's delight And think of it Shall not the Saints judg the World at last Many that censure and accuse them here shall be judged and condemded by them hereafter Yea their holy lives that the World is so offended at shall condemn the World And thou that abhorrest their strict lives think of it whether with Balaam thou wouldest not desire to dye their Death Or 2. Perhaps thou wilt say They make more ado than needs Answ And wherein Indeed it becomes not a Christian to be a busy-body in other Mens matters He has work enough of his own to mind And let all that fear God have a care to walk so that others may find no occasion against them but in the matters of their God But certainly the Command Mat. 22.37 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart c. will bear them out in their greatest Zeal and Activity for God So Luke 13.24 strive to enter in at the straight Gate c. And Phil. 2.18 Work out your own Salvation with fear and trembling And 2 Pet. 2.10 Give diligence to make your Calling and Election sure will warrant their most strenuous endeavours to get to Heaven And Ephes 5.15 See that ye walk circumspectly And 1 Thes 5.22 Abstain from all appearance of evil will justify their tenderness of Spirit and fear of Sin And Col. 1.10 Walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing being fruitfull in every good work And 1 Cor. 15.58 Always abounding in the work of the Lord will prove that the best are so far from doing more than needs that they fall very far short of doing what they ought in Religion And therefore as Christ said to his Disciples Mat. 26.10 Why trouble ye the Woman for she hath wrought a good work on me So why do any go about to discourage such as for his Name sake are labouring and taking pains to glorifie God and save their souls Are any offended that they do so much Alas they see great cause to be ashamed that they have done so little that they do no more for God and Jesus Christ for their own and others souls It 's granted we should not be righteous over much as we should take heed of being over wise Eccles 7.16 To be wise above that which is written is Wisdom falsly so called and to be righteous above that which is commanded is but a Pharisaical righteousness That which is beyond the Rule is not true Religion but vain Superstition And works of Supererrogation are works of Superarrogancy But keeping to the Rule none can be over-righteous When it is said there v. 17. Be not over-much wicked surely the meaning is not that we may allow our selves a little here They that would shun all impiety more and less are not to be condemned as over-precise or doing more than needs Or 3. perhaps thou wilt say Thou canst not be quiet for them they will not let thee alone but are still reproving thee Answ And does that offend thee Then as the Psalmist says For my love they are my adversaries thou dost ill requite thy best thy most faithful friends Then it seems thou lovest thine enemies but hatest thy friends And is this well done of thee If they could be satisfied to suffer thee to go on offending and provoking God and wronging thine own Soul which is not love but hatred then thou couldst be better pleased with them If it be thus thou neither lovest the Godly nor thy self aright You may think me very long on this third particular Note That if we love the Godly for God and Godliness-sake then we love them most who are most like God most eminent in Godliness And yet before I pass on to another there is a Question or two that fall in here to be answered Quest 1. Are we to love the Godly more than near Relations if they be not Godly and to love those who are eminent in Godliness above Godly Relations that are not so eminent Answ 1. There is a peculiar love due unto Relations as such which is in part natural and sensitive as irrational Creatures also have a love to their mates and
be an offence of another nature a greater offence against them than to grieve them This is real scandal Like Peters withdrawing and separating himself from the Gentiles for fear of displeasing the Jews Gal. 2.11 12. And yet I confess when we care not unnecessarily to grieve the spirits of the Godly this is not to walk charitably Rom. 14.15 If thy Brother be grieved with thy meat now walkest thou not charitably or according to the rule of Charity But it is a greater wrong to them sure to be unnecessarily an occasion of their offending God and wounding Conscience It is no charity to neglect duty that we may not displease some of our Brethren when thereby we should both wrong our selves and their souls too thus allowing and encouraging them in their mistakes 7. If we love the Godly we shall take well their just reproofs and faithful admonitions We shall not be offended thereat nor have our hearts thereupon alienated and drawn from them Psal 141.5 Let the Righteous smite me it shall be a kindness And yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities They that are so in love with their sins that they cannot endure any should speak against them have little love to Holiness They that are offended at others zeal against Sin should not pretend to love them for their Holiness Prov. 9.8 Rebuke a wise Man and he will love thee None but fools would fall out with their friends for telling them of their faults If we love the Godly indeed it will more endear them to us the more experience we have of their love and faithfulness this way As was observed of Mr. Whately Clark's Lives Par. 1. p. 932. He was glad when any of the Righteous smote him and would take it well not only from his Superiors but from his Equals and far Inferiors and would really shew more testimonies of his love to such afterwards than ever he did before 8. If we love the Godly as we wish well to their souls we should watch over them and be ready to admonish them as there is occasion Bern. Epist 243. Habet vera amicitia nonnunquam objurgationem adulationem nunquam A sharp rebuke is not so contrary to true love as smooth flattery If we love our Brethren we must neither despise them for their infirmities nor sooth them up with flatteries cloke over their infirmities but do what in us lies to cure them As we would not hate our Brother in our heart we must rebuke him and not suffer sin upon him Lev. 19.17 And one offers this sense of it That if we know any fault by our Brother Byfield on 1 Pet. 3. p. 104. and feel our selves tempted to an alienation from him upon that account we must not suffer our hearts to be withdrawn from him but give them vent by a plain and discreet rebuke We must do what we can to reform him that we may not have our hearts withdrawn from him When Absalom hated Amnon he would speak to him neither good nor bad 2 Sam. 13.22 But how many alas who instead of watching over their Brethren to prevent their falling and to raise them up when fallen do rather watch for their halting How many that can extenuate or make light of the foul miscarriages of others who love to aggravate the least failings of serious Professors and are forward to speak of them to others never admonishing the guilty parties themselves Have such any true love to them Are they not false Brethren That in Lev. 19.17 Thou shalt not suffer sin upon him Some render thus Mr. Pools Synopsis Criticorum Non elevabis super eum peccatum Thou shalt not lift or hold up sin upon him And give this sense Thou shalt rebuke privately not openly As Mat. 18.15 Tell him his fault between thee and him alone And so it is covered as it were but when it is proclaimed abroad then it is as it were held up over him 9. If we truly love the Godly than we really sympathize with them We shall be like those Twins that used to laugh and weep together The prosperity of such will be our joy and their adversity and sufferings our grief and sorrow As it is Isa 66.10 Rejoyce ye with Jerusalem and be glad with her all ye that love her As if one member be honoured all the members will rejoyce with it 1 Cor 12.26 So on the other hand if one member suffers all the members suffer with it Now do we rejoyce with them that rejoyce and weep with them that weep As Job 30.25 Did not I weep for him that was in trouble Was not my Soul grieved for the poor Thus Nehemiah shewed his love to God's People when hearing that the remnant of the captivity were in great affliction and reproach he mourned and wept and fasted and prayed Neh. 1.3 4. He could not but look sad upon it Chap. 2.1 2. The believing Hebrews were companions with them that suffered Heb. 10.33 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were partakers had afflictions in common with them were grieved for others troubles as if they had been their own or more then if they had been their own for we read in the next verse they took joyfully the spoiling of their own goods So they had compassion on the Apostle in his bonds ver 34. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye sympathized as if ye had been fellow-sufferers with me So if indeed we love the Godly a friend loveth at all times we shall love them when they are most hated of the World we shall honour them when most contemned and trampled on we shall be pittiful and have our bowels troubled for them when others may shew themselves harsh and cruel full of spite against them The Trials of the Faithful will be so far from cooling and abating our love if it be sincere that rather they will occasion a drawing of it out more If we are only summer-Friends our love is nothing-worth 10. If we love the Godly we shall not be ashamed to own them when under reproach and sufferings When they are black with lying among the Pots we shall not therefore turn away our faces from them As Onesiphorus shewed his love to the Apostle Paul 2 Tim. 1.16 17. He was not ashamed of my Chain says the Apostle But when he was in Rome he sought me out very diligently and found me As Vegetius Epagathus was called The Advocate of the Christians Euseb Ecclesiast Hist lib. 5. cap. 1. We shall be ready to vindicate and plead for them when slandered reproached and unjustly condemned of others To be like the Samaritans that would claim kindred with the Jews while they were in a flourishing and prosperous estate but would disown them when at an under To seem to be on their side while they are countenanced and favoured but to forsake them when the World frowns on them would argue our love unsound To love them but in subordination to our reputation in
Reverence and for Piety and Religion too And as we are required to serve the Lord in fear Psal 2.11 Deut. 6.13 So we cannot serve him acceptably without it Heb. 12.28 Let us have Grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with Reverence and godly Fear And as it is a great duty so it is our safety and security In the Fear of the Lord is strong confidence The more we fear God the less we need to fear Creatures Men or Devils The Fear of the Lord is a fountain of life to depart from the snares of death The Fear of the Lord is a treasure And he that hath it shall abide satisfied He shall not be visited with evil There is no want to them that fear him And no evil shall befal them Surely it shall be well with them that fear God Blessed is the Man that feareth the Lord. This Fear is oft put for the whole condition of the Covenant in the Old Testament as the word Faith is oft used in the New But before I come to the trial of our Fear there is an Objection or two to be removed Object 1. Is it not Man 's greatest and highest duty to love God and can we both love and fear him Does not the Apostle John say 1 Joh. 4.18 There is no fear in love but perfect love casteth out fear Answ 1. It must be noted that we are oft expressly required in the Word both to love and fear the Lord therefore certainly they are not opposites That one Text is sufficient to prove that they well agree 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 Yea take this along with you if we do not love God above all and fear him above all he is not our God Isa 8.13 Sanctify the Lord of Hosts himself and let him be your fear and let him be your dread 2. That Text of the Apostle John many understand of the love of God to us Calvin Heming Danae apprehended by us expelling fear that is fear of the day of judgment of condemnation As he had said in the verse foregoing vers 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In this love is or hath been perfected with us that we may have boldness in the day of Judgment If it be objected that the faithful are not yet without all fear in this respect It is answered Metus verè pellitur quia fidei locum cedit c. Fear may be said to be cast out because it is giving ground to Faith And though it may disquiet it does not confound us It is not prevalent as before Here consult Rom. 8.15 3. Yet I confess I am not so well satisfied with that sense which seems to be forced and does not so well agree with what follows He that feareth is not made perfect in love Therefore understanding the Apostle to speak of our love as other good Expositors take the words and seems to be the plain sense yet we are to distinguish of love and also of fear Love may be said to be perfect either for kinds or for degrees It may be called pefect love Beza Danae Esti Piscat when it is true and sincere and not only when it is consummate Again Fear is manifold and of divers kinds 1. There is a Natural fear which is a passion of the soul implanted by God whereby we naturally abhor and flee from what is destructive or grievous and hurtful to our natures This in it self is neither good nor evil in a moral sense It is not morally good for it is also found in Brutes in irrational Creatures that are not capable of moral goodness Neither is it morally evil For God is the Author of it as of our Natures but he is not the Author of Sin or moral evil Even Jesus Christ himself taking Mans Nature on him was not made without fear Mar. 14.33 Heb. 5.7 But this pure natural fear is good Physically it is greatly useful and very necessary for the Creatures preservation It is a guard to our lives a means to keep us off from rocks of danger Which is the ground of the Latine Proverb Timidi Mater non flet 2. There is a Carnal fear Fear out of its wits The excess of natural fear Such a fear as we read of Prov. 29.25 The fear of Man bringeth a snare which is there opposed to trust in the Lord. An undue or excessive fear of Creatures or outward evils A fearing where no fear is a fearing without just ground or a fearing Creatures more than they are to be feared a fearing without due bounds We may fear Men as the rod of God's anger but we must fear God more He holds the rod in his hand and it is not to be feared but with respect to him that holds it that hath the command and dispose of it Mat. 10.28 Though Christ as he was Man had a natural reluctancy to suffering yet he had no base carnal fear upon him Joh. 19.11 To Pilate boasting of his power Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee c. He answereth Thou couldst have no power at all against me except it were given thee from above Carnal fear is not from meer nature but from the corruption of nature and is sinful in it self attributing too much to Creatures and detracting derogating from the power dominion and over-ruling providence of God and is further a cause of much sin as we may see in Peter when through this Fear he denied his Lord and Master It is a great impediment to Grace an hindrance of Duty it quite unbingeth and sadly distracteth the Mind and Spirit where it prevails 3. There is a servile or slavish Fear Timor poenae non culpae A fear of punishment only not of offending or a fear to offend only with respect to the punishment This is the property of Slaves It 's true the wrath and sword of the Civil Magistrate is to be feared Rom. 13.4 Then much more are we to fear the Wrath of God his Judgments As Psal 119.120 My flesh trembleth for fear of thee I am afraid of thy Judgments But this is far short of the duty of Fear that we owe to God He is not only to be feared in this respect Nay this Fear is no further good than it leads unto and helps forward an holy filial Fear of God As the Needle draws the Thread after it as Austine has the comparison But as a Natural fear agrees to all Men a meer servile fear is proper to wicked Men. And yet we cannot blame them for fearing such an angry Judge and incensed Majesty or trembling at such punishment as Hell-torments but that their fear of God is separated from all true love to God and that notwithstanding their fear of punishment they have still a love to their sins that it is a torment to them to think of being restrained
Now if you ask Can such a one fear God above all in whom carnal fear at any time prevailes The Answer is He may have the habit though the act for the present be suspended No Grace here is perfect And as our love to God sometimes lies buried as it were under carnal self-love and inordinate love to creatures yet so as it will have a resurrection and new quickning if it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sound and sincere so our fear of God being imperfect may for a time be born down with carnal fear yet will it get the upper hand again The true fear of God overcomes ordinarily in its conflicts with carnal fear and though it may be giving ground sometimes it shall overcome at last As some of the Martyrs upon the first onset seemed to turn back but they came on again and so stood stoutly to it 4. The true fear of God may be known by the effects of it 1. One principal effect of the Fear of God is a flight from sin I say it will cause us to flee from sin As we read of Job chap. 1.1 that he was one that feared God and eschewed evil And Nehemiah chap. 5.15 so did not I he did not durst not do as others had done before him because of the Fear of God Pro. 16.6 By the Fear of the Lord Men depart from evil On the contrary Psa 36.1 The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart that there is no Fear of God before their eyes Though the wicked will not say so much with his lips yet indeed his Life proclaims it Though the Psalmist did not hear it in his words yet his works forced him to conclude that there was no Fear of God before his eyes They that forsake the Lord thereby shew that his Fear is not in them Jer. 2.19 such as care not to walk contrary to God it is plain they fear him not All impenitent Sinners that go on in their trespasses that persist in a course of rebellion they are so far from fearing God that they are daily sending up challenges to Heaven daring God's Power and Justice Psal 10.13 wherefore doth the wicked contemn God How unreasonable how impious how insufferable is it that wicked wretches should be so insolent to contemn God yet so it is the wicked are so far from reverencing that they plainly contemn God So he that being often reproved and threatned yet hardneth his neck by his impenitency by his incorrigibleness does even set God at defiance as if he bad him do his worst Remember this they that fear God fear to sin against him But you may ask further May we not avoid sin at least some sins and not from God's Fear Yea I grant it may be so But now if we forsake sin from a principle of Godly fear 1. In general we are departing from all known sin we dare not allow our selves in any sin we know of We knowing that all sin is displeasing to God if we fear to displease God we must fear to allow our selves in any sin Particularly 2. The Fear of God will cause us to flee from the Vices of the times as we discover them from sins that are most in fashion Let Swearing and Forswearing be never so much in fashion yet we shall fear an Oath if we fear God If all the World should wonder after and agree to worship the Beast yet so should not we because of the Fear of God No though we might seem to be left alone as Eljah thought he was Let a sin be never so much pleaded for countenanced and generally practised yet these things will not take with us while we hear God saying Oh do not this abominable thing which I hate if we have the Fear of God in our hearts and before our eyes Rather we shall have a greater care to keep our selves from such sins the stronger temptations we have to them 3. We shall fear sinning in secret too Knowing that God sees in secret that there is no darkness nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves from him As Joseph said to his tempting Mistress How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God He was awed with God's all-seeing eye upon him as much as if the eyes of all the World had been upon him Lev. 19.14 Thou shalt not curse the Deaf nor put a stumbling-block before the Blind but shalt fear thy God If one does curse the Deaf he hears not if one puts a Stumbling-block before the Blind he sees not who he is that does it O but yet God hears and he sees And such as are endued with his Fear will not dare to commit sin upon this presumption that Men shall not know cannot find it out This would be a strong aw-band and powerful restraint ordinarily to keep them from deliberate sinning that they can commit no sin out of God's sight who cannot but be displeased at sin where ever he sees it 4. If we fear God and forsake Sin in his Fear then we shall fear to displease him in smaller matters too We shall fear to allow of the least Sin Though there are Sins of daily incursion that we cannot wholly avoid yet they not are allowed of As the Apostle says Rom. 7.15 That which I do I allow not If we sometimes speak vainly rashly or sometimes have our Passions sinfully moved if dulness and distractions over take us and disturb us in Holy Duties yet we can say we allow not of such things We are ashamed of them grieved and humbled for them and desire to watch against them 5. Again We shall fear sinning against God more than suffering from Men. As Chrysostom when threatned by Eudoxia said I fear nothing but Sin It we fear God we shall not fear Creatures so much 6. So we shall fear Sin more than the Scourge more than affliction Our fear is first and chiefly of offending and displeasing God and secondarily of the punishment That Fear which is not so much of the Sin and Offence as of the Lash and Scourge is but servile Fear 7. So we shall not only fear but also hate Sin As there is love in our Fear of God there will be hatred in our fear of Sin because so offensive and contrary to God Thus we shall not barely abstain from but abhor that which is evil Prov. 8.13 The Fear of the Lord is to hate evil Thus it will cause us to forsake Sin in practice and affection both Do we not know that not to hate Sin the abominable thing which God hates must needs be displeasing to God yea we are at least secretly in league with Sin so long as we do not hate it 2. Another chief effect of true Fear is subjection to the Will of God Obedience to his Commands Hereby we must try the soundness of our Faith As that which is called Faith Gal. 5.6 is called The keeping the Commandments of God 1 Cor. 7.19
Hereby we must try the sincerity of our Love This is the love of God that we keep his Commandments 1 Joh. 5.3 So hereby we must try the genuineness of our Fear Eccl. 12.13 Fear God and keep his Commandments Psal 119.63 And 103.17 18. They that fear God are further described to be such as keep his Covenant and remember his Commandments to do them Here. Note 1. Where the Fear of God is there will be a fearing reverencing of his Commands Pro. 13.13 Who so despiseth the Word shall be destroyed but he that feareth the Commandment shall be rewarded One that feareth God dares not despise his Commands At least if he has done it as we read of David 2 Sam. 12.10 when he comes to see it he cannot but loath himself And observe the reward is promised not to the bare performance of things commanded not to meer external obedience but to that obedience which flows from a due respect to the Authority of God commanding Not to that which is meerly from fear of the threatning but to that which is out of reverence and an aweful respect to the Command it self He that feareth the Commandment shall be rewarded Many fear God's threatnings that do not reverence his Commands But such as tremble at the Word Isa 66.2 suchas have a reverent regard to the whole Word of God such as tremble at the Commandment of our God as Ezr. 10.3 they have a right Fear of God The Psalmist did not stand in that awe to Princes as to God's Word Psal 119.161 Princes have persecuted me without a cause but my heart standeth in awe of thy Word Thus those three Princes and Worthies Dan. 3.16 18. shewed that they feared God indeed when they regarded not the King's Decree being contrary to the Law of God So Daniel chap. 6.13 2. When there is a true Child-like Fear of God there is not only a reverencing of his Commands above the Commands of Men but also a delight in God's Commands As a Child-like reverence is a mixt affection a compound of both And this Note we have in the Text Blessed is the Man that feareth the Lord that delighteth greatly in his Commandments That is better pleased in doing the will of God than in doing or having his own will So Psal 119.161 162. My heart standeth in awe of thy Word But that is not all I rejoyce at thy Word as one that findeth great spoil As a dutiful Child not only fears to go cross to his Fathers command but is also glad when he can do any thing pleasing to his Father So a Child of God obeyeth from the heart and delighteth to do God's will That obedience which is from a slavish fear is forced and extorted As Saul said I forced my self and offered a burnt offering To allude to the expression some force themselves and go to God's Worship force themselves and set up prayer in their Families c. not that they have any love to such work but because otherwise their Consciences are not quiet Whereas that Obedience which is from a filial Fear is free and voluntary As the Psalmist could say Psal 119.167 168 173. My Soul hath kept thy Testimonies and I love them exceedingly For all my ways are before thee I have chosen the way of thy Precepts 3. The true Fear of God will cause an impartial respect to all God's Commands 1 Sam. 12.24 Only fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart Deut. 10.12 To fear the Lord and to walk in all his wayes go to gether Pro. 14.2 He that walketh in his uprightness feareth the Lord but he that is perverse in his ways dispiseth him To walk in uprightness is a sure note that one fears the Lord. So we read of Job That Man was perfect and upright and one that feared God chap. 1.1 But to halt in our course to be set upon any crooked paths which we know to be cross and contrary to God's Commands is to despise the Lord. Num. 15.30 31. The Soul that doth ought presumptuously the same reproacheth the Lord he hath despised the Word of the Lord. The Soul that doth ought presumptuously that Sciens volens knowingly and wittingly transgresseth that sinneth with an high hand proudly wilfully resolvedly the same reproacheth the Lord he is a proud blasphemous contemner of the Lord. He hath manifestly despised the Word of the Lord. To despise any known Command of his is not to fear but to contemn the Lord. But on the other hand the Lord sayes of Abraham Gen. 22.12 Now I know that thou fearest God seeing thou hast not withheld thy Son thine only Son from me Now I know speaking after the manner of Men. Herein Abraham gave a most clear proof of his Fear of the Lord. That he was so ready at God's Command to offer up his Isaac a Sacrifice this was an evident testification that he feared God So as we would shew that we truly fear God we must be ready to obey him in whatsoever he commandeth 4. The Fear of God will produce a continued constant respect to God and his Commands That we shall walk in his Fear As Act. 9.31 Neh. 5.9 Ought ye not to walk in the Fear of our God Pro. 23.17 Be thou in the Fear of the Lord all the day Totâ die there is as much as quotidie vel omni die All the day that is continually every day Pro. 28.14 Happy is the man that feareth alway Jer. 32.39 40. I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me for ever I will put my Fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me Such as have the true Fear of God in their hearts will not depart from him There is a Fear that drives Souls from God But true genuine Fear will keep a Soul close to him will make it careful not to start aside from him The Fear of the Lord is a fountain of life it is not a transient passion but an abiding principal 3. Another Effect or if you will one special Act of true Fear is an holy Reverence in God's Worship Psal 5.7 In thy Fear will I Worship And there is no Worship acceptable without Reverence An inward Reverence is as the Soul of Divine Worship Some distinguish holy Fear in timorem cultûs et culpae into a Reverence in worshipping and a fear of offending How ever these may be distinguished they cannot be separated or divided Sure they have not a Fear of offending God that have not an holy Fear and reverence in his Worship They that grosly neglect God's Worship plainly shew themselves to be void of his Fear Job 15.4 Thou castest off Fear and restrainest Prayer before God Though it was falsly charged on Job this yet will hold true they that cast off Prayer c. thereby shew that they have cast off God's Fear And they are little better who are grosly negligent and without any inward Reverence in his Worship If
others God's Fear and to promote it in others As Abraham that feared God would teach his Children and his Houshold after him to keep the way of the Lord. As the Psalmist Psal 34.11 Come ye Children hearken unto me I will teach you the Fear of the Lord. As he took up his fellow Luk. 23.40 Dost not thou fear God So if we have the Fear of God we shall desire to establish and confirm others in his Fear Mal. 3.16 Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another They thought on God's Name still and would be speaking for God and his ways even then when the mouth of Blasphemy was most open against him They would be confirming one another in the belief of God's Providence Justice Goodness Truth and Faithfulness how much soever wicked Atheists disputed and denied them Thus they that are acquainted with the true Fear of God are real Friends to it would promote it in others what they can 10. If we have the Fear of God we are for making progress in Holiness The true Fear of God as it opposeth all Sin it will be quickning unto and in every Duty and will befriend every Grace And that is right indeed when we are perfecting Holiness in the Fear of God 2 Cor. 7.1 though here it be not fully perfected So much of the Effects of God's Fear 5. True Fear may be known by the Concomitants of it by its Companions Though I shall but touch on a few of these very briefly 1. When Fear and Faith go together that 's right As we read of Noah's Faith and Fear Heb. 11.7 Psal 15.11 Ye that fear the Lord trust in the Lord. Psal 33.18 Behold the eyes of the Lord are on them that fear him upon them that hope in his Mercy And the Lord takes pleasure in such Psal 147.11 That is not a right Fear which is the Van-guard of Horrour and Despair A fear of Diffidence is no blessed thing Though it's true some degrees of this may be with true Faith and Fear That of the Psalmist Psal 101.1 I will sing of Mercy and Judgment The Chaldee Paraphrase hath thus If thou dealest mercifully with me if thou dost Judgment with me for all I will sing Praise And so some take it thus I will not presume of thy Mercy so as not to fear thy Judgment nor so fear thy Judgment as to despair of thy Mercy Which I offer but as an Allusion not as the Sense 2. When Fear and Godly Sorrow go together that 's right The true Fear of God is seated in a poor and contrite spirit Isa 66.2 Godly Fear and Godly Sorrow are undivided Companions 2 Cor. 7.11 Behold this self-same thing that ye sorrowed after a godly sort what carefulness it wrought in you yea what fear Which Text seems to make Fear the Daughter of Repentance or Godly Sorrow And like Naomi and Ruth they never part There is a phrase Isa 63.17 Why hast thou hardned our hearts from thy Fear Which implieth so much that an Heart which is hardned is no-way disposed to his Fear So Prov. 28.14 Happy is the Man that feareth alway but he that hardneth his heart shall fall into mischief Where we see he that hardneth his heart is opposed to the Man that feareth with a blessed Fear 3. When Fear and Love go together that 's right When these go hand in hand it is certainly a filial fear But no doubt that is a sinful fear which drives souls from God which is contrary to the Love of God O dread such Fear 4. How comfortable is it when Fear and Joy in the Lord go together Though I must confess all that fear God cannot find this Joy There are that fear the Lord and that yet walk in darkness Isa 50.10 But as the most High is to be feared we should rejoice in his Highness too As those good Women who came to seek Jesus departed from the Sepulchre with fear and great joy Mat. 28.8 It is an happy thing indeed when our fear of the Lord is joyned with spiritual delight in him and his service Psal 2.11 Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling So let us labour to be like those Act. 9.31 that walked in the Fear of the Lord and in the Comfort of the Holy Ghost Of Humility 1 PET. 5.5 And be clothed with Humility for God resisteth the Proud and giveth Grace to the Humble HUmility is a Christian's Livery This Clothing every Christian must put on and wear must never put off Without this our great Lord and Master will not know us will not own us for his He beholds the proud a far off Humility is as the ground-work both of Grace and Happiness Mat. 5.3 Blessed are the poor in spirit that is the humble in spirit It is the first of the Beatitudes laid as the foundation of the rest As it is from poverty and humility in spirit that we are put upon spiritual mourning It is this that causeth a spiritual hungring It is this that meekeneth and softeneth the heart towards others that makes peaceable and makes patient under Sufferings This is a preservative of holiness and purity Pride is supposed to be the special sin that cast the Angels out of Heaven That text 1 Tim. 3.6 seems to hint so much that * Fugite superbiam fratres mei quaeso mul tum fugite Initium omnis peccati Superbia quae tam velociter ipsum quoque Syderibus cunctis clarius micantem aeternâ caligine obtnebravit Luciferum I quae non modo Angelum sed Angelcrum primum in Diabolum commutavit Bern. de Adv. Dom. Serm. 1. Pride was the condemnation of the Devil the cause of his condemnation And Pride was evident in Man's first defection from God Man fell by his Pride affecting to be as God And certainly Humility is necessary to his recovery As God created the World of nothing when he createth us again he brings us to a sense of our own emptiness and nothingness Humility is both a Grace and a Vessel a receptacle of Grace God gives more Grace to the Humble It is a good expression one has Humility emptieth the heart for God to fill it Humility is a Nursekeeper of other Graces Radix omnium malorum superbia custos omnium virtutum hamilitas est When I am weak then am I strong says the Apostle And a Christian's strength lieth very much in an humble sense of his own weakness Humility is a great preservative from Temptation Such as lie low are safest most out of the way of Satan's Gun-shot But Souls that are lifted up stand as a fair mark for him Humility is the way to Glory Chilo asking Aesop what God was doing he answered That he does humble the Lofty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Laert. in Chilo l. 1. p. 47. abase them and exalt the humble He brings down high things and sets up low things Luk. 14.11 He that humbleth himself shal be exalted But
as if he knew not himself carry as if he loved not himself as if he contemned himself as if he cared not what became of himself We must have no regard of our Selves have no regard of Estates Liberties or Lives but seem prodigal of them cast away all we have in the World rather than desert God and Christ to keep any thing here The substance of Self-denial is included in the particulars here laid down Yet I shall shew further by other Notes how we may know whether we have true Self-denial 1. Self-denial is not without Self-abhorrence Indeed it begins here it begins in a loathing of our selves for Sin Ordinarily Self-conceit reigns till such time as a Man is humbled and comes to see his own Vileness and abhors himself for Sin One never truly denies himself till he falleth out with himself First there is a falling out with himself and then a falling off from Self But till we are thorowly displeased with our selves we shall be still adhering to our selves And where Self-esteem prevails a Man is for Self-exaltation both which are contrary to Self-denial And further As one part of Self-denial is a denying and forsaking our Lusts taking their part no longer making no more provision for them and utter abandoning of them with a Will and Resolution to have no more to do with them before we come to this we must see the evil and baseness of Sin we must come to a loathing of it and to a loathing of our selves for it 2. True Self-denial is not without Faith in the Promises or without eying the recompence of Reward We must see greater matters than those things we are called to deny our selves in far greater matters that God hath promised or we shall never willingly and chearfully forgo Temporal Enjoyments for him Heb. 11.24 25 26. It was by Faith that Moses was so willing to deny himself in point of Honour refusing to be called the Son of Pharaoh's Daughter and in point of Pleasure chusing rather to suffer Affliction with the People of God than to enjoy the pleasures of Sin for a season and in point of Profit esteeming reproach for Christ greater Riches than the Treasures of Egypt For he had respect unto the recompence of the Reward When a Man comes to see that the Lord does not bid him any loss here but that he should be an everlasting gainer by denying himself then he may chearfully deny himself and otherwise he will hang back They cannot but account these hard sayings Let a Man deny himself and take up his Cross And if any Man 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 I say they cannot but account these hard sayings who are not assured of the truth of the Hundred-fold Promise Mat. 10.29 30. who are not assured that Christ has greater things to give and bestow better Riches a better Name a better Inheritance a better Life than that he calleth any to part with for Him Now is Christ in so good Credit with us that we dare take his Word here that we dare put our whole Estates all our Concerns our very Lives into his Hand Would we trust him with all we have upon his single Bond And are the things of another World so real and certain to us and so great in our Eye that we cannot but dispise all things here below and count them but loss compared with the things above 3. True Self-denial is not without the Predominant Love of God and Jesus Christ As Self is taken down in any God and Christ are exalted As Self is losing Christ is gaining on the Soul The more Self comes to be slighted and disregraded the more Christ is esteemed The more Self-love is mortified the more does the Love of God and Christ prevail and take place And if we love him not above our selves how can we deny our selves for his sake He that loveth his Estate more than Christ cannot be willing to part with his Estate for Christ He that loves his Life more than Christ cannot be willing to lay down his Life for Christ Thus we can be no more sound in the point of Self-denial than we are in our love to God and Jesus Christ 4. True Self-denial is ever joyned with an humble frame of Heart As the Apostle Paul though he was in nothing behind the chiefest Apostles yet confessed himself to be nothing 2 Cor. 12.11 I have nothing to glory of 1 Cor. 19.16 Self-denial is not for arrogating any praise or honour unto Self which is due to God or would diminish and detract from God's Glory A Self-denying Spirit would not be pleased but very much disquieted with any praises from Men which tend to rob God of the Glory due to his Name He would abhor that Men should attribute any thing to him in a way injurious to the Honour of God 5. Self-denial will teach us to subject our minds and judgments to the Sentence of the Word It is not against the use of Reason as was shewn before but against the exalting of Man's Reason above or against the Wisdom of God It will subject Reason to the word of Faith which is indeed most reasonable Self-denial will take a Man off from Self-conceitedness from being wedded to his own opinions Self-denial will be pulling down strong holds of Carnal Reasonings with every high thing that exalteth it self against the Knowledg of God As the Apostle says We can do nothing against the Truth but for the Truth So one that has learnt to deny himself will not hold or maintain any Error or Opinion contrary to the word of Truth that he sees the Word of God against How plausible soever it may seem to carnal and corrupt Reason and how zealous soever he hath been for it yet once seeing it disagreeable to God's Word he dare no longer own it As we would not reject and deny Christ as Teacher and Prophet we must be willing to learn of Him we must be ready to hear Him in all He hath to say to us Acts 3.22 Him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you Therefore they that are wedded to their own Opinions that have taken them for better for worse and will not be taken off though they have never so plain Scripture-evidence brought in against them such I say are not Self-denying Persons but rather Self-condemned And they that are so in love with their own Notions and Conceptions that they are rather for wresting the Word than for regulating their Conceptions by it And they that are so conceited of their own Knowledg and Abilities that they are readier to deny or question the truth of what is held forth in God's Word than to acknowledg or suspect the shallowness of their own Apprehension are not of a Self-denying Spirit Alas they are nearer denying God than denying themselves 6. Self-denial mainly opposeth and
Servants may take comfort in Hezekiah though a King found no such Cordial in the World He could take comfort in this even when sick unto death when he had received the Sentence of Death Isa 38.1 3. And this was their rejoyceing who had little in the World to take comfort in 2 Cor. 1.12 when they were as sorrowful and having nothing yet they would not have parted with the joy of their Sincerity for all the World God is so pleased with Sincerity that where he sees it he is ready to overlook Infirmities As true Gold has its grains of allowance Heb. 8.10 12. And all the paths of the Lord are Mercy and Truth to such as walk before him in Truth and Sincerity He will be a Sun and Shield to such and no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly Psal 84.11 They shall have his favour and countenance here His Countenance doth behold the Vpright Psal 11.7 They have his most gracious and benign Aspect And they shall be taken into and enjoy his Glorious Presence hereafter Whereas an Hypocrite shall not come before him the Vpright shall dwel in his presence Psal 140.13 Who shall dwel in God's holy Hill The Psalmist tells you Psal 24.3 4. He that hath clean hands and a pure heart Psal 15.1 2. Such as walk uprightly Thus indeed the end of the perfect and upright Man shall be peace perfect peace and endless happiness But there is a twofold Integrity or Uprightness There is a Natural or Moral Integrity and there is a Spiritual Integrity 1. There is a Natural or moral Integrity which is the effect of common restraining Grace As God gives the Consciences of some natural Men that power and quickness that in many particular actions they are seen to carry well following the dictates of their Consciences Thus they are kept from gross Sins and shew forth many commendable Vertues and that not out of Cunning but of Conscience Their Consciences will not suffer them to do otherwise As Joseph's Brethren said We are true Men we are no Spies So many natural Men are true to their Principles Many of the Heathen of whom we read in their Writers were just honest plain-dealers would speak as they thought and what ever they lost or suffered would not break their words they were homines quadrati Square-men and such indeed as quite shame and will condemn many that are called Christians who having banished or seared Conscience live in those sins that many an honest Heathen would have chosen to die rather than commit And the Lord himself gives testimony to the Integrity of Abimelech so far that if he had known Sarah to have been another Man's Wife he would not have taken her to his House Gen. 20.6 Yea I know thou didst this in the Integrity of thy heart Yet we have no ground to suppose that Abimelech at that time was a Saint a truly Upright Man 2. There is a Spiritual Integrity which is the effect of special renewing Grace The effect of God's writing his Laws in the heart When being renewed in the spirit of our mind we put on the new Man which after God is created in Righteousness and Holiness of Truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Eph. 4.23 24. When not only a Man's Conscience but his Will also is for that which is right not only in some particular actions but in his general course When a Man intirely without reserve resignes and gives up himself to God heartily resolved for God and ordinarily acting for him with respect to his Will and to his Honour and Glory in what he does Thus Integrity includes both being Vpright in heart and being of upright Conversation Psal 11.2 with 37.14 They that are upright in heart will be of upright conversation will walk uprightly and none can be of upright conversation none can walk uprightly without an upright heart This uprightness is perfect for kind though but imperfect as to degree As a Child has all the parts of a Man though not in that full proportion as a Man hath but is growing toward it But that Integrity which may be found in a natural Man is but an imperfect Embrio or a False-Conception Sincerity and Uprightness to speak properly is not a particular distinct Grace but a necessary mode of all true Grace It is the right mode of every Grace and of every good Work too So we read of the Sincerity of Love 2 Cor. 8.8 of Love unfeigned 2 Cor. 6.6 And of Faith unfeigned 1 Tim. 1.5 Sincerity in a Christians Graces is as a Golden-twist in a Bracelet or Neck-lace of Pearls it goes thorow every Grace or as the Veins in the Body that run thorow all the Parts and Members Yea Sincerity is as the Soul of Religion without Sincerity we can have no more than a form of Godliness like a dead Carcass Now to shew how Sincerity and Uprightness may be known O that I might be a welcom Messenger to some to shew some their Uprightness who cannot rest but long to be satisfied in this Point 1. The Upright Man though simple plain is not stolid Though there is an holy simplicity joyned with Sincerity 2 Cor. 1.12 yet a brutish stolidity gross ignorance and integrity are utterly inconsistent Pro. 19.2 3. That the Soul be without Knowledg is not good In our old Translation thus For without Knowledg the mind is not good The foolishness of Man perverts his way Indeed ignorance is both Mother and Nurse of Impiety but no friend to Integrity Prov. 2.13 Walking in the wayes of darkness is opposed to keeping the paths of Vprightness As the Simple and such as err are put together Ezek. 45.20 Pro. 1.22 How long ye simple ones will ye love simplicity There is a simplicity that is no vertue It is the Man of understanding that walketh uprightly Pro. 15.21 Not the fool Pro. 19.1 He is perverse Some rest in their good meanings and boast of their good and honest hearts while they have no care to know what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God such are not upright 2. The Upright Man is for knowing the whole Will and Counsel of God He is willing to hear of his duty to learn his whole duty He would not stop his ear against any Message that comes from God The single eye sees best Mat. 6.22 It would not shut out any light that comes from above from the Father of Lights The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we translate Sincerity some would have taken from the Eagles trying of her young holding them forth to the full view of the Sun who as they say rejects those as spurious and not her genuine brood which cannot with open eye behold the Sun or as most take it the word is translated from Wares that are right good that one is not afraid to shew and bring forth into the light of the Sun When Men hate the Light and will not come into the
Treachery The settled bent of their Hearts and so the general course of their Lives is right 16. The upright Man is striving after and growing up towards full Perfection The Righteous shall hold on his way And he that hath clean Hands wax stronger and stronger Thus the Way of the Lord is strength to the Upright And his Word does good to the Upright Mic. 2.7 It is an ill sign when one is at a constant stay in Religion When one holds on in a round of Duties without going forward And commonly Hypocrites go out at last in a stinking snuff But the Path of the Just is as the shining Light which shineth more and more unto the Perfect Day Prov. 4.18 Such are pressing towards the Mark Phil. 3.14 15. Of Zeal TIT. 2.14 A peculiar People zealous of good Works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accensum studio bonorum operum as Beza fervently given unto good Works as in our old English translation Zeal is a word of various acceptation In general it signifies heat and fervour From 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ferveo In Heb. 10.27 there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we read fiery indignation in our old Translation violent Fire This Word is transferred to the heat and fervour of the Spirit and Affections which is of diverse kinds As 1. There is a natural Zeal As some naturally are of lively active spirits full of mettle as we use to say Luther seemeth to have been naturally of such a temper As Bucer said of him Nihil in eo non vehemens What an happy thing it is when such a temper is guided and acted by Grace Ordinarily such will do more for God 2. There is a carnal Zeal We find emulations among the works of the Flesh reckoned up Gal. 5.19 20 21. In the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the Apostle James condemns 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a bitter Zeal Jam. 3.14 Envy is a kind of Zeal but not of the right kind It is bitter Zeal It is a sort of wild Grapes There is a Blind Zeal Such as Idolaters Papists Persecuters may be acted by A blind zeal when Men are Zealous in a false way and Zealous against the Truth Taking light for darkness and darkness for light Calling good evil and evil good There is a superstitious extravagant and erratick zeal when Men are Zealous about such things where it would be a vertue to be cool and moderate And there is an Hypocritical Zeal when Men have or seem to have great Zeal for the Truth and against Errour and falshood but it is only for self-respects and carnal ends Thus carnal Zeal moves in a large Sphere takes a great compass 3. There is a Spiritual Zeal A being zealous of good Works indeed and zealous for God even for his sake An holy Zeal This is both commanded Rev. 3.19 Be zealous And commended Num. 25.11 Phinehas the Son of Eleazer hath turned my wrath away while he was zealous for my sake So this Zeal should not go unrewarded Many commend lukewarmness and indifferency in Religion under the terms of Moderation Prudence and Discretion But Christ and the World are not of a mind A lukewarm temper the Lord cannot endure Rev. 3.15 16. Because thou art luke-warm and neither cold nor hot I will spue thee out of my mouth But as Bishop Hall observes Vol. 1. p. 903. The goodness of God winks at the Errors of honest Zeal and so loveth the strength of good Affections that it passeth over their Infirmities Again ib. p. 938. He Pardoneth the Errours of our fervency rather than the indifferencies of lukewarmness Indeed where there is no Zeal for God there is no Love to God Qui non Zelat non amat Where there is Life there will be some heat Here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be spiritually alive and to be lively are not more alike in sound than really akin Zeal in one degree or other is as inseparable from spiritual Life as heat is from fire It 's true as every sincere Christian is not a Nathaniel for degree and measure of Sincerity and plain-heartedness So neither is every such Soul a Moses a Phinehas an Elias for Zeal Yet the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force Mat 11.12 And it is one property of Christ's redeemed ones his peculiar People to be zealous of good Works This holy Zeal of which I am to speak as was said of Vprightness and Sincerity is not any distinct particular Grace but a modus or respect of other Graces Though some define it as a compound of Love and Anger Zelus est affectus ex amore irâ mixtus cum scil irascimur ei à quo laeditur id quod amamus Yet I cannot so confine it There must be Zeal accompanying our Repentance 2 Cor. 7.11 And Zeal in our Love We must love fervently 1 Pet. 1.22 and 4.8 And it is the symtom of corrupt times when love waxeth cold Mat. 24.12 Zeal is the spritely vigour and activity of all Grace the ardor of all the Affections with the earnestness and intention that is in all spiritual actings Indeed the chief heat of it is in the Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 12.11 This Fire is burning in the gracious Heart in the sanctified Will and Affections yet its heat is further diffused into the Conversation All our Spiritual Sacrifices must be offered up with this Fire Fervent in Spirit serving the Lord. Prayer must be Zealous fervent Prayer Jam. 5.16 Col. 4.12 13. Ministers must Preach zealously as Apollos Act. 18.25 None are allowed to do the work of the Lord negligently remisly There must be Zeal in hearing the Word Here our hearts should burn within us as Luk. 24.32 we should be zealous in reproving as Gal. 2.11 Yea no good work is well done without Zeal We must be zealous of and zealous in good Works It s not enough barely to do good Works but we must be earnest upon it and vigorous in the Work Quest But how shall we know whether our Zeal be right Answ 1. True Zeal is guided by a right Judgment a judgment regulated by the Word To allude to that Isa 4.4 The spirit of judgment must go along with the spirit of burning A blind ignorant rash Zeal is not good nor will it prove ones estate good Such a Zeal Paul had while a desperate Persecuter Act. 26.9 which afterwards he saw to be fury and madness rather than Zeal v. 11. This made him Mad once not his learning as Festus would have had it v. 24. such a Zeal the carnal unbelieving Jews had Rom. 10.2 Let Men be never so zealous in their way if it be not God's way their Zeal runs waste God is not honoured but dishonoured not well pleased but displeased with that Zeal which is not according to his Word To be zealous for what he hath not commanded and much more to be zealous for what he hath forbidden to be zealous against