our loue is in some measure left But wee will straine this string no further because it is the best for vs to weare our eyes at home if wee looke to our selues personally shall we finde it otherwise Cannot wee many of vs take pleasure in the company of such who care not how they prouoke our heauenly husband doe not we walke without feeling feare of offending our God cannot we passe ouer our offences lightly casting that at our heeles which grieues his heart cannot we slight ouer our duties and put God off with such sorrie seruice as if any thing were good enough for him haue we not had sometime good purposes and endeauours from which now we are fallen If wee be priuie to these things it is too sure our first loue is exceedingly abated In the second place we must awaken our hearts and stirre them vp to this loue Let vs thinke Lord should I offer this measure to an earthly husband neuer to bee afraid after doing that which I knew would displease him to take delight insuch I knew neuer bare him good will would it not make me blush how much lesse ought I to vse thy Maiesty so iniuriously We brooke not that loue should not grow in them toward vs with whom we are married why should our loue be lessened to thee We would checke our selues in affoording vnchast fauours to men what cause haue we to take vp our selues that our affections giue such vnchast kisses to these earthly delights and dwell so in the imbrace of them that they are indisposed wanting deuotion toward thy Maiesty O let vs take words to our selues and blow this sparke that it may flame vpward toward our God If while our hearts are in the loue of some louely creature we finde such sweetnesse what a heauen should they feele did they loue the Lord affectionately in this loue there would be no lacke Againe Vse 1 while we haue not some warmth of loue in our courses nought we do is accepted If I would giue my body to be burned and wanted loue saith the Apostle it profited nothing Euen as no office is acceptable to a husband from a wife when the loue of her heart is withdrawne and cooled On the contrary it should prouoke vs to renue our loue because while this is liuely in vs God sees many faults and sees them not as in Dauid whom God counted after his heart but in the matter of Vriah It is plaine that God did not looke at any infirmities while his seruant in this maine matter of spiritual loue kept vpright with him Looke as it is betweene husband and wife while loue and fidelity are kept inuiolable little faults are not obserued and stood vpon so as to make falling out betwixt them so it is twixt God and his people while this heate of loue is stirred vp in our courses our soules shall be preserued in healthsome state and grace encreased For as that exercise which doth stirre vp the naturall heate if it be but ad ruborem vsque doth benefit the body wasting in some degree the superfluities which are ready to breed ensuing sicknesse So not onely those eminent mouings of loue wherein shee exceedes her selfe but euery course which is with life and power of loue in any measure encreaseth and stablisheth grace and consumes the reliques of corruption in vs. Finally Vse 3 if nothing will moue vs to weane our affections and set them more feruently on the Lord but that we will goe on key-cold in a manner to God-ward then the Lord will not faile to pay vs home with our owne coyne and make these things breed vs smart which wee haue most inordinately loued to his great dishonour Thus hauing considered the disease The remedy we come to the remedie which stands in a double practice the one preparatiue to the other the one of remembring whence she was fallen the other of repenting which is set forth by the fruit of it Repent and doe thy first workes In the first we are to marke two things first the action commanded Remember Secondly the obiect of it whence thou art fallen Whence wee obserue Obseru 3 with what our memories are to be taken vp euen with our estates and the declinings of them For opening this doctrine two things must be insisted on First we must open what remembrance is what it containeth within the compasse of it Secondly what is to be remembred of vs. For the first as we see it is with man hee hath some worke without doores vvhich he goes out to some he doth staying vvithin so the mind doth some things vvithout some things it doth retired into it selfe keeping vvithin it self and vvorking onely on it selfe as when it remembers or deliberates on any matter Novv euery vvorking of the mind tends either to this end that vve may knovv better by meanes of it or that vve might doe somthing that is behoouefull Novv this remembrance is a certaine operation of the soule vvithin it selfe vvhereby vve thinke on things forgotten to the end vve may be stirred vp to such conscionable practice as the nature of the thing remembred requires It containes three things first an entring into our selues vvhen a man returneth into his thoughts no longer vvandring to and fro in these outvvard things in vvhich he had after a sort lost and forgotten himselfe For this is the beginning of that remembrance vvhich leades to repentance See Deut. 30.1 1. King 8.47 Secondly a bethinking and calling things to mind so farre as to know how things stand with vs. Thirdly when we are bid remember we are enioyned to set our hearts on keepe in mind consider the state we are in and consequences of it Psal 50.22 Consider this ye that forget God Where consideration and forgetfulnesse are opposed I considered my wayes and so repented Thus you see what this duty of remembrance includes in it Now for the matter to be remembred it is our estate and the declining of it For next to God Reason 1 we are to haue our owne estates in mind both what they were before grace Eph. 2. for it doth make vs thankfull diligent humble we must not with the Priest forget our old Clerk-ship we must still carrie in mind our naturall estate to the ends aboue named Secondly we must remember our estates since grace both in regard of our frailty and pronenesse to fall though we stand through Gods protection and supportance for this will make vs meeke to others Galath 6.1 and watchfull ouer our selues Secondly in regard of our falles since we receiued grace whether they be such of which we hauing repented find them already pardoned Deut. 9.7 or whether they be such falles in which wee haue lien hitherto durtily not awaking our selues to repentance And this last remembrance is required of these Ephesians that they should remember and consider how much they were declined though they little tooke it to heart For this duty is needfull that we
attention and for a close makes a most comfortable promise to such who should ouercome outwrestling by repentance such tentation as accompanies these declinings viz. that they should haue further reuelation of Christ made in them and further communion for the present by grace with him and hereafter the blessed fruition of him in glory The summe of the words The summe of these words to be handled is this though many good things be found with thee yet thy first loue is left the flame of thy loue which reached to heauen wasted all inordinate concupiscence and was fruitfull in good workes this is sunke downe and quenched therefore aduise with thy selfe and well consider how thou art fallen as it were from heauen to earth iudge this thine owne iniquitie turning from it returne to God in the waies of righteousnesse bringing forth the same fruits of liuely loue which heretofore haue been discerned in thee Thus we may fitly come to the considerations which may directly be deduced from these words for our further instruction First Obseru 1 The disease that these Ephesians are chalenged to haue left their first loue wee see what is the condition of Christians come to some good state they are ready to decline when now they haue made great proceeding in loue they are ready to coole againe Euen as it is in the body when it is in the most excellent temperature the durance thereof is not long so it is in the soule also when it is in the best taking euen then it is subiect to alteration So the Galathians the Israelites how soone did the one fall from the Gospell and the other from their ioy in that God which had deliuered them Such is our frailty and such are Satans enterprises against vs. But for more full opening of this point The first opened two things shall be vnfolded first what it is the true Christians fall from when they leaue their loue 2. whence it comes the being so wel proceeded they decline To the first let that it is not the transitorie flashing the sweetnesse the delight or gladnesse in heart which wee feele in our first loue For this which comes not so much from the things of our peace as from the nouelty of them from this that the light of them doth first shine vnto vs this which by reason of such circumstance is in vs may bee lost and left without sinne the Angels loue workes somewhat in them touching the conuersion of a sinner when now he is first conuerted which constantly abides not with them as for example the ioy there mentioned Luk. 15. Secondly I say it was not that diuine quality of loue which the spirit of God bringeth forth in regenerating of vs for this could not bee lost it being part of our new birth which abideth according to that Hee who is borne of God sinneth not for the seede of God abideth him and Cor. 1.13 Loue faileth not not onely because for the kind it abides in heauen but because the selfe same in number which by the spirit is brought forth in vs shall neuer haue end it being such a diuine fier which no waters of tentation can quench and extinguish It remaines then that they are said to haue left their first loue in regard that their outward works which are as conspicuous fruits growing out of this tree of loue in regard I say that these were decayed and impaired they are said to haue left their first loue These are all of them things subiect to alteration though the diuine quality of Christ remaine with vs the Scripture makes this to be rooted in loue a distinct thing from hauing loue Paul therefore asking in the third of the Ephesians in behalfe of them that they might bee rooted in loue and so made able to apprehend more perfectly the loue of God to them in Christ aimes at some singular degree of affection For as plants are not when presently set first deeply rooted so these diuine graces faith loue c grow vp in vs to such a rooted firmenesse and setlednesse that wee are not easily moued and troubled in the practice of them A man loues truly at first yet lesse groundedly Whence it is that little enticements allure him and withdraw him into naps of spirituall forgetfulnesse little snibs dismay him and make him shrinke in little things make him doubt of Gods loue to him yea of his owne perseuering in loue to God but being better acquainted by experience with the Lords fidelity mercy patience c he takes rooting more and more in this holy affection Now it is so that the loue of these Ephesians began to hang more loose in them then somtime it was wont For looke as any thing that now stands stedy may come to bee loosened yet remaine the thing it was before though not firme as before so it is in loue so ioynts that are loosened yet remaine ioynts Secondly the operation the feruent mouing of loue was growne remisse For looke as in materiall fiers the feruent heate may slake and fier still abide as in the body the powers of hearing and seeing are safe as in sleepe though the exercise of them bee ceased and bound for a time euen so our loue which like a fier groweth further and further kindled in vs for a time may be by some occasions abated in regard of the feruor and heate when yet the being of it is still continued Thirdly in regard of works which the operation of their loue produced in their soules inwardly and toward God and man outwardly in this regard they were declined In their soules the light of the Lord did not discusse the clouds of selfe and earthly lustings as it had done formerly nor were their duties such now as sometime they had been toward God and man Looke as in the Sunne the essentiall brightnes remaining the same the effect neuerthelesse of it in dispersing clouds and in lightening the ayre is somtime diminished sometime quite eclipsed so here the diuine nature or light of loue remaining yet the effect thereof in their soules both in clearing them from earthly desires false loues as also in making them fruitfull in good duties this effect of it was nothing for measure such as once might haue been obserued in them Reason 1 Now if you aske whence it comes to passe that a man hauing made good proceedings should decay in his loue I answere First from a secret sloth which makes vs wearie of well doing A dull Asses trot will not last long such wee are of our selues there being a spirituall sluggishnesse hanging about our bones which is still ready to returne on vs. For this it is that the Scripture calleth on vs Bee not slothfull Hebr. 6. Secondly the longer wee are occupied in any thing the more wee are taken with a satiety of it This we see proues true euen in the delights of nature no wonder then if Manna grow no meate with vs if heauenly
may feele in our selues a spurre to repentance in which the face is writhen awry so vnseemly The sight of our naturall deformity in a glasse stirs vp nature to inforce her selfe to remoue it so here the looking wishly on our spirituall deformity excites euen feeble grace to doe her vtmost endeauour for correcting it This which hath been spoken Vse serues to conuince many who liue neuer once retuning to their harts and considering their state in such wise as might make them wise to saluation Many goe like hooded haukes neuer once thinking on that which hurts them till their soules are ready to fly from their bodies and their condition helplesse For partly the soule as it is said of the harlot whose feet keepe not at home the soule I say liues in the senses more then in it selfe as an vnchast mans heart is more with his mistrisse then at home with himselfe so our soules wedded inordinately to this flesh are more occupied about these sensible things and dwell more in them then in themselues Againe Satan is most malitious to hold vs chat as it were and keepe vs occupied till this time and ride of saluation be ouerslipped and finally the exercise so little sutes to an impenitent heart for men that are bankrupts what pleasure take they in reuiewing their bookes that almost none entring into himselfe calles to mind and fixedly holds his heart to thinke on things of this nature This neglect like a flood-gate opened letteth in all euill and impenitency What makes men sweare bowze giue place to their lusts goe on in hardnesse of heart is it not that they are ignorant or that they haue an erroneous iudgement as if these were lawfull and repentance needlesse it is forgetting themselues and neuer once considering what they doe and how they goe on Secondly we must make conscience to exercise our remembrance about this subiect euen what sweruings and declinings haue ouertaken vs. In our bodies and estates we will quickly marke what is amisse and not easily forget it If matter of wrong be done to vs it stickes in memory as if it were written in brasse we are not weary of remembring earthly things such is our estimation of them and familiar acquaintance with them Shal we onely be wanting to our selues in remembring here when our saluation lieth vpon it therefore as you will haue the latter end peace so remember your wayes sinnes declinings the more you remember them the more God will forget them protionably to that If we condemne our selues God will not condemne vs and we had need hold our hearts to the remembrance of them they will not heare lightly on this side Such is the loue in vs to our naturall good and care to auoid sicknesse pouerty that we cannot so soone call to mind our defects and dangers but that we apprehend them and turne from them But so auerse are we from our heauenly good and carelesse of spirituall dangers that when we speake of them againe and againe within our selues the soule will hardly be mooued to follow the one or giue attendance to the other so as to seeke the auoidance of them Alas if we will not now be brought to thinke of our daily slips declinings of the grieuous sinnes in which we goe on without repentance if we will not I say God shall one day enlarge our memories that they shall apprehend all our sinnes yea this hardnesse of heart which would not let them repent when exhorted and that in such sort that the remorse and after-thought of them shall be as a worme that neuer dies He who doth most willingly forget his sinnes here shall remember them there most fully and painfully hereafter To proceed to the second practice Obseru 4 Remember whence thou art fallen and repent First marke vpon the declinings of grace he bids them repent teaching that the least declinings of grace in our selues and others is a cause of repentance The falles of others we must repent of Reason lest we make them ours inwrap our selues in their iudgements We are members of the same body with them and therefore what we doe in our owne we must in some proportion doe in their sinnes also When the health of body declined in Dauids counterfeit friends he humbled himselfe in fasting Psal 35. And when one Corinthian being incestuous was not cast forth Saint Paul prouoketh them all to repentance Now in our owne declinings we must take them betimes lest that which is halting turne quite aside If a forren enemie inuade vs wee stay not till he come to our gates but meet him and hold him play betimes If a bodily disease breed on vs we loue to looke forth quickly Thus it should be when sin an enemy yea a sicknesse to the soule doth so much as make entrance into vs. And this is sure that often smallest declinings are not a little dangerous It is seene in nature that the most temperate distemper such as at first is in an hectick feuer as it is not easily found so it is hardly cured Thus in our soules declinings which wee see not to be so outragious but that we are well enough for all them these often proue most perillous Againe this must moue vs betime to deale with our selues in sinne for the beginning of it as Salomon saith of strife is like the opening of waters little though it seeme at first yet it will swell and rise till we be ouerflowne with it This therefore must checke vs Vse who neither repent for the declining of the people in the land nor the decay of grace in our selues The truth is that looke as in sweeping a kennell the further it is driuen down the more filth abounds so the lower ages with vs are as sinkes receiuing all the defilements of former times and our iniquities are more encreased Now if by repentance we put it not from vs we make our selues little better then actors in present transgressions by consenting to them And for our owne particulars wee are many of vs to be blamed who like foolish persons let our fores putrifie rather then open them and endure their dressing more timely Many of vs who till sharpe fits force vs forth will not seeke out against our diseases Thus ease slayeth the foolish But let vs be wise let vs not thinke all well while we can hold vp our head and feele not the painfull pangs of conscience The child is bred before the pangs of trauell come so the sin it may be hath laine a long time in vs which if wee in time deale not with will one day fill vs with remedilesse sorrowes A good husband mends a gutter if a tile be fallen he supplieth another he keepes all winde and water-tite in like sort must we in these soules of ours which are houses to God his spirit we shall else bring all vpon our heads And thus much for this doctrine which in the coherence may be obserued The matter it selfe