a fit Object to work on our Fear and we are commanded to fear him that is able to destroy both Soul and Body in Hell Mat. 10.28 Luk. 12.5 And commonly this is the first Motive in place though the last in dignity and worth as Mr. A. Burgesse says But more of this when I come to speak of the Grace of Fear At present note If we are only restrained and kept in by a Fear of Punishment this is but a natural Principle and shews only a slavish Spirit To follow Vertue only or chiefly in hope of Reward is mercenary to flee Vice only or chiefly for fear of Punishment is servile But where the true Fear of God ruleth in the Heart there is a Fear of displeasing and offending God and not only of suffering 2. When we forsake Sin out of Love to God Psal 97.10 Ye that love the Lord hate Evil. So this is right when our Love to God will not suffer us to walk contrary to him Jer. 44.4 Oh do not this abominable thing that I hate When this is a prevailing Argument to keep us from Sin that God hates it this would shew that we love God When we would not displease him would not grieve his Spirit and would not dishonour God as we would be ashamed to wrong and abuse our best Friend and would not be so unlike to God as Sin makes us and would not follow such a Course as would separate betwixt us and our God and would hinder our Communion with God these things would shew a loving child-like disposition towards God and that we forsake Sin from a gracious Principle 3. When we forsake Sin from an hatred of it When Sin is not onely barely left but loathed when we turn from it having our Hearts turned against it Psal 101.3 I hate the Work of them that turn aside then it follows it shall not cleave to me Prov. 8.13 The Fear of the Lord is to hate Evil not only to depart from Evil but to hate Evil There is a Contrariety and Opposition betwixt Grace and Sin Where true Grace is therefore there is not only a declining of Evil from the force of Education or Example or as being moved with Rewards promised or Punishments that are threatned but there is an Aversness to Sin it self from a contrary Principle within a Detestation of it an Antipathy against it It is part of the Description of a wicked Man Psal 36.4 that he abhorreth not evil And a bare Abstinence from the ward Act of Sin is not enough without an abhorrence of it While a Man retains a secret love and liking of Sin in Gods account he lives in Sin though he refrains from the gross outward Act. †Quid quod volumas facti origo est Vanissimum est dicere volui nec ramen feci Sicut malum non persicis nec concupiscere debueras Tertul. de Paenit Though one be not drunk with the Drunkards though one doth not swear with the Swearers nor mock and taunt with the Scoffers yet it is bad enough to have pleasure in them that are such Rom. 1.32 As it is a sign that we do not truly hate Sin if we are not willing to forsake it So on the other hand we do not rightly forsake Sin if we do not hate it There are some whose Sins leave and forsake them rather than they leave and forsake their Sins Some there are who do not put away their Sins but are forced to part with them As Pharaoh was forced to let Israel go As Phaltiel parted with Michal when he could keep her no longer but was sad at parting 2 Sam. 3.16 But there is a great difference betwixt a Mans parting with what he loveth and his casting away what is loathsome to him It is very unpleasing and grievous to him to part with what he loveth And this shews a Man's love to Sin when he is sad to think of parting with it when it is grievous to him to think of parting with his vain Companions sinful Pleasures c. When it is very unpleasing to him to hear his Sins spoken against reproved and threatned When it is irksome to him that Parents or Governours keep him in will not suffer him to take his Swing or when he is under restraint by Poverty Sickness c. But what a Man loaths and abhors he is most willing to put away Such things as one hath an Antipathy against he is ready to flee from or is not at ease till they be removed out of his sight So a Man that loaths Sin how earnestly does he desire to be rid of it how glad would he be to have Sin removed quite out of his sight He could not be satisfied only with a removal of the Guilt of Sin to be left under the Power of Sin The presence and prevalency of Sin greatly afflict him The very presence of Sin is a sad annoyance and disturbance to a gracious Spirit A Man cannot delight in the Company of those he hates So if we hate Sin we are sick of it weary of it we would have no more to do with it And this is a right turning from Sin when it is cast off and abandoned with hatred and detestation So 4. When it is forsaken from a firm and fixed resolution in the Soul against it Many have a wishing Will as Mr. Perkins says but no settled purpose Vid. Cases of Consc l. 1. c. 5. §. 4. p. 16. in Vol. 2. But now where the Fear and Love of God and hatred of Sin prevails in the Heart there will be a rooted settled resolution against Sin 2. It is a good sign that a Man truly forsakes Sin when he setteth against his inward corruptions and feareth to Sin in secret Some are tender of their credit while they have no tenderness of Conscience as they are not afraid of being guilty of those Sins in secret which they would be ashamed that others should know Close Chapmen cunning Gamesters that love to play under-Board Some are for their private Walks and so sly that others shall have much a doe to trace them Their way is like the way of a Serpent on the Rock or of a Ship in the Sea But let such know The Eyes of the Lord are open upon all the ways of the Sons of Men to give every one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings Jer. 32.19 Prov. 5.21 There is no blind-folding of the Eye of God's Omniscience And as he sees the most secret Sins so when at last he shall turn the way of the wicked upside down he will lay all open to the view of the whole World There is nothing secret which shall not be revealed nothing hid which shall not be made known Your secret Sins will one day find you out and will come out at last But he that truly forsakes Sin dares not allow of Sin in secret Yea he is for mortifying his most inward corruptions He
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
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
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
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
the Truth and in the Cause of God Answer 1. It concerns you to be well assured that it is God's Truth you are Zealous for How many that take their own private conceits for Divine Truths 2. All Truths are not of equal importance And though the least Truth may not be denied or opposed yet lesser Truths may be silenced and concealed when a Zealous contending for them would be to the wrong and prejudice of far greater and more necessary Matters That is not to defend but to betray the Interest of God and his Truth when Men care not perdere substantiam propter accidentia to lose the substance of Religion for Accidents and Circumstances And that is Erratick Zeal and Mischievous like Fire out of its place when Men are so hot and earnest in contending about lesser Points that they themselves neglect and do what in them lieth to hinder others minding the main of Religion Zeal like Fire in its proper place is of great use and benefit But out of its place very dangerous and destructive And remember Sirs that true Zeal for God is most for those Truths and Duties wherein the great interest of Religion lieth And is most against such things whereby God is most dishonoured the Gospel obstructed Religion most wronged discredited c. 8. Right Zeal is joyned with Christian Moderation is for Christian Concord One of a truly zealous Spirit is also of an healing closing Spirit is of a publick Spirit Right Zeal is more for the common interest of Religion than for private Opinions It is no Firebrand no Incendiary in the Church It is moved at what it sees amiss it is for Reformation but will not hurry Men upon disorderly actings in their passionate sense of Disorders It is against extreams on both Hands Passionate Transports and rash heady Courses are not the effects of an holy but of a bitter Zeal Right Zeal keepeth within due compass It is for Edification not for Destruction It is for Peace and Unity It is for Sodering and Cementing not for Separating such as should Joyn. As Fire though it separate Heterogenials congregates Homogenials Yea it will melt divers Metals into one Lump True Zeal is not for perverse Disputings tending to Strife but for godly Edifying in Faith It is not for kindling Dissentions or causing Offences and Divisions amongst Christians but is moved with great Grief at the sight of such things As the Apostle Who is offended and I burn not It is for maintaining the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace And they that are more zealous to maintain some By-opinions than to maintain Union and Communion with their Fellow-Christians are quite besides the Mark. The Churches Peace and Edifying one another in Love are far greater Matters than any unnecessary Opinions which too many too zealously contend for Yea Vnnecessary is too good a word for some of them I should have said unsound Opinions O that the Guilty here would seriously consider whether it would not be more for the Honour of God the Credit and Interest of the Gospel and the securing of true Religion amongst us to joyn with their Fellow-Christians so far as they can to hold together to their mutual help strengthening and encouragement than to be so hot for their Opinions which if they were true yet are far remote from the Foundation and so far from being necessary to Salvation that not one of hundreds that are saved and now in Heaven was ever of their Way and Opinion here To be so rigid in their Way to carry as if all were unfit and unworthy for them to hold Christian Communion with that come not over to such Opinions of theirs alas this is Wild-fire not true Spiritual Zeal And verily I cannot think of any thing that will probably more harden and encourage Papists at this Day than the sad Rents and Dissentions amongst Protestants As he said Is not the hand of Joab in all this So it is probable enough the Heads of Jesuites have been in this Divide impera They know a Kingdom divided against it self is not likely to stand long and hope to raise themselves on our Ruines 9. That is right Zeal when we are more moved with Indignities offered unto God than with any Injuries done to our selves When we are more zealous in God's Cause than in our own We find Numb 12.1 2. Miriam and Aaron speak against Moses yet he seemed not at all concerned for himself We find not any reply that he made He was meek in his own cause Whereas upon sight of the Peoples Impiety their Idolatry in the Cause of God he was presently all on a flame His anger waxed hot Exod. 32.19 To be mild in our own cause but zealous in God's is a sign that we are indeed zealous for God As it is a sign of the contrary when we are remiss as can be unmoved unless when our own Interest is wrapt together with God's Interest As most Parents and Masters can bear it well enough though Children fail never so grosly in respect of the Duty that they owe to God though Servants plainly neglect and contemn God's Service They can bear with their Impiety with their taking God's Name in vain with the prophaning of his Day c. And yet many times they are all Fire and Tow if such do but fail in point of good Manners to them if they be not very observant of them and their commands Now it is true the least Irreverence towards Parents and so negligence in Servants are Sins against God But if upon that account you are most moved and displeased then you will be displeased at other Sins as well and more displeased at greater Sins than you are at these You will be zealous for God when Self is not so much concerned 10. Right Zeal for God is joyned with real Love and true compassion towards Men towards Sinners Thus while we hate their Sins we should yet love and heartily wish well to their Persons While we cannot bear with them that are evil in that which is evil yet we should be glad to do them good and glad indeed if by any means we might be helping to make them better As great Enemies as the Jews were to the Gospel and to the Apostle Paul yet he could not but pity them and his hearts desire and prayer to God was for them that they might be saved Rom. 10.1 Zeal against Sinners hath anger and grief in it not hatred As in the Apostle 2 Cor. 12.21 True Zeal desires their Conversion rather than Confusion And would rejoyce more in their Reformation than in their Ruine Our Saviour checked the furious Zeal of the Disciples when they would fain have been calling down Fire from Heaven to consume those poor Creatures that would not receive him Ye know not what manner of Spirit ye are of Luke 9.54 55. They were too hasty at that time a spirit of Revenge was stirring in them which was not Elias's spirit
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
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
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
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
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
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
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word here used is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cumulata alta cognitio a knowing thorowly a deep apprehension of the Truth Many have the Truth lying loose on their Minds have only fleeting wavering apprehensions of it Whereas it is deeply impressed on the Minds of Believers And though they may not have so much notional Knowledg as others have yet they have not a bare Knowledg but are come to an acknowledgment of the Truth not a meer verbal but a real hearty acknowledgment at least of all Truth absolutely necessary to Salvation And as the Anointing hath taught them they shall abide in it 1 Joh. 2.27 Now are we come to know the certainty of those things wherein we have been instructed Do we see Spiritual things to be as great realities as are in the World Or are we still halting between two opinions and but almost perswaded of the Truth of Christianity Are our Minds hovering and in suspence thinking these things may be true or they may be false Though a Man be able to discourse Learnedly and Orthodoxly of the evil of Sin and a Sinners Misery without Christ of Christ and his Benefits and the way to be interested in him of the Day of Judgment Heaven and Hell that there is a place and state of everlasting Happiness prepared for the Righteous and there is a place and state of endless Misery for all that are finally impenitent and Unbelievers if yet he has come to no certain conclusion with himself about these matters he durst not venture all he hath in the World upon the Truth of these things surely it is but opinion that such a one taketh up withal it deserveth not the name of Knowledg 5. Sound Spiritual Knowledg is powerfully affecting By this we are not only resolved in our Judgments but resolved in our choice A good understanding will chuse the better part is for cleaving to that which is good So Wisdom and Spiritual Vnderstanding are joyned here And the wisdom of the Prudent is to understand his way Prov. 14.8 Spiritual Knowledg will teach one to approve things that are excellent Phil. 1.9 10. A meer Notional Speculative Knowledg is of no effect it leaveth the Will undetermined And let a Man know never so much in Religion if it be meerly speculatively not practically it is in effect as if he knew nothing Deut. 32.28 They are a Nation void of Counsel neither is there any understanding in them Hence the Scripture calleth all wicked Men Fools So Christ calleth the Pharisees Blind though many of them were knowing Their Knowledg being without effect it was as if they had none And can there be any greater Blindness or Folly in the World than for Men to prefer Worldly Pleasures Riches Honours before an Interest in Christ and the Favour of God and the Fruition of him to prefer Fading Lying Vanities before endless Joys enduring Substance and a never-fading Crown of Glory to chuse Sin Hell and Everlasting Destruction before Righteousness Holiness and Eternal Happiness If this be not sottish Folly tell me what is As there is a form of Godliness without the Power 2 Tim. 3.5 So there is a form of Knowledg Rom. 2.20 without the Power Notional Knowledg is weak indeed but Spiritual Knowledg that is powerful As they said Act. 4.20 We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard So we cannot but be affected with the great things God makes known to us by his Word and Spirit †Est enim Sapiens cui quaeque res saepiunt prout sunt Bern. If we are come to a Spiritual discerning of things then certainly we see an excellency in Christ so as to desire and prize an Interest in him above all things in the World we see the evil of Sin so as to dread and hate and resolve against it so as to forsake and flee from it we see a Beauty in Holiness so as really to fall in love with it and in good earnest to follow after it Isa 51.7 Hearken unto me ye that know Righteousness the People in whose Heart is my Law Vera cognitio non est imaginativa sed conjuncta cum serio affectu Sound Knowledg resteth not in the Head but in the Heart Wisdom resteth in the Heart of him that hath Vnderstanding Prov. 14.33 As we read of Wisdom entring into the Heart Prov. 2.10 When Wisdom entreth into thine Heart And so 6. Spiritual Knowledg is renewing Col. 3.10 And have put on the new Man which is renewed in Knowledg It is Non modo Lux sed sanitas quaedam integritas Animae It is not a Light in the Mind but the soundness of the Mind It is not only directing but rectifying not barely enforming but reforming and transforming It is true that Knowledg which is not Saving may make a great change in the lives of some As we read of some Apostates that had escaped the pollutions of the World through the Knowledg of Christ 2 Pet. 2.20 But Spiritual Knowledg that which is an effect of special Illumination is an Introduction to Spiritual Renovation to an inward thorow change It not only brings Conviction but is attended with Conversion There is a turning from Iniquity with this understanding of the Truth Dan. 9.13 And a coming in to Christ Joh. 6.45 Every Man therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me So the Spirit guideth those to whom he is given not only to the Truth but into Truth into all necessary Truth Joh. 16.13 An Emphatical Expression Tò docere terminatur in intellectu Sed ducere c. pertinet ad voluntatem affectum The Truth spiritually apprehended makes a Spiritual Impression on the Soul The Heart is new cast into the form and Mould of Divine Truth Rom. 6.17 Thus Sound Knowledg makes sound Spiritual Knowledg maketh a Spiritual Man As the Fear of the Lord i. e. the Word that teacheth his Fear is clean Psal 19.9 It is so not only formalitèr but effectivè pure in it self and a cause of Purity Spiritual Knowledg will make a Man spiritually minded And this is a grand difference betwixt Notional and Spiritual Knowledg The former doth something enlighten but not sanctify but the latter is also Sanctifying Joh. 17.17 Sanctify them through thy Truth Certainly that Knowledg of the Truth is not Saving which is not Sanctifying Nor is our Knowledg sanctified if we are not sanctifyed by it 7. Spiritual Knowledg is humbling Sound Knowledg does not puff up so as other Knowledg does 1 Cor. 8.1 2. If any Man seemeth to himself to know any thing i. e. is lifted up with proud and high conceits of himself in regard of his Knowledg he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know We cannot think it to be the Apostles meaning here to commend Scepticism or a doubting of every thing in Religion or to commend a fained Modesty or denying the Knowledg God hath given us
only form self-Self-love but from the Love of God and Christ and Holiness Now do we grieve for Sin not only out of a Sight and Sence of the Danger but also of the Filthiness and Odiousness of it as contrary to the holy Nature and righteous Law of God Do we indeed grieve for Sin as Sin More particularly 1. Do we mourn for Sin as a Breach of God's holy Law As it is a thing forbidden and not only as it has set us under the threatnings of the Law Do we heartily approve of the Law of God as holy just and good Do we delight in the Law of God in the inner Man Is it our earnest Desire that our Hearts and Lives were in all things conformed to it and our great grief to find the contrary Many that sometimes have storms raised in their Consciences but instead of being offended and displeased with themselves and their Sins they are offended at the Word that discovers and condemns their Sins and as Ahab hated Micaiah they cannot endure faithful Ministers that tell them plainly of their Sins If it be thus with thee and if thy Heart riseth against and repines at the strictness and purity of God's Laws if they are grievous to thee as crossing thy beloved Lusts grievous as the Light to a Thief or as Chains are to a Malefactor Though thou mayest be full of Trouble and Perplexity yet certainly it is quited different from true Repentance and godly Sorrow 2. Do we mourn for Sin as a Dishonour to God Herein lieth the greatest Evil of Sin that it is against God It is a practical Denial Contempt Affronting or Abusing of God and of all God's Attributes a Denial or Contempt of his Sovereignty and Authority of his Holiness and Justice of his Wisdom Truth Power and Greatness of his Omnipresence Omniscience of his Dominion and Propriety in his Creatures an abuse of his Goodness It is a denying him that Honour Service and Subjection which is due from us as we are his Creatures Indeed it cannot be expressed what a wrong and dishonour to God Sin is And this a gracious Soul takes notice of in his sad Reflections upon his Sins As David 2 Sam. 12.13 I have sinned against the Lord. Psal 51.4 Against thee thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight Though he had sinned against others too had sinned against Bathsheba depriving her of her Chastity had sinned against Vriah depriving him of his Life had sinned against the World setting it so ill an example and giving Enemies such occasion to blaspheme these wrongs did all terminate upon God the supream Lawgiver and the Injury done to Creatures though great in it self was a small matter to the Wrong and Dishonour therein done to God As the Lord to magnify his Grace in pardoning the Sins of his People goes over with it again and again against me against me Jer. 33.8 I will cleanse them from all their Iniquities whereby they have sinned against me and I will pardon all their Iniquities whereby they have sinned against me and whereby they have transgressed against me So that Sin is against God this is the burthen of every gracious Heart 3. Do we grieve for Sin as it displeaseth God as it is the abominable thing which he hateth Ezek. 6.9 They that escape of you shall remember me among the Nations because I am broken with their whorish Heart which hath departed from me c. Doth this Consideration of Sin break our Hearts Are we vexed at our selves that we have fretted him as we have the Expression Ezek. 16.43 that we have provoked and disquieted him Doth it grieve us to think how we have grieved his Spirit Is it the burthen of our Souls to think how he is pressed under our Sins how we have wearied him with our Iniquities It is nothing for us to be troubled when God afflicteth and putteth us to grief A Slave will roar and cry out under the Lash But an ingenuous Child is grieved when he hath displeased his Father though he be not scourged and corrected for it So though we are not chastened by God yet do we afflict our own Souls for Sin Or if the Lord doth lay Affliction on our loyns yet are we more troubled for having offended God than for our own smart and suffering 4. Do we grieve for Sin as against God's mercy as an ill Requital of his Goodness Doth the Goodness of God lead us to Repentance Godly Sorrow is ingenuous And the Mercy and Goodness of God is a special means of exciting to Repentance and of promoting it That there is Mercy with the Lord that there is Hope of finding Mercy this is a special means of working Repentance at first without which the Soul would be swallowed up in despair The Law discovering Sin and Wrath displaying God's Holiness and punitive Justice may in one sence break the Heart of a Sinner But it is the Gospel revealing God's free and infinite Grace and Mercy in Jesus Christ his willingness and readiness to pardon and to be reconciled to Sinners that repent and turn that is the means of melting the Heart into kindly Sorrow The great Motive to sound Repentance is God's Mercy As you find it laid down Joel 2.13 Rent your Heart and not your Garments and turn unto the Lord your God for he is gracious and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness When a Man considering his many and great Provocations on the one hand and God's gracious and merciful Offers on the other hand As Thou hast played the Harlot with many Lovers yet return unto me saith the Lord. As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the Death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live Turn ye turn ye from your evil ways for why will ye dye Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon When thus a Man hath his Heart relenting it is kindly When the thoughts of God's Goodness of his gracious Nature and his gracious Offers cause a Man to loath himself to be ashamed of his own baseness and vileness in offending so gracious a God this is godly Sorrow Indeed it is an hopeful Sign when the Heart is melting under common Mercies A Stone-wall will seem to weep in moist weather So the Hearts of many that are as hard as Stone will seem to give again under Judgments But David was brought to Repentance by Nathan's recounting God's favours vouchsafed to him and not only his denouncing judgment 2 Sam. 12.7 8 with v. 13. And so some paraphrase upon Psal 51.4 Against thee thee only have I sinned Against thee who hast done so much for me against thee who hast so raised me so oft delivered me O I have ill requited thee The common Goodness of God his Patience and
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
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
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
Man's case is many times most sad when he has no sense of his Sickness 2. You may not be under Terrors of Conscience for Sin and yet may be under the Dominion of Sin While the strong Man keeps his Palace all is in Peace An evil Conscience may be a quiet Conscience may be lull'd asleep for a time 3. You may be under the arrest of your own Consciences Conscience may shake and terrifie you and thus you may be brought to a kind of remorse for Sin and yet not freed from the Dominion of Sin Sinner wouldest thou fain put off Conscience dost thou indeavour to do all thou canst to stop its Mouth to still its Clamours Art thou far from joyning and taking part with Conscience against thy Lusts Then it is plain thou art joyned to thy Lusts And whatever trouble thou hast for sins committed if it does not weaken the Power and Habit of Sin in thee if it be not joyned with a serious purpose and resolution against Sin if thou art as ready to commit the same Sin again when a Temptation and Opportunity is offered thy Repentance is little better than a Mock-repentance 4. Thou mayest have a kind of Conflict within thy self against Sin and yet be under the Dominion of Sin For 1. Sometimes one Lust makes head against another Though all Sins agree in their general Nature as contrary to the holy Law of God yet some Sins disagree in respect of their particular Objects and Interests So Pride may set against such Sins as would bring a Man to shame and disgrace So a Sinner's Covetousness may cross a costly expensive Lust which otherwise he has a mind on 2. Or the Conflict in a Sinner is thus his Will is to serve and satisfy such a Lust but his Conscience is against it Thus a Sinner hath many sad checks of Conscience sore against his Will The Conscience of many a natural Man does not only oft accuse and condemn him for Sins committed but also sometimes does check menace and terrify him when he is about the commission of Sin while yet the Will is predominantly set upon Sin As there may be Insurrections great Stirs and Busles in a Kingdom against its Government and yet the Government not be cast off but may prevail and suppress those Insurrections So Conscience is stirring in a Sinner sometimes it riseth up against such or such a Lust but for all that there is a stronger Party within a corrupt Will a depraved Appetite and Affections that adhere to it still and keep it in the Throne 5. A Child of God may fall into the same Sin materially and yet that be but a Sin of Infirmity in him which may be a reigning Sin in thee Though thou mayest sometimes see those that are better than thy self overtaken with Passion or see them sometimes immoderate spending too much precious time in Sports and Recreations c. And yet Sinner know there is a difference betwixt their falling into a Sin and thy living and lying still in it There is a difference betwixt their being sometimes foiled by it and thy yielding up thy self fully to it There is a difference betwixt their serious repenting of it and breaking off a Course of Sin and thy allowing and full liking of it and holding on thy Course 6. Thou mayest be free from all gross Sins and yet be under the Dominion of Sin Though Divines sometimes distinguish betwixt a partial and a total Dominion of Sin and say further that a partial Dominion of Sin may stand with a State of Grace but not a total yet here you must not understand them as if by partial Dominion they meant the Dominion of some Sins only and by total the Dominion of all kind of Sins That is not their meaning But that is the full and total compleat and absolute Dominion of Sin when a Man freely peaceably fully ex studio ex animo gives up himself to any known Sin whether it be scandalous or not whether it be open or secret And the partial Dominion of Sin with them is when Sin gets Mastery for a time when there is not an actual or at least not a prevalent Resistance and Opposition of Sin as to some particular Acts and yet Sin gets not full and peaceable possession but there is the Spirit lusting and striving against the Flesh there is a Principle of Reluctance to that Sin a Man is drawn to commit that though at present he be worsted by it yet he yields not up himself to it But as one has the Comparison as there are several Forms of Government or Dominion as Democracy Aristocracy and Monarchy Sometimes the Dominion is exercised by many sometimes by one alone yet Subjection to any of them is true Subjection and sets up Dominion So though in some more Sins bear rule together in others some one Sin bears chief rule yet a full willing Subjection to Sin whether one or more proves the Dominion of Sin Thus though thou keepest free from gross scandalous Sins yet if thou freely allowest thy self to continue in other Sins in any known Sin thou art the Servant of Sin and Sin hath Dominion over thee Yea note further Thou mayest live in those Sins which yet break not forth into the outward Act. While Sin hath the Command of the Heart it hath Dominion And thus thou art an unclean Person who allowest thy self and delightest in speculative Wickedness though thou never didst commit the Act of Uncleanness Lusting after a Woman is committing adultery in the heart Mat. 5.28 So thou mayest be a meer Sensualist a Swine a Brute though thou never drinkest unto drunkenness and never eatest to gluttonous excess if thou only designest the pleasing of thy Appetite and Palate if thou lookest no higher than to the pleasing of the Flesh So Covetousness may be a reigning Sin in thee though thou art not to be charged with hording up riches that should be laid out to the glory of God and good of others though thou hast never so little of the World in thy possession yet thou mayest be a covetous Man and an Idolater if thy Heart be full of inordinate love to worldly Riches 7. You may be morally honest just in your dealings charitable to the poor your Lives may be adorned with a shew of many fair moral Vertues and yet you may remain under the Dominion of Sin and in an ungodly State As you may still be without the true Fear of God and without Love to God and may have no care to serve him Sin shews and exercises its ruling Power and Dominion not only in commanding but in forbidding not only in putting Men upon the works of the Flesh but in keeping them off from a Course of Piety As one If Sin have a negative Voice in your Religion whether God shall be worshipped and obeyed or not it is your King Not seeking not serving God is enough to prove thee ungodly Living in the neglect of
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.
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
the World and to our carnal interests is not to love them sincerely Moses chose rather to suffer affliction with the People of God than to enjoy the pleasures of Sin for a season And esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Aegypt Heb. 11.25 26. So love to the Godly and to their society would make us willing to ship our selves in the same bottom to take our lot with them in sufferings rather than forsake the assembling of our selves together with them 11. If we love the Godly than we shall be ready to relieve them As we are required to do good unto all Men as we have opportunity but especially to those that are of the houshold of Faith Gal. 6.10 We shall not love in word or in tongue only but in deed and in truth But whoso hath this Worlds good and seeth his Brother have need and yet shutteth up his Bowels of compassion from him how dwelleth the love of God or of his Brother in him 1 John 3.17 As one says of true Friends they will not come in prosperity when called but they will come in adversity uncalled Like that saying of Chilo Lacrt. c. 1. in Chilo p. 47. Promtiùs ad amic rum adversos casus quam ad secundos successus accurrendum Ib. in Zeno. l. 7. 513. As the Stoicks said Among Friends there is a certain community of those things which are necessary to life we using our Friends as our selves As we read of the primitive Christans Act. 4.32 Neither said any of them that ought of the things that he possessed was his own but they had all things common Then a community of goods was very needful and expedient when so many from remote parts came to joyn themselves with the Church at Jerusalem But instead of that community afterwards Christians were required to be ready to distribute and willing to communicate 1 Tim. 6.18 And to the end they might be more ready and free this way the Apostle ordered 1 Cor. 16.1 2. that every one should lay by him in store something every week as God had prospered him And true love would not be satisfied in our giving a few good words to our Brethren and fellow-Christians in necessity and distress as saying Depart in peace be warmed be filled Jam. 2.16 but it would cause us to abound in good works As the Apostle speaks of their work and labour of love shewed to God's Name in ministring to his Saints Heb. 6.10 And thus the Apostle would prove the genuineness and sincerity of the Corinthians love 2 Cor. 8.8 If we would prove that our love is not adulterate or spurious but right indeed we must be free and forward this way in ministring to the necessity of the Saints and that for the Lords sake And certainly while we grudg them any part of our Estates they have little share in our hearts Read Mr. Gouges Sermon of good works with Mr. Baxters Directions or Letter annexed To say as Nabal Shall I take my Bread and my Flesh and give it unto Men whom I know not whence they be or if we give any thing to do it grudgingly not as a matter of bounty but of covetousness rather when what we give beareth no proportion to their necessities and our abilities and is given more to salve our own credit than to relieve their wants such things would shew us without compassion towards them and so without true love As one sayes He that loves the Godly in sincerity Mr. B. Christian Directory part 4. p. 175. q. 15. He loveth Godliness and Godly Men above his carnal worldly Interest his Honour Wealth or Pleasure and therefore will part with these in works of Charity when he understandeth that God requireth it Job would not see any perish for want of clothing or any poor without covering Job 31.19 He that was so much concerned for any that were poor what care would he have taken of poor Saints Clark Lives part 1. p. 795 796. It is said of J. Fox that wrote the Acts Mon. c. That he never denied to give to any one the asked for Jesus sake And one asking him whether he knew a certain poor Man whom he used to relieve Yea said he I remember him well and I tell you I forget Lords and Ladies to remember such 12. If we love the Godly then we shall heartily lament the loss of such We are true Mourners when we hear of such being taken away When Jesus wept over Lazarus the Jews could say Behold how he loved him Joh. 11.35 36. And are we thus expressing our love to the Godly by our grief at parting with them Are we ready to cry out Help Lord for the godly Man ceaseth When the righteous perisheth and we lay it not to heart it shews want of love to them It 's true some can be sorry when merciful Men Men of kindness are taken away can bewail the death of a good Man or Woman such as had estates and hearts to do much good such as were Benefactors But the poor wise Man is not remembred Eccl. 9.15 The loss of such is regarded of few Few are affected with the death of the righteous as such though alas their number is but small compared with the ungodly yet how many that would not be sorry to see their company lessened How weary is the World of those of whom the World is not worthy But if we love them it will go near our hearts to lose them Acts 8.2 Devout Men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him Thus try your love He that loveth not knoweth not God 1 Joh. 4.8 He that loveth not his Brother abideth in death Chap. 3.14 Of Godly Fear PSAL. 112.1 Blessed is the Man that feareth the Lord. FEar is a reverend respect which the highest and best of Creatures owe unto God their Soveraign Lord. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say some as some would have the Latine word Deus God to come from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fear Jacob calleth God the fear of his Father Isaac Gen. 31.53 The Seraphims are said to cover their faces standing about his Throne Isa 6.2 They cannot but adore and reverence Divine Majesty They fear to behave themselves any way unseemly in such a presence Jude ver 9. Even Michael the Archangel when contending with the Devil he disputed about the body of Moses durst not bring against him a railing accusation The Lord is the dreadful God He it is that ought to be feared Psal 76.11 Unto him doth it appertain Jer. 10.7 This is certainly the Creatures duty yea so great a duty that it is oft put for the whole worship of God Psal 34.11 Deut. 6.13 And 10.20 Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God which we read thus Mat. 4.10 Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God And the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used for Fear or
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
and life both he cannot be humble with that Humility which is necessary for a sinner It is not enough for a sinful creature to have a sense of his deficiency his wants and imperfections as he is a creature but such a one must also have a sense of his defection and degeneracy a sense of his corruptions and transgressions as a sinner And though it seemeth scarce to deserve the name of Humility for a disloyal unworthy ungrateful creature that has fallen from God to the World to Sin and Vanity that has gone a whoring from God to follow strangers for such a one to lye low in self-abhorrence to see himself to be vile this I say scarce deserves the name of humility yet is it the beginning of Christian Humility yea a chief part of our Humility here There is an Humility that some learn from their being reduced to a low estate in the World They are fallen into Poverty Disgrace c. and now they do not look so big or carry so high as they were wont to do But know thy Humility is not right if it be upon such worldly accounts only and not upon the account of thy sins 3. True Humility is most inward A shew of Humility is not enough To be cloathed with Humility in the Apostle's sense is more than to wear mean clothes Though I must needs say that an humble mind and a proud garb are things that do not suit together O that they that use to cloak their Pride with the pretence of Decency would consider whether Humility be not more comely and would not more commend them in the eyes of God and all sober Men Humility is certainly more lovely in its plainest gravest dress than stinking pride with all its painting patches powders though clothed in Purple and tricked up as fine as fingers can make it The ornaments of pride are a real disgrace a shame to those that wear them O but Humility that is an Ornament indeed an Ornament in the sight of God of great price But then we must see that we are humble in God's sight Jam. 4.10 Humble your selves in the sight of the Lord. True Humility is by the sight and knowledg of God as before and is such in God's sight and not only in appearance to Men. All Grace as it is from God so it has respect to him Herein lieth the sincerity of Grace that it is what it is before God and not only before Men. Humility does not affect making a shew That is Pride which makes one affect a seeming to be humble So it is not to be liked when one affects a speech or attire different from the most grave and sober to be counted more humble Let us look to our hearts We may not hang out those flags of Pride some do and yet Pride may have full power and command within We may appear humble to Men but are we humble in the sight of God are we lowly in heart We may have learnt an humble carriage but are we humble in spirit as Pro. 29.23 or of an humble spirit Isa 57.15 4. True Humility as it is Humility of heart so the heart is really for it Humbleness of mind and a mind to be humble are inseparable I had occasion to touch on this before yet methinks something more should be added As humiliation and sorrow for sin if it be right and kindly is voluntary as the fear of God if it be genuine and child-like is free so is true Humility Indeed there is a voluntary Humility condemned Col. 2.18 A preposterous Humility Like that of the Papists in worshipping and invocating Saints and Angels accounting it too great boldness to come to God only in and through Christ not considering how great boldness and presumption it is for sorry sinful creatures to set up other Mediators and Intercessors with Christ and so to come to God in a way that he has not appointed or allowed Such may think it great Humility but rather may we not say with the Apostle they are vainly puffed up by heir fleshly mind Let Men be never so free and forward in such self-devised seeming humble wayes of Worship God is not pleased with them And yet our Humility must be voluntary too in a right sense or it is not right We must be willingly vile in our own eyes and desire to be thus more vile to lie lower in our own thoughts Some there are mightily cast down and far out of conceit with themselves and their own estates looking on themselves as lost and undone All this may be and yet no true Humility There is a wide difference betwixt an awakened storming Conscience and an humble and contrite heart where the heart is humble a Man would see his sins would loath himself for them desires to lie as low as God would have him Where the Heart is not humble but only Conscience is awakened and terrified a Man hath no such desire His Sins are brought to his remembrance are set in order before his eyes when he has no will to search and finde them out 5. Humility prepares the Heart to receive and submit to reproof And this is a great sign of Humility if we could more patiently bear others admonishing and reproving us than hear their vain applauses or undue praises of us The Humble would account those enemies to them who shall this way tempt them to proud and high conceits of themselves but will acknowledg such their best friends which help them further to see what is amiss in themselves to their further humbling But a Scorner loveth not one that reproves him Pro. 15.12 The Proud have their stomacks rising against those that in great faithfulness tell them of their faults * Ea quae ipsi sponte dicunt aliis ab aliis patienter audire non possunt Bern. de adr Dom. Ser. 4. They are so far in love with themselves that they cannot endure to hear any thing amiss of themselves They care for none but such as have the knack to humour and flatter them 6. Humility is not for excusing extenuating Sin but for a free ingenuous and hearty confession of it The proud Pharisee had not a word of confession Luk. 18.11 he was all for setting forth his own vertues Though complementally he gave God thanks yet it was really and designedly to usher in his own praise The humble Soul is quite in another strain not for justifying himself but ready still to accuse and condemn himself He neither hides nor pleads for his Sins but is willing to see them and ready to acknowledge and aggravate them To be bold in sinning but ashamed to confess Sin Cur te pudet peccatum tuum dicere quem non puduit facere Bern. are signs of a graceless heart And to be quick-sighted in spying faults miscarriages in others but to overlook ones own and to be forward to aggravate the faults of others but to make light of ones own miscariages are
brings down a rebellious Will As it is contrary to Self-conceitedness so to Self-willedness This is the great Controversie betwixt God and Sinners whose Will shall stand his or theirs But Self-denial where it comes decides the cause for God One that truly denies himself would have no will of his own but what is subject to the Will of God He resolvedly crosseth his own will wherein he sees it cross and contrary to the Will of God And thus it is plain They that walk in the way of their own hearts that are fully bent upon their own wills that give up themselves in their ordinary course to follow their own sinful Inclinations are far from Self-denial Self-denial and a course of wilful disobedience Self-denial and any reigning Sin are things utterly inconsistent A will to please God and a will to please our selves in any way or course which we know to be contrary to the Mind and Will of God cannot be both together in a prevailing degree 7. Self-denial is not consistent with reigning inordinate Self-love It 's true there is a regular Self-love which is not contrary to Self-denial Indeed there are none that do so truly love themselves as those that have learnt to deny themselves for God and Jesus Christ who love God and Jesus Christ above themselves But a corrupt Self-love where it is predominant excludes the true love of God and the love of our Neighbour and all true Self-denial By this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Man prefers and esteems himself and his own things above all other is most pleased with himself and most devoted to himself in short by this a Man makes an Idol of himself This Self-love is blind indeed and makes Men blind It will not let a Man see the evil of his state and of his way and course It is a chief cause of Self-flattery Self-deceit But the grand impediment and obstruction of Self-denial This self-Self-love is the heart of the Old-Man till this be mortified we can neither die to Sin nor live to God So while sinful Self-love is in full power we are far from Self-denial 8. Self-denial will heartily engage a Man against a sensual flesh-pleasing course For one to place his Happiness in pleasing his Appetite or Senses in Meats Drinks fine Apparels Pastimes and Recreations c. to mind such things more than the pleasing and enjoying of God to be more set upon them is a plain evidence that he is in the flesh and walks after the flesh which is most contrary to a Self-denying life Yea though he do not run into the excess of Riot which loose profane debauched Persons give themselves up unto Mr. Baxt. Christian Directory p. 271. §. 20. As is well observed Even the flesh it self may forbid a sensualist to be Drunk or to eat till he be Sick for Sickness and Shame are displeasing to the flesh It is enough to prove a Man a Sensualist and still for Self while he aimeth at the pleasing of his Appetite or Senses even as his end and looketh no higher surely we should be for pleasing these no further than may promote our main Work may help us on in the lively chearful Service of God And whether we Eat or Drink or Recreate our selves at any time that should be our end even that we may be fitter to serve and glorifie our Maker and Redeemer Now such as have no respect hereunto and such as are for pleasing the Flesh though God be displeased have not yet learn'd to deny themselves Self-denial would teach us to pinch and displease rather than pamper the Flesh And they that cannot deny their Excesses for God stint their inordinate Appetites refrain from immoderate Recreations cut off and cast away their proud and vain fashions of Attire that commend them to none unless it be to light and vain Persons how shall such deny and forsake all for God 9. Self-denial is opposit to a course of Self-seeking and will cause a Man habitually and most ordinarily to prefer God's Interest above his own Surely they are altogether strangers to Self-denial that are all for seeking their own things and not the things which are Jesus Christs And if we seek our own things more heartily seriously and earnestly than the things of Christ what would this shew but that inordinate Self-love is predominant in us And does it not argue plain selfishness when Men are chiefly led by self-ends and most set upon self-interest when Men are more for their own interest than for the interest of Christ Now how full is the World of such as are for enriching and advancing themselves who little or nothing regard the advancement of the Kingdom and Interest of Christ How many whatever pretentions they make of serving Christ yet their intentions and designs are rather to serve themselves of him And that are indeed for no more of Religion than will stand with and promote their worldly interest supposing that gain is Godliness as the Apostle speaks of them 1 Tim. 6.5 How many that will follow Christ no further than may be in the way to riches and preferment in the World But such as have learn'd to deny themselves would not seek their own things above or in competition with the things of Christ but only in subordination to those higher things While others follow Christ but for self such follow their worldly Callings and ordinary Imployments for Christ They are painful and diligent in their Callings but if you ask who they work for It is not for the flesh not for self but for God and Christ They are laying up for God and laying out for God When we have given our own selves to God as they did 2 Cor. 8.5 accounting our selves no more our own we shall make over all we have to God and shall desire to use and imploy our Parts Interest Estate c. for him according to his Will We shall not account any thing so our own as for us to use how we please but as may be most pleasing to God But if we are at excessive pains and at great cost and charge for Self while we care not how little we are at in God's Service if we think we can never lay up enough for Self or care not how much we lay out on Self and how little we lay out for God and Christ if we think a little expended in works of Charity or for Pious-uses too much such things would bewray base selfishness they are no signs of Self-denial 10. Self-denial will take a Man off from hunting after vain applause One of a self-denying spirit is more for the favour and approbation of God than for the praise of Man It 's true he may and ought to prize a good Name he would not do any thing to wound and blemish his Credit But it is not so much on his own account that he is tender of his good Name and Reputation as upon the account of Religion with respect to the
what he allows and much more to be zealous against what he approves and commandeth is contrary to his Will Interest and Honour This is not in a true account Zeal for God but rather against him That Zeal which is not according to knowledg which is not guided and warranted by the Word hath an errour in the foundation It hath nothing to difference it from the Zeal of the grossest Idolaters in the World A Papist may be heartily zealous in his way zealous to promote his Religion and gain Proselytes to it zealous against the soundest Christians crying out against such as dangerous Hereticks wishing that they might come to their old work again to burn such as Hereticks In this his Zeal he may follow his judgment thinking he should do God good service as Joh. 16.2 even in persecuting the faithful to the death if it was in his power when alas he is miserably mistaken This will not justifie any in their Zeal for Idolatry that they think God best served most honoured that way This will not warrant any in their rage against the Saints and Servants of the most High God that they take them to be Hereticks or Hypocrites But they shall find it was their duty to have informed themselves better and not to condemn the righteous and not to call good evil The Devil that cannot endure but is an utter enemy to right Zeal is ready to promote a false blind Zeal all he can He is never weary of blowing this coal This he knows would do him Knights service He cannot but account such his best servants who are zealous in his service Such do as much as can be to credit his Cause who put the honourable title of Zeal for God upon the service they do his grand enemy Such fight against God while they carry his Colours blind Zeal is a piece of the greatest disservice to the interest of God and Religion Sometimes blind Zeal fights with a shadow strikes at a Sign-post but letteth the enemy quietly pass by And which is worse it sometimes falleth foul on those whom it ought to defend A Man acted with Blind Zeal is like one that shoots at Rovers who is more likely to do mischief than hit the Mark or like one that fighteth blindfold striking Friends as soon as Foes What sad havock what woful work hath blind Zeal oft made in the Church Even like a violent Fire that getting head layeth all waste before it The Devil has no stiffer prop to uphold his Kingdom and no fiercer engine of Persecution or battering Ram to employ against the Kingdom of Christ Therefore let not any please themselves in this that they are Zealous in their way when perhaps they are out of the way And if so the more haste the worse speed Zeal in a false way casts Men more behind No Offering acceptable to God without Fire yet to offer strange-Fire here is very perillous And that is not Fire from Heaven where there is heat without Light Where these go alone either Heat without Light Zeal without Knowledg or Light without Heat Knowledg without Zeal it is sadly ominous but where they go together very comfortable Are you zealous but who and what are you zealous for And what is your Zeal against I have been very zealous for the Lord God of Hosts says Elijah because the Children of Israel have forsaken thy Covenant thrown down thine Altars and slain thy Prophets c. 1 King 19.14 Is thy Zeal against Sin indeed So that thou canst not indure to see God dishonoured his Worship neglected and contemned his Truth opposed his Saints and Servants evil intreated c. Is thy Zeal for that which is good Gal. 4.18 It is good to be zealously affected alwayes in a good thing The Apostle Paul was very zealous before his Conversion but of the traditions of his Fathers Gal. 1.14 Many have a Zeal but for their own fancies and private opinions Oh what pitty is it that such spirits should evaporate and be lost Let a Man's Zeal be never so hearty if the Mettal have not a right stamp it is not currant Zeal unless it be rightly guided sayes learned Hooker when it indeavoureth most busily to please God Eccl. polit l. 5. §. 3. p. 190. forceth upon him those unseasonable Offices which please him not For which cause if they who this way swerve be compared with such as are sincere sound and discreet as was Abraham the friend of God the service of the one is like unto flattery the other like the faithful sedulity of friendship 2. Right Zeal burns within before it flames out Hypocrites can be hot in their expressions but are not fervent in spirit Hot in the Mouth but cold at Stomach cold at Heart Like Glow-worms fiery in appearance yet really cold in themselves Blind Zeal is strange Fire an hypocritical fained Zeal is false Fire But true Zeal is not all in shew though it will shew it self It lieth chiefly in the fervency and intention of the Spirit and Affections The life of Zeal is in the Heart As when the Apostle Paul was at Athens seeing the City wholly given to Idolatry his spirit was stirred in him and this stirred him up to dispute and Preach against their Idolatry Act. 17.16 c. As Ezekiel's hearers with their mouth shewed much love Ezek. 33.13 it is possible that many in their outward expressions may shew much Zeal declaming freely and often against the Sins of the Age as the horrible increase of Prophaneness growth of Popery c. and may seem to bewail the woful declining state of true Piety amongst us but are our hearts deeply touched and affected with the sense of these things Surely that Zeal which is only from the teeth outward is not true but feigned 3. True Zeal hath respect to God it pointeth towards God As Fire ascends Sparks fly upwards That is not right Zeal which is flashy vain-glorious in pretence for God but really for self To pretend Zeal for the Lord as Jehu did but really to design and aim at self-applause and self-advantage this is to mock God or this is but to flatter him And certainly that God which searcheth the heart will put a difference betwixt such flatterers and his true friends They that have a true Zeal for God will ordinarily prefer God's Honour and Interest before their own concerns True Zeal is accompanied with self-denial Such can be zealous for God when they are like to suffer for their Zeal They could better endure to suffer themselves than that the Truth should suffer They could take it more patiently to be reviled themselves to have their names cast out as evil than that the good wayes of God be evil spoken of 4. True Zeal will burn alone As Elijah was zealous for the Lord God of Hosts even when he seemed to himself to be left alone when he knew not of one that would take his part 1 Kings 19.10 As the Apostle Paul
And all of Christ precious And so 1. Do you now see your vileness in having had such low thoughts of a precious Saviour Are you ashamed of your former Sin and Folly in despising and setting so light by him 2. Do you now prize him above all things in the World 3. Can you not endure now to see or hear Christ vilified or dishonoured 4. Are you restless till you may know your interest in him that he is yours 2. Are you sanctified by Faith Is your Faith such as purifies the Heart 1. Is there not only an outward but an inward change wrought in you 2. And not only a negative but a positive change 3. And a thorow though not a perfect change 4. Are you aiming at perfect Holiness 3. Is your Faith such as worketh Love and worketh by Love 4. Is it such by which you have in some measure conquered the World and go on to conquer it more Are you taken off from placing your happiness in the smiles of the World What power in your Faith to overcome the enticements of the World And what in it to overcome the storming rage and furious assaults of the World 3. Try your Repentance 1. Your sorrow for Sin Is it Godly sorrow First Is it on right grounds 1. Is your sorrow for Sin considered as a breach of God's Law 2. as a dishonour to God 3. as displeasing to him as the abominable thing which he hates 4. as against God's Mercies as an ill requital of his Goodness Does the Goodness of God lead you to Repentance 5. As a cause of Christ's Sufferings 6. As it defiles and deforms your Souls 7. As it disables you from serving honouring God as you ought 8. As it hindreth Communion with God Secondly As to the Object 1. Are you humbled for Original Sin as well as for Actual Sins 2. Do you lay load of sorrow on your special Sins 3. Are you grieved even for secret Sins 4. And for spiritual Impurities 5. And for spiritual defects and weaknesses in Grace 6. And for sinful Omissions and the Iniquities of your holy things 7. Are you grieved for the least Sins you take notice of 8. Are you so far troubled even for your unknown Sins is it an humbling consideration to think that you are guilty of many more Sins than you know of or can find out in your selves 9. Are you disposed and inclined to mourn for the Sins of others Thirdly As to the properties of your Sorrow 1. Is your sorrow and humiliation for Sin free and voluntary 2. Is it inward and most in secret 3. Is it not for a fit but continued 4. Is it deep and vehement Though the passion of Grief may be more moved at some great Cross and Affliction that has befallen you yet do you really account Sin a greater evil than the greatest Cross And have you a greater displicence in your Wills against it Would you ordinarily chuse any Affliction rather than Sin 2. Do you turn from Sin 1. And from a right Principle As 1. from a true fear of God from a Childlike fear of offending and not from a meer slavish fear of Suffering 2. Do you turn from Sin out of love to God 3. And from an hatred of Sin 4. And with a firm and fixed resolution against it 2. Do you set against your inward Corruptions and do you fear to sin in secret 3. Do you set your selves especially against your special Sins And though there is Sin remaining in you yet is there no Sin reserved 4. Do you set against all known Sin not making light of sins of Infirmity but watching and striving against them much less of allowing of presumptuous Sins 5. Are you for undoing what you have done amiss so far as you can as in cases of Wrong and Injury to Men 6. Are you ordinarily afraid of Temptations and careful to avoid occasions of Sin 7. Would you shun and abstain from the very appearance of Evil 8. Is it your desire to turn others from Sin 9. And would you never return to it more 3. Are you turned unto God 1. Are your Hearts turned to Him and set upon Him 2. Are you for joyning your selves to the Godly and do your hearts cleave to them 3. Are you for turning others to God 4. Are you for walking with God for walking in his Ways 5. Would you be getting still nearer and nearer to him 6. And do you cleave to him with purpose of heart resolving to follow him fully 4. Try your Love to God 1. Is your Love founded in a sound knowledg of God of his Love and of his Loveliness 2. Do you love him for himself and not meerly for your selves 3. Do you love him as your holy Governour and not only as your good and gracious Benefactor 4. Do you love him superlatively love him above all 5. Is your love to him such that nothing will satisfie you without an interest in him 6. Have you an earnest desire of his gracious Presence and do you mourn and take on in his absence 7. Are you breathing after longing for a full enjoyment of God in Heaven 8. Are your thoughts much upon him and are the thoughts of God most welcome to you and most kindly entertained 9. Is it pleasing to you to speak or hear of him 10. Is it very grievous to you to see or hear God dishonoured 11. Are you no longer in league with his enemy Sin 12. Is it your delight to serve and obey him 13. Are you for winning and drawing others to him 14. Are you growing in likeness to him and do you desire to be followers of him 15. Do you highly account of his Favours Do you set a value upon your enjoyments according to what of his Love you see in them 16. Are you for putting a good construction on his severest dealings with you and not for entertaining hard thoughts of God tho he shew you hard things 17. Would you love him more and more and do you think you never express love enough to him 18. Is it a joy to you to see others active for him 19. Are you willing not only to do but to suffer for him 20. Do you love others love all in general and in particular love your Enemies and more especially love the Godly for his sake And here 1. Have you a love to the Godly even for their Godliness and not only for some part of Godliness but for the whole of it 2. Do you love all that appear to be such that you are bound according to the judgment of Charity to account such 3. And the more of God the more of his Grace you discern in any do you love them the more for it 4. Do you earnestly desire to find that in your selves which you cannot but approve in them 5. Is your delight in holy Society and Conference 6. Do you fear giving scandal to them 7. Do you take well their just Reproof 8. Would you not neglect your