degrees of Love might be considered in a twofold respect 1. In respect of other Lovers of Christ of which one might have degrees of Love that is sincere more and above what another man might have whose Love is yet sincere And of this More or degree of Love is Christ's question to Peter to be understood John 21.15 Simon son of Jonas Lovest thou me more than these viz. Other Disciples love me where the comparative More respects THESE as other Agents in Love or Lovers and therefore Peter answers in the Positive I love thee not in the Comparative More than they all do love thee But the Comparative More doth not respect THESE as the Object of Peter's Love as if Christ had asked Lovest thou me more than thou lovest these To which doubtless Peter could have readily replied Yea Lord I love thee more than I love these or all men or things in this world And in this sense God doth not damn any for want of more degrees of Love or other Graces 2. Degrees of Love might be considered in respect of the things loved or the object of our Love That the word More means Do you love Christ more than the World Sin Self or do you love These more than Christ And then I say this Doctrine is so far from being offensive that I judge it is of great concernment and necessary for every man that hath a Soul that must be damned or saved to know and understand For I do not fear to say for want of these degrees of Love whereby a man's Love is less to Christ than to the World and Sin and carnal Self God will surely damn him Doth this grate upon any Christian ears That a man that loveth not Christ more than Sin and more than Pleasures and Profits hath no sincere Love to Christ nor shall be saved by him Surely such a man would judge in another case if he had a Wife that loves him yet loves another man more than himself she had not sincere Conjugal Love to him 3. The plainest fullest and I hope no offensive Answer shall be the Words of Christ himself shewing wherein sincerity of Love to him doth consist Mat. 10.37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me 38. And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me 39. He that findeth his life shall lose it and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it And all the love to all inferior things in comparison of the degrees of love we should have to Christ more than unto these is rather Hatred than Love Luke 14.26 If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters yea and his own life also he cannot be my disciple What Interpretation can these words bear This That no real Disciple of Christ may or ought to have true love to Father or Mother Brother or Sister Wife and Children or to his own Life Absurd and irreligious sense being contrary to the Law of Nature and Christ's constant Doctrine in his Word What then This That a true Disciple of Christ must and ought to love these things less than Christ and Christ with more till they be prevailing degrees and Love in the heart to Christ be like the Biass to the Bowl that make it incline more to Christ than to all other things This is that which is asserted and being the sense of Christ's Words I hope will not offend any that have more Love to Christ than to all these things and for the rest that love these things more than Christ they shall find that for this very thing Christ with them will be offended SECT IX The Eighth Requisite in Love to Christ EIghthly This Love chuseth Christ for himself and for the Excellency of his own Person tho not with the exclusion of our own Benefit and Salvation by him Our own Benefits by Christ might be looked at by the returning soul at first as ordine prima but not quoad dignitatem praecipua ultima The Soul might first be allured and drawn to look after Christ and to love him by the consideration of the matchless Good and Benefits it might have by him which the convinced sinner seeth he can find in no other but in process of time and in his progress in the way to Heaven he learns and sees that Excellency and Beauty in Christ that he is in himself more amiable than all the Objects of his former Love To ask therefore Whether we are to love Christ for himself or for his Benefits we have by him is to propound a question which yet I have not observed in the Scripture nor disjunctively answered therein for one is subordinate to the other and subordinata non sunt opposita nec pugnant I am to love Christ for himself and for the Goodness Excellency and Amiableness of his own Person and I am to love Christ for the good I have received by him and for the benefits I hope further for his sake to be made partaker of and the one is an help unto the other Though I am to love Christ more for himself than for my advantage by him yet in loving of him I do not conceive I am to cast away the consideration of the benefits by him As we should not put the seeking of God's Glory and our own Salvation in opposition but in subordination tho God's Glory and the pleasing of his Will be the ultimate end and our Salvation to be sought by us in order thereunto Wherefore in seeking after an evidence of Grace and Title to Heaven I think it is a needless and unwarrantable puzzling of our selves and that which hath sorely afflicted some gracious persons and filled them with unnecessary doubts and fears and torments of mind to demand of our selves Whether we could be content to be damn'd to go to Hell to suffer everlasting Torments and the burning fiery flaming Wrath of God poured out upon the damned so that God may be thereby glorified I shall forbear to judge the state of my Soul by this as a Character of Grace and Preaching of it unto others till some shall shew me this is propounded in the Gospel as a Condition of the Pardon of my Sin and the Salvation of my Soul which hitherto I have not observed For how can I earnestly desire to be Saved and yet be willing and content to be Damned Long to be with him and yet content to be for ever separated from him I do find God threatens men with Hell to awaken them to look after Heaven and deliverance from Hell but I do not find God propounding as a condition of Salvation to be content to go to Hell that we might be received up to Heaven That I leave and loathe my sin repent and turn to God believe and love him
Christ and few blessed by Christ Most are void of love unto him and most shall be accursed at his coming Is it an hard saying If hard yet true Is it a hard saying But it will be harder feeling when the Curse shall fully be inflicted XI Shall every one that loves not Christ be Anathema when Maran-atha accursed when the Lord shall come then the day of Christ's coming will be a doleful day to the Non-Lovers of Christ Then all the World shall be divided into cursed ones and blessed ones You love not Christ and yet bless your self but I pray you consider Maran-atha the Lord comes You glory in your Estate though Christ hath not your Heart but I beg of you that you would remember Maran-atha You put the Curse and the Evil day far from you but I beseech you let Maran-atha sound in your ears Then Oh then you shall curse the day that ever you were born you shall curse the time that you lived under the Gospel and heard of Christ but did not love him You shall curse your self for your wickedness madness and folly that so lovely a Christ was set before you and you had not an heart to set your love upon him and say Oh cursed heart that would love the World and not love yonder glorious Christ Oh cursed Will that didst chuse the Vanities of the World before the Son of God! Oh cursed was that love which I gave unto the Creature and did deny to Christ How can I hold up my head now to behold that Christ whom I never had an heart to love How can I hear that Voice and yet it is so great so thundring and so loud that I cannot but hear it commanding me to depart like a cursed Wretch when I never did and never would hearken to his Voice calling to me to love him and to give my Heart and Affections to him Wo is me now Maran-atha and now I am Anathema Wo is me the Lord is come and with him wrath is come and banishment from Heaven is come Wo wo wo is me the Lord is come and I feel fear and trembling is come ten thousand woes to me for the Lord is come and now compleat damnation comes the Lord is come and I must go I poor Wretch must go go Whither must I go to a cursed place to whom Alas to cursed Company But how wo is me like a cursed Wretch Cursed most bitterly cursed finally totally Body and Soul and all eternally for I had no Love for Christ and now Christ hath no Blessing for me When it is said throughout the World Maranatha then the World will ring with this Cry every one that loves not Christ is now Anathema CHAP. VIII Twenty Aggravations of want of Love to Christ THE Second Use doth bring a Charge and an Accusation against you for not loving the Lord Jesus Christ Some openly declare by their actions and manner of conversation That they do not love him Some openly pretend Love to Christ but really have no love unto him Ezek. 33.31 And they come unto thee as the people cometh and they sit before thee as my people and they hear thy words but they will not do them for with their mouth they shew much love but their heart goeth after their covetousness Love to Christ is in their mouth but love to the world is in their heart Some say they love him but God knows they do not John 5.42 But I know you that ye have not the love of God in you No! Do you know how great a sin this is Why then do you make so light of it Why then are you no more ashamed that you want this love Would you not be ashamed if this report went of you That you did not love your Wife your Children or your Neighbour And is it not an incomparably greater sin and shame that you do not love the Lord Jesus The only Son of God the only Saviour of lost sinners How is it that you do so seldom or never bewail the want of love to Christ in your Prayers or scarce put it in amongst the Confession of your Sins What do you love your Gold and not your God Or do you make your Gold your God and then love your Gold instead of loving the true God Can you love your Silver and not the precious Saviour Are you bound to love your very Enemies and yet have no love to him that would be your surest greatest and most faithful friend What shall I say Good Lord I am ashamed and blush to say which yet is true of too many of the sons of men that they both can and do love their very beasts their dog their horse and all their cattel and yet will not be prevailed with to love thy Son thy only Son and by thee beloved Son Nay what shall I say That you do love your very lusts and filthy sins that will destroy and damn you for ever and yet not love that only Lord and Jesus that would save you from your sins and from Hell for ever What can I say but that you love not Christ because you love your sin so much Oh horrid shame Love Deformity and not Beauty Where are your eyes Surely your love to sin is blind O monstrous Lover Love that which is worst of all and not him that is best of all Where is your reason Have you lost the understanding of a man Hath sin bereaved you of your wits Then oh Madness and Folly Are you so fond of sin as to be damn'd for it Are you so foolishly fond of this world as for the love of it to be hated of God and banished out of his Glorious Presence for ever Is your Soul so clogg'd with flesh and sunk so deep into it that it can rise no higher in its love than sensual earthly and fleshly delights and pleasures Will this love be so sweet in the review as you think it is in the present taste thereof Is this so vile a thing so base and sordid love that sets you below the rank of men not to be reproved For this are you not justly blamed Blamed yea and justly reckoned an Anathema that hath such an incomparable Object as Christ propounded to him and yet will nor love him Whose Excellencies are set forth and yet he seeth no Beauty in him That when there is nothing in the world so suitable to a sinner as Christ and yet will you be so perverse as to imagine and your heart maintain that Riches are more suitable and Pleasures are more suitable and Christ and the things of Christ the only inconvenient things for you If you do not think so why do you do so as you do in denying him your love Are you not to be blamed that when yet you might have Christ are not past a capacity a possibility of having Christ and all his benefits and good by him that you do not turn your love unto him Are you not to be
a thing or person and yet love him To have mean low and undervaluing thoughts of one and yet love him more than another whom you do more highly esteem and value Doth not the Worldling that loves his Money more than other things value it above other things Doth not the Ambitious person that loves his Honour and his Credit more than other things stand upon it and esteem it more than other things And will it not be so with him that loveth Christ Or is not he a Cursed man that valueth any thing above Christ and esteems it more than Christ As Christ is precious to him that doth Believe 1 Pet. 2.7 so he is to him that Loves Pearls are valued but as Pebbles and Diamonds as Dirt and Diadems as Dung by a man that loveth Christ when they stand in competition for our Love with Christ In the practical judgment of a sincere Lover of Christ Christ cannot be valued with the Gold of Ophir with the precious Onyx or the Saphire the Gold and the Chrystal cannot equal him and he would not exchange him for Jewels of fine Gold With him no mention shall be made of Coral or of Pearl for the Worth of Christ is above Rubies The Topaz of Ethiopia doth not equal him neither shall the purest Gold or the most refined Silver be weighed in the balance of his judgment to be preferred before Christ For to him he is more precious than Rubies And all the things the heart of man can desire besides him are not to be compared with him For Christ is that Treasure hid in a field which when this Lover hath found for joy thereof he goeth and selleth all that he hath and buyeth that field He is that goodly Pearl of great Price which when found all shall be left or lost and parted with that this might be obtained Mat. 13.44 45 46. And what a man gives all for he values that more than all he giveth for it Can that man be judged to love Christ that values his corruptible Silver above the incomparable Saviour That esteemeth Earth above Heaven And the Creature more than God Or is not he deservedly to be reckoned an Anathema that shall esteem the Dross of this World above the Darling of God Or thick Clay above him that doth excel the clearest Chrystal Or the things of Time which are only for Time above that Christ that is a Good for all Eternity SECT VII The Sixth Requisite of Love to Christ SIxthly This Love to Christ takes in the Permanent Volition of the Will the setled Inclination of the heart towards the Lord Jesus Christ For what else is Love but the Volition of the rational Appetite Or the Will 's Volition of Good apprehended by the Understanding Or the Will 's chusing of him and adhering to him Aversation of the Will from Christ is no better than hating of him For as Volition and Complacency is Love so Nolition and Displicency is hatred Can a man Love Christ and yet not Will him Can he love him and yet not chuse him Can he love him and the Will refuse him Was Nilling ever accounted loving or turning of the Heart from an Object ever taken for the closing with it or is it not a contradiction will not and love not is all one John 5.40 Ye will not come to me 42. I know you that ye have not the love of God in you What is the Object of the love of the Heart is the Object of the choice of the Will and such as is the choice of your Wills such are ye If thy Will chuse the World before Christ I dare boldly call thee a worldly man or Pleasures before Christ I dare confidently declare thee a voluptuous man but if Christ before all other things I may term thee a truly gracious man Suppose then the World and the Riches thereof the Honours and the Pleasures of it were set on the one hand and Christ on the other which would you really chuse It is an easie thing to think and say you would chuse Christ and not the world but my question is Which you would really chuse Canst thou say and appeal to God that knows thy heart Lord thou that knowest all things thou knowest that I chuse Christ before Riches Christ before Pleasures Liberty Life or any thing that is dear unto me in this world Thou knowest that I would rather have Christ without the World than the World without Christ I would rather have the Lord Jesus with Disgrace with Poverty and with the Cross than all the Treasures of the world This must be a man's Will and this must be a man's Choice or cannot be said to have sincere Love to Jesus Christ SECT VIII The Seventh Requisite in Love to Christ or the Sincerity of it SEventhly This Love consists in the prevailing and predominant degrees of Affections unto Christ For if he be not loved above all he is not sincerely loved at all There might be love of other things subordinate with the Love of Christ but not co-ordinate or equal with it much less superior to it You might love your Friends and love your Enjoyments and love the Comforts of your life but you must love Christ more The love of these must be swallowed up in the love of Christ and be subordinate unto it But you may say This is that offensive Doctrine that 〈◊〉 the difference betwixt common and special Grace to be only gradual and not specifical and God forbid that we should think that God will damn a man for want of further degrees of Grace when he hath it in truth and kind and the degrees do not vary the kind 1. The degrees do not vary nor alter the kind in things natural but they may and do in things moral For Example The degrees of Reason acuteness of Wit solidity of Judgment that one man might have more than another man doth not make him more a man as to his Species or kind than another man that is in those respects inferior to him for both quoad Speciem as to Kind are men have the Human Nature and the specifical difference whereby they are distinguished from things of any other kind but yet degrees might make a specifical difference in morals where the act as natural is still of the same kind For instance In eating and drinking little or much the natural act of both is still the same but in morality if a man eat and drink for quantity and quality according to the rules and guidance of Prudence and no more this is a virtue called Temperance but if in degrees he doth exceed and eateth more and drinketh more than that Mediocrity quoad nos prescribed by Prudence in which the nature of this Virtue doth consist doth admit of then though eating and drinking considered Physically be of the same kind yet in a moral respect it alters the kind and is called quite by another name viz. Intemperance Gluttony and Drunkenness 2. The
into the banquetting-house and his banner over me was love John 20.16 Jesus saith unto her Mary she turned her self and saith unto him Rabboni which is to say Master 18. Mary Magdalen came and told the disciples That she had seen the Lord and that he had spoken these things unto her 20. And when he had so said Peace be unto you he shewed unto them his hands and his side Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. Secondly Desiring Love If Christ be withdrawn the Soul doth long doth pant doth thirst and cannot rest till Christ returns O whither is my Beloved gone where shall I seek him when shall I find him how long how long will it be Oh stay me with flagons comfort me with apples for I am sick of love Cant. 2.5 And Psal 42.1 As the heart panteth after the water-brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God 2. My soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before God Psal 63.1 O God thou art my God early will I seek thee my soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee Psal 84.2 My soul longeth yea even fainteth for the courts of the Lord my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first word is the Radex or primitive word from whence cometh a word that signifieth Silver Whence I note that as a man that loveth Silver desireth Silver so a man that loveth Christ desireth Christ Oh blessed Love whereby a man loveth Christ and desireth Christ with that earnest ardent continual love as a Lover of the World loveth and desireth the Silver and Gold and the Riches of the World the other word translated sainteth signifieth to be consumed anxiously to expect q. d. My soul desireth yea also desireth is consumed with desires after God Thirdly Mourning Love The Soul doth grieve and is filled with sorrow when it hath not the thing that it doth desire Alas that I should go from Duty to Duty to look for Christ and cannot find him to seek him but cannot see him Alas it grieves it groans and weeps for the absence of its beloved Lord. In company you might see his tears in secret were you near him you might hear his groans and bitter sorrowful complaints My Lord â—s gone my Love the dearly beloved of my Soul carrieth himself as a stranger to me Like Mary John 20.13 They said unto her Woman why weepest thou she saith unto them Because they have taken away my Lord and I know not where they have laid him The sum of all these Particulars opening the nature of this Love being contracted and laid together make up this Description SECT XIV The Description of Love to Christ LOVE to Christ is a special Grace wrought in the heart by the Spirit of God inlightning the mind whereby the Soul discenring the incomparable goodness suitableness and communicability of Christ unto him and in his judgment having a superlative valuation of him the Will doth chuse him before all primarily for himself and secondarily for his Benefits and giving to him the predominant degrees of his Affections resigneth himself to Christ in all his Offices delighting in him if present desiring after him if absent or mourning for him if he cannot find him This is the Love you must have to Christ if you would not be Anathema accursed when the Lord shall come CHAP. III. Ten Arguments that prove the Necessity of this Love to Christ for the avoiding of the Curse DOTH it need any further proof than the Text it self what other construction can you make of it If you believe that this is the Word of God and that God's Word is true how can you question whether a Non-Lover of Christ shall be a cursed Wretch at the coming of the Lord but you love not Christ and yet you hope to be blessed when he comes you have no sincere love to him and yet perswade your selves your Condition is good for the present and shall escape the Curse hereafter What! against the plain Assertions of the Word of God Will not you only bear me down that you shall be blessed but will you also bear down Paul nay and God himself too that it is well with you now and shall go well with you at the coming of the Lord and after that for ever Miserable men that have no other hopes that they shall escape the Curse but that God should not be true and his Word should not be true and all his Servants that come and preach to them in his Name and warn them of this Curse do not deliver the very truth unto them But whether you will hear or whether you will forbear I will proceed to evidence this truth to you by these following Arguments Arg. 1. He that loves not Christ is not in Christ he that is not in Christ is in his sins he that is in his sins is accursed therefore he that loves not Christ is accursed And being found so when he comes shall be cursed at his coming He that hath no sincere love to Christ hath still his old Heart and his old Love remaining in him and he that hath his old Heart is not in Christ 2 Cor. 5.17 If any man be in Christ he is a new creature old things are past away behold all things are become new Can you be in Christ and not the love of Christ be in you Can you be in Christ and your heart turn away from Christ Can you be in Christ while your heart is set against Christ and is not your heart against him while you have no love for him can there be any Union where there is no liking Affection doth not hatred keep at the greatest distance and maintain the widest separation If you be not in Christ can you bring forth any Fruit pleasing unto God Joh. 15.4 As the branch cannot bear fruit of it self except it abide in the vine no more can ye except ye abide in me And if you bring forth no fruit shall you not be cast into the fire Joh. 15.6 If a man abide not in me he is cast forth as a branch and is withered and men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burnt And are you such as shall be cast into the fire and flames of Hell and are you not in a cursed dangerous and miserable Condition Can a bad Tree bring forth good Fruit and if it do not is it not for the fire Mat. 3.10 And now also the ax is laid to the root of the trees therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewen down and cast into the fire Hath not the rain of heavenly Doctrine dropped upon you and yet do you bring forth any thing but Briars and Thorns when you have no love to Christ and are you not then rejected and your end to be burned and is then the Curse far from you Heb. 6.7 The earth which drinketh
faith so that I could remove mountains and have no charity I am nothing 3. And tho I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and tho I give my body to be burn'd and have not charity it profiteth me nothing Love therefore is above all these for all these without love are nothing 5. Love makes us most like to God for God is love 1 Joh. 4.8 And God loveth Christ above all the men on earth and above all the Angels in Heaven therefore calls him his Beloved Son Mat. 3.17 God loveth All men with a Common Love John 3.16 Tit. 3.4 Holy men with a Special Love Angels with an Higher Love Christ most of all who is the Son of his Love Col. 1.13 So our Love is gradual we ought to love all men with some degrees of Love Holy men and Angels with an higher Love and Christ with the highest Love And when we love as God loves our Love makes us most like to God 6. Love is the highest improvement of the faculties of our Souls 1. We have Vnderstandings to know God and Christ And Love to God and Christ is the highest improvement of all our knowledg for if we know him and not love him the more we know of him the more our knowledge doth increase our sin and will aggravate our condemnation 2. We have Wills to chuse the Lord Jesus Christ and when we chuse him Love is the improvement of our Wills in taking complacency in him who is the Object of our choice 3. We have Consciences that do dictate to us that Christ is best and best for us and then we improve those dictates when we love him else all those dictates of Conscience are lost and come to nothing 4. We have Memories wherein the Sayings of Christ to us the Sufferings of Christ for us and the Benefits of Christ bestowed upon us should be lodged and laid up and when we love him we shall love to remember all these things that we have by him and from him and himself that is Purchaser and the Donor of them But if our Love is predominantly placed upon any thing below Christ all the Powers of the Soul are debased the Reason of man is degraded in contriving the getting of such ignoble and fordid enjoyments as his highest end the Will is debased in chusing of them and the Memory in being stuffed with the remembrance of them forgetting God and Christ and better things so that a man is more a brute than a man without sincere Love to Christ 7. Love is the end of all other Graces and in which they terminate their Operations Our knowledge of Christ endeth in our loving of Christ our believing on him hoping in him trusting to him like so many streams at last run into the Love of Christ 8. Love is the Everlasting Grace that shall abide and be in use and exercise when the actings of other Graces shall cease There are some Graces suitable especially to our state of imperfection in this world To live by Faith to Repent and Mourn for sin to live in hope of the glory that is to be revealed to wait till we be possessed of the Mansions that are above to desire all the good that is promised to us but not yet conferred upon us But hereafter Faith shall be turned into Vision Hope into Fruition Desires into Possession waiting into Obtaining And then we shall thus believe no more nor hope nor desire nor wait but then we shall love still yea more than ever more abundantly yea perfectly without diminution continually without intermission and eternally without cessation in which respect among the three Cardinal Graces Love hath the preheminence 1 Cor. 13.13 Now abideth faith hope charity these three but the greatest of these is charity because it is the longest in duration So that those that love Christ sincerely here shall love him perfectly hereafter and be for ever blessed in that love But those that love him not on earth cannot love him in the other world and for want of such Love shall be accursed for ever CHAP. VI. The Application of the Doctrine THE last thing propounded in the method of this Subject is the Vse and Application of it to bring it down to our own hearts to work this truth upon our Minds Consciences and Affections And now O that God would help me and Christ would help me and the blessed Spirit of God and Christ would so help me and give me lively words a lively Heart lively and inflamed Love to blessed Jesus and your immortal precions Souls that I might speak and apply this great Truth as becomes a man that deth believe every one of you before God in this Congregation this day must be Anathema when Maran-atha if you live and die void of love to Jesus Christ as becomes a man that doth believe you must be blessed or cursed damned or saved for ever as you are prevailed with or not prevailed with to give Christ your Hearts and hearty love as becomes a man that doth believe your Everlasting Stare is much concerned in this one point that now is before us Alas Methinks I do foresee the great multitudes that this Anathema will fall upon Methinks I see the Lord a-coming methinks I hear the Trumpet sounding and the Voice calling to the Dead Arise and come to judgment Come ye cursed Souls that have been in the Infernal Lake and appear before my Bar come ye cursed Bodies awake arise and stand before my Judgment-Seat and let those cursed Souls be again united to those cursed Bodies and now be both cursed together and cursed for ever and let both be inseparably linked together to endure this Curse to all eternity Methinks I see them coming but unwillingly they come but with fear and trembling with horrour and amazement Now what is to do now now Maran-atha and now every one of us that loved not that Lord that now is come must be Anathema O woful Souls O miserable Sinners O cursed Caitifs What shall we now do and whither shall we now go do that we should have asked before this day that the Lord is come Do We should have done that which we did not do and now must go thither whither we would not go O that we might rather cease to be than to be what we must for ever be and go from whence we never must return and feel what will make us cry and roar toss and throw and be for ever restless and the more restless because hopeless and remediless O Sirs my Heart is pained my Bowels roul within me my Joints do shake with trembling for fear lest any of you that pray in this place and hear in this place should fall under this Curse when the Lord shall come The Uses of this Doctrine shall be 1. By way of Inference or Instruction what things from hence may be deduced and learned 2. For Reprehension or Reproof aggravating the Charge against such as love not the
of Souls which Christ died to procure Will God be reconciled to that man that doth not love him Or can that man that loves not him be reconciled unto God Or doth not Reconciliation without Renewals of Love sound like a contradiction Or shall Remission and Salvation be vouchsafed to them that never love him Behold then the greatness of this sin in its thwarting the wonderful Undertakings of Christ for man's Redemption III. Not love Christ What is this but an opposing and withstanding all the Operations of the Spirit For do not all tend to this That you should Love the Lord Jesus What do all Convictions tend to in shewing thee thy lost estate the vanity of the world the emptiness of the creature the impossibility of Salvation by any other but that thou mightest look after him and make him the Object of thy Love What meaneth the Illumination of the Spirit in enlightning of thy mind in the knowledge of Christ to see and discern the Fulness and Sufficiency of Christ the Fitness and Suitableness of Christ the Freeness and the Willingness of Christ but that thou shouldst fix thy Love upon him What do all the Persuasions Strivings and Wooings of the Spirit-tend to but Love to Christ Was ever any more solicitous for the love of another than the Spirit hath been that Christ might have thine And shall all and thine only Answer be I cannot love him I will not love him No Why not Canst thou better place thy Love Canst thou find in Heaven or Earth a more suitable Object Yet art thou resolved to give no other answer but that in Jer. 2.25 I have loved strangers and after them will I go I have loved the world and I will love it I have loved my pleasures and I will love them I have loved my sin and so I will still Why so resolved poor sinner Why so resolute Should not the world be a stranger to thee and thou to the world Should not sin be a stranger to thee and thou to sin What though I have loved these strangers and after them my heart and love shall go Indeed then let all men judge God and Angels judge what an opposer thou art to all the Workings of the Spirit to the contrary IV. Not love Jesus What is this but fearful sinning against the most gracious Attributes of God 1. Was it not love in God to give his Son to be a Saviour And wilt thou sin against this Love in not loving him that by Love was given for thee Was it not so infinite so great so wonderful that no mortal man can comprehend it John 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son Is it not such manifest love that all the Devils in Hell cannot deny it to be love 1 John 4.9 In this was manifested the love of God towards us because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him Was it not preventing Love in God to give his Son for thee before thou gavest or couldst give thy love to him 1 John 4.10 Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins And is it not a great sin against such great love and a manifest sin against such manifest love not to love him with a following love that so far loved thee with a preventing love 2. Was it not Infinite Wisdom in God to find out such a way that Justice might be fully satisfied and free Mercy might be richly manifested That sin might be punished to the uttermost and yet the sinner saved to the uttermost Sin punished and the sinner pardoned If all the Angels in Heaven that excel in Wisdom and Knowledge had been called to Councel they could never have thought of this way for fallen man's recovery which is the product of the Infinite Wisdom of God and by the Church made known to Angels Eph. 3.10 To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God What greater folly then can there be than to sin against such Wisdom 3. Was it not Goodness in God to accept of Christ's Sufferings for thy Sinnings Of Christ's Death instead of thy Damnation if thou wouldst believe on him and love him And wilt thou slight this Goodness by withholding thy love from him 4. Was it not patience in God to wait so long for thy Love Might he not have damned thee for thy first refusal And have taken thy first denial for thy final answer And have scorned thy love after thou hadst so long given it to the world and sin and denied it unto his Son And when in thy wicked heart thou hadst once said Thou wilt not love him God in his righteous judgment might have said I have thine answer and for this Thou shalt not love him If God had been thus quick and short with thee who hast been so slow to love his Son what a deplorable condition would thy Soul have been in this day and to all Eternity But if God hath waited so many years and doth still wait if perhaps thou wilt change thy mind return unto thy wits and give a wiser answer Wilt thou still abuse his Patience by persisting in the denial of thy love to Christ Take heed lest his Patience towards thee should end before thy Love to Christ begin for then when thy Punishment for not loving of him doth once begin it shall never end The longest Patience turned into Wrath thou shalt find the longest and the hottest Wrath and most fiery Indignation V. Not love Jesus What is this but an utter subverting of the whole design of the Gospel and refusing life and salvation by the Covenant of Grace God gave to innocent man a Law and Covenant of Works but he quickly transgressed that Law and thereby by that Covenant Happiness became impossible to man After that God gave a Law and Covenant of Grace to fallen man and established the same in the Blood of his Son and will you also refuse Life and Happiness by going on in your sin of not loving Christ For hereby 1. The Conditions of the Gospel are Neglected 2. The Threatnings of the Gospel are Slighted 3. The Commands of the Gospel are Disobeyed 4. The Promises of the Gospel are Undervalued 1. The Conditions of the Gospel and Covenant of Grace are neglected The great Article the Sum and Summary whereof is I will be your God and ye shall be my people Heb. 8.10 I will love you and you shall love me my heart shall be towards you and your heart shall be towards me I will love none like you and you shall love none like me How is this done Can you love him while you do not love him Hath God and Christ your hearts while the world and sin have your hearts 2 Cor. 6.18 I will be a father unto you and ye
heart will be also Mat. 6.20 21. 2. Do you love Christ more than other things when your labour is more for other things than for Christ Did you ever take that pains that care to get an Interest in Christ as you have done for the Riches of this Life If you had might you not have had him whereas now you are without him You Sweat for the World you are Cold in your Praying for Christ you lay out your strength in working for the World you are sloathful in endeavouring after Christ you are lively upon the Exchange quick in your Counting-House with might and main you act in your Shop but dull in your Closet upon your Knees if you at any time are there so imployed Is this your love to Christ more than to other things Or 3. When your care is more to keep other things than that Christ you conceit you love Let Christ go to keep your outward Possessions and yet say you love Christ more who do you think will believe what you say Will not a man that loveth his Child more than his Gold and all his Goods if his House were on Fire lose all to save his Child So would you for Christ if you loved him more than all IV. Do you love Christ and never grieve nor groan nor repent for the Sin whereby you have dishonoured him Can there be love to any person without grieving for the unkindness that you have done unto him Doth a Child love as a Child that is not grieved because he did offend his Father If your Heart did burn in Love would not your Eyes flow with Tears If the fire of Love were kindled in your Breast would not the waters of Sorrow run down your Cheeks and make thee say Oh! What have I done that I so long have slighted this loving Lord Oh! What did I mean to stop mine Ears against his Calls of Love and Mercy That I let him stand without Door when the World and Satan were admitted in Did my Lord suffer for my Sins should I then have sinned thus against my suffering Lord Was he Nailed to the Tree for my sake and must I yet wound him more Oh! That I could not behold my bleeding Lord without a weeping Eye I am grieved dear Saviour I am grieved to remember how I slighted thee and trampled thy Royal Commands under my feet O Lord I blush and am ashamed that I did spurn against such tender Bowels that I did undervalue such invaluable Love and did prefer the Dung of this World before such an incomaprable Saviour But you can daily sin and your Soul not sigh nor sob nor grieve nor groan You can sin and rejoyce at the thoughts of it Jer. 11.15 When thou dost evil then thou rejoycest Thou canst sin and make a sport at it like a fool Prov. 14.9 Fools make a mock at sin Oh thou Loveless Sinner Did Christ bleed for Sin and dost thou laugh at it Was Christ serious and his Soul sorrowful even to the Death for sin and dost thou make a sport of it Hast thou a Sea of Sin and not a drop of Sorrow for it Surely thou art the man that hast not one Dram of sincere love to Jesus Christ V. Dost thou love Christ and live without communion with him And when he is absent from thy Soul art never troubled at it Doth not Love desire sweet converse and familiar entercourse with the person that is the object of thy Love Can Lovers be long asunder and not desire a meeting Canst thou account the presence of the beloved object a burden to thee Or is not his absence really so Dost thou think that he doth love thee that is weary of thy company or never desirous of it Or shuns the place where thou dost wont to be If indeed thou lovest Christ thou couldst be content to be without any thing than without him Thou couldst better be without thy health than without Christ without thy dearest friend next to Christ than without Christ that is to thee the dearest of all if thou dost love him Without thy Meat and Drink even thy necessary Food than without Christ How is it then that thou canst take up contentedly without Praying and without Hearing or with these without Christ in them Is it not for want of Love Lovers have their fainting Fits ready to faint and dye away when the object cannot be enjoyed Cant. 2.5 Stay me with flagons comfort me with apples for I am sick of love Cant. 3.1 By night on any bed I sought him whom my Soul loveth I sought him but I found him not 2. I will rise now and go about the City in the streets and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth I sought him but I found him not 3. The watchmen that go about the city found me To whom I said Saw ye him whom my soul loveth 4. It was but a little that I passed from them but I found him whom my soul loveth I held him and would not let him go The Soul in love with Christ is restless in his absence and never leaves seeking till it find him and having found him holds him fast by Faith and Love and will not let him go The Soul that loves doth long doth thirst doth breathe and pant after the beloved object for what is desire but love in motion as love is desire at rest And though a gracious heart finds complacency and rest in love to Christ yet if Christ be not enjoyed Love cannot rest but moveth in desiring of him like David Psal 42.1 As the hart panteth after the water brooks so panteth my soul after God 2. My soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before God And is early and earnest in seeking after him and every full condition to him is empty and every fruitful state to him is barreh and he seeth weakness and disgrace in all worldly Strength and Honour till he is filled and made fruitful by the enjoyment of Christ and doth see his Power and his Glory in his Ordinances Psal 63.1 O God thou art my God early will I seek thee my soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is 2. To see thy power and thy glory so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary VI. Do you love Christ and yet hate what he doth love Doth not true love make you love such as are beloved by him whom you do love Do you love Christ and hate his Word Did not David that loved God esteem his Word for the sweetness of it more than Honey Psal 119.103 And for the worth of it more than Gold Psal 119.72 Do you love Christ the Lord and take no delight in the Lords-day that is set apart for the commemoration of the wonderful work of mans Redemption and filling us with joy at the remembrance of his Resurrection Can you idle away this day
Can you spend it in Pleasures and profane it with your vain Discourse and worldly Talk when you should be delighting your self with the thoughts and speech of the great things that Christ did suffer and by suffering procure for his People Do not they that love and honour an earthly King delight themselves and shew their joy on his day of Coronation I cannot be induced to believe that any man loveth Christ that takes no care and makes no conscience of the holy observation of the Lords-day Do you love the Lord Jesus and yet hate his people Cannot you endure a real holy humble sin-fearing Christian and yet impudently say You are a Lover of Christ Can you revile them and magnifie Christ Do you love him and hate such as are like him Doth a Woman love her Husband that with indignation tears his Picture In this God himself doth declare thee to be a Liar when thou doest this and saith thou art a Christ-lover 1 Joh. 4.20 If any man say I love God and hateth his brother he is a liar for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen 21. And this commandment have we from him that he who loveth God love his brother also 1 Joh. 5.1 And every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him Did not Christ shew his love unto his people by laying down his life for them And do you shew your love to Christ in taking their lives away from them that love him because out of love unto him they will not dare not sin against him as you do and dare when true love to Christ and them in due circumstances will cause a man that is a sincere Lover to lay down his life for them 1 Joh. 3.16 Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren Did you love God and Christ you would have a free heart and open hand to receive his people in their Need and Necessities And do you love God and Christ when you can find both heart and hand to spoil them of their Goods and thereby bring them into Poverty and Want Is it a certain sign of want of love to Christ when you do not according to your power supply their wants And is it not then a certain sign of hatred unto Christ when you take away their Supplies and bring them drive them into want 1 Joh. 3.17 But whoso hath this worlds goods and seeth his brother hath need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him how dwelleth the love of God in him How indeed Who can tell or conceive how it should VII Do you love Christ when you had rather sin against him than suffer for him Is that your Love when you had rather forsake him than in danger follow him When you had rather deny him than dye for him And though you do as Peter did you do not repent and weep bitterly as Peter did Did not Love move Christ to suffer and dye for us Was not Love the chain that did fasten him to the Cross And if you loved Christ would the Waters of Affliction and Persecution quench your Love You love him but cannot suffer for him Worthy Love but such as with which Christ doth not count you worthy of him or to have any saving benefit by him Mat. 10.37 38. The Martyrs loved Christ when they did go to Prisons for him and went to the Stake and were burned into Ashes for him You would think it a hard saying to assert None but Martyrs love Christ But with a distinction I think it is a true saying A Martyr is either actually so or intentionally It is the purpose and resolution of the Heart to dye for Christs sake if called to it he is one that doth dye for Christ or is ready willing and bâ— the help of Grace is resolved to lose his Life than leave Christ And then it is safe to say That he that loves his Life more than Christ and will part with Christ rather than his Life hath no sincere love to Christ for Christ doth say it Mat. 10.37 38. And this was the resolution and disposition of Paul's heart before he was actually put to death Act. 21.13 Paul said What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart for I am ready not to be bound only but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus VIII Do you love Christ that never were convinced of your need of Christ Of your undone and lost estate Of your deplorable cendition without Christ Are you ignorant of your Malady and can you then value the Remedy Doth not the Soul first feeling its wounds by Sin enquire what to do to be saved And then upon the sight of the power of Christ that he is able to save and of the freeness of Christ that he is willing to help the Soul is drawn to love him and to set his heart upon him Blessed Lord wilt thou help me out of my misery When none can deliver wilt thou I am undone Wilt thou succour me I am lost Wilt thou save me Why poor Sinner saith Christ I do pity thee my bowels yearn over thee I will keep thee I will save thee both from Sin and Hell Wilt thou so dear Lord Thou shalt have my heart my love shall be to thee IX Do you love Christ and yet will not submit unto him in all his Offices When you say you love Christ whom do you mean Or in what respect do you consider him As a Priest only that died for your Sins As a Jesus to deliver you from Hell to free you from the torments that your very Nature is against Did you ever know a Drunkard a Swearer or the vilest-debauchedst Wretch that hath heard of Hell and Christ but was willing and desirous on his own terms but not on Christs to be saved from the torments And upon that account will you say That this man continuing in his open Sins doth love Christ But Christ in this one respect considered only is not that Christ that is Preached and offered to you in the Gospel but also Christ as Prophet and King Is this then your love to him to divide him Is this your love to dethrone him from his Kingly Office No it is plain hatred to him Luk. 19.14 But his citizens hated him and sent a message after him saying We will not have this man to reign over us But those mine enemies which would not that I should reign over them bring them hither and slay them before me X. Do you love Christ and never care if he never come again Nay you could be glad you might never leave this World if you might have your pleasures and enjoyments in it but that Christ should come to you by Death or at Judgment you have no desire but sorrow at the thoughts
and work in being wise in the reproved sense for my self I should be found an egregious Fool. He that preacheth so that no man can rationally contemn him and yet every man understand him and thereby wins Souls to set their love on Christ is a Wiseman and a Learned Preacher when he that preacheth so that few or none of the meaner Capacities which are the greater number can understand him any further than to understand they do not understand him and so the People perish for want of knowledge under the sound of profoundest knowledge shall have little thanks from such People at the Judgment-day and what Reward he shall have from Christ when he comes to take an account of Ministers for preaching and People for hearing let him take into his serious thoughts and learn of Learned Paul who hath left a pattern of the wisest Preaching 2 Cor. 4.5 For we preach not our selves but Christ Jesus the Lord and our selves your servants for Jesus sake lest not preaching Jesus the Lord but himself as if he were more than a Servant and Jesus not Lord he find when Preaching and Hearing are ended and cease Maran-atha and Anathema be joined together VIII Must they be cursed that love not Christ then know that outward Prosperity and this Curse are consistent A man might be a prospering man in this World and cursed in this World and in the World to come Do you see many whose Lives declare they have no sincere love to Christ in their Hearts thrive and abound in outward Enjoyments not love Christ and yet are strong not love Christ and yet are rich not love Christ and yet be in honour What then Might not a man in health be a cursed man nay the more strength he hath the more able he is to do the Devil Service and so his strength is a curse unto him The more he enjoyeth of the World the more he hath to love and the more he loves it and so his Enjoyments are a curse unto him when they keep him from placing his love upon Jesus Christ Have you not read that mens Blessings are cursed Mal. 2.2 If ye will not hear and if ye will not lay it to heart to give glory to my name saith the Lord of hosts I will even send a curse upon you and I will curse your blessings yea I have cursed them already because ye do not lay it to heart God threatens to curse wicked mens Blessings I will curse your blessings I will that is not to do now I have cursed them already Many are apt to call the proud happy Mal. 3.15 The Rich though bad are thought by many to be blessed a great mistake all men might see their outward Blessings but all have not eyes to behold the inward Curses that lie under those outward Blessings Is it not a Curse to have Riches without Grace to have our Portion and Blessings and all in this Life to prosper in the World and to be every moment in danger of Hell do you look upon it to be such happiness to have all for the Body and nothing for the Soul to have Earth and nothing of Heaven and nothing to shew for them You read of some that have their Portion in this life on Earth Psal 17.14 and you might read that their Portion on Earth is a cursed Portion Job 24.18 and was it not so with the Rich man spoken of in the Gospel that on Earth had his purple robes and fine linen and sumptuous costly dishes every day O happy man but stay till you hear the end He died and whither then to Hell Where is now your happy man and what is his condition there what there he finds more pain than on Earth pleasure there he feels more torment and terror than all his days on Earth had pleasure and delight Luk. 16.25 But Abraham said Son remember that thou in thy life-time receivedst thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented Remember that vexeth not easeth in thy life-time but that was but for the time of life which then was short and sweet but this Life where now I am more properly called Death than Life is long and bitter receivest thy good things but amongst them all hadst not a good God a good Conscience nor one good Fruit of the Spirit no not so much as love to Christ but now he is comforted and thou art tormented he is blessed and thou art cursed he is happy and thou art miserable Behold the change the world 's blessed man is now the cursed man and he that was the miserable man in the esteem of the World is now the blessed man Then do not judge of Blessedness or Misery by the prosperity or poverty of this World but by the graces of the Spirit or want of them in your hearts particularly by your love or want of love to Jesus Christ For it is not said Let him that is not rich but let him that loves not Christ be Anathema Maran-atha IX Must all that love not Christ be cursed then tremble at the thoughts of the great number that shall be cursed There are but few comparatively that have sincere Love to Christ therefore but few comparatively that shall be blessed by entring into Eternal blessed life Mat. 7.13 Enter in at the strait gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in thereat 14. Be cause strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and few there be that find it Many for want of Love to Christ will not bear his Cross but all that want this love Finally shall bear his Curse The number of the Curse-bearers and Non-lovers of Christ shall be an equal number so many and no more Consider then what multitudes there are that love other things more than Christ and see what vast numbers of men shall be accursed 1. How many are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lovers of pleasures more than lovers of Christ 2 Tim. 3.4 2. How many are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lovers of money more than lovers of Christ They prize their Silver above the Saviour and part with him to keep that Luke 16.14 2 Tim. 3.2 3. How many are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lovers of honours more than lovers of Christ John 5.42 44 and and 12 43. 4. How many are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lovers of themselves more than lovers of Christ 2 Tim. 3.2 And indeed sinful self-self-love is the very heart and core of the carnal man and the great Idol of all unconverted sinners Principles of selfishness are the rise of all their actions and self is the end and scope at which they aim in all they do and so set up self in the room of God and Christ and love carnal self when they should love Christ and so shall lye under the Curse when they would have a Blessing Few love
Love tried whether sincere or counterfeit MUST a man that loves not Christ sincerely be Anathema when Maranatha Must he love or be cursed if he do not Then as Christ did put the Question unto Peter Joh. 21.15 Simon Son of Jonas lovest thou me And 16. the second time and 17. the third time Simon Son of Jonas lovest thou me So do thou put this Question to thy self O my Soul lovest thou the Lord Jesus And when thy heart may forwardly return an answer ask it the second time O my Soul art thou not mistaken Dost thou indeed love the Lord Jesus And because the matter is of everlasting moment put the Question a third time and so often till to this Question O my Soul Dost thou sincerely love the Lord Jesus Thou hast such proof out of the Scripture as will hold trial when this shall be in question at the great day of Judgment But alas What great grounds of jealousie are there that the love of many is but supposed love to Christ that think they do that hope they do but indeed do not For whose conviction I shall desire them to give in a serious answer to the following Queslions as trials of the sincerity of their love I. Dost thou love Christ sincerely and live in wilful disobedience to the known commands of Christ Dost thou know his will and willingly every day act contrary to it and yet pretend to love him Dost thou slight his commands and love his person Doth Christ command thee to be the death of thy sins and thou suffer them to live and rule and yet love him Doth Christ command thee to pray continually and thou dost neglect it continually and yet have the face to say thou lovest Christ Doth Christ command thee not to swear profanely at all nor to take Gods name in vain and dost thou do this often in a day and yet defie that man that calls in question thy love to Christ But whatever be thy confidence I do declare to thy face it is a great and Soul-damning mistake for as Love and Obedience are conjoined in the Scripture so they are never parted in the true and sincere Lover Weigh these Scriptures and thou wilt find thy Love pretended to without obedience to be so light that it will be driven away by the evidence of the Word like chaff before the wind Exod. 20.6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments The same words repeated Deut. 5.10 and Deut. 7.9 Know therefore that the Lord thy God he is God the faithful God which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations And 11.13 And it shall come to pass if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul Neh. 1.5 I beseech thee O Lord God of heaven the great and terrible God that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments Joh. 14.15 If ye love me keep my commandments 21. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them he it is yes that is the man that loveth me 23. Jesus answered and said unto him if a man love me he will keep my words 24. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings Do ye see how in all these Texts Obedience is joined with Love If Love go before Obedience follows after and the latter is a proof of the former Then the man amongst you that is not openly profane but of a moral conversation and moreover a Professor will say as Saul did to Samuel Blessed be thou of the Lord. I have performed the commandment of the Lord 1 Sam. 15.13 But Samuel replied ver 16. What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears and the lowing of the Oxen which I hear So ye say we love the Lord how do ye prove it Why we have performed the Commandments of the Lord. Have ye so What meaneth then the neglect of Prayer in your Families that I hear of What meaneth then your Idling away the Lords day or polluting it by worldly Discourse What meaneth I pray you the allowed dead Praying and dull performances not striven against nor lamented for But if you would not deceive your sell mind that that Obedience which proves sincerity of love to Christ must be 1. Vniversal and that in regard of the object all the Commandments of God those that are more hard as those that be more easie those that cross and condemn your best beloved sin as well as those you could more easily and readily part with those commands that respect the inward as well as the outward Man and do enjoin the manner as well as the matter of your Duties Psal 119.6 Then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect to all thy commandments and Universal in regard of the subject that your obedience be done with the whole heart Deut. 10.12 And now Israel what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to fear the Lord thy God to walk in all his ways and to love him and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul 2. Obedience that is a proof of Love must be chearful for Love obeyeth with delight It is not a burden to Pray but a pleasure hard Duties become easie to Love and the time seems not long nor tedious As Jacoh for the Love of Rachel Gen. 29.20 And Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed unto him but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as ones days translated as few days for the love he had unto her Seven years to love seem but as one day One day in an holy Duty to one that wanteth love seemeth as seven days if not as seven years which seem to pass away sooner and with more delight than one day spent in Flesh displeasing Duties where there is no love to take off the rediousness of it to the Flesh 3. Such Obedience must be the choicest Sincere Lovers of Christ will serve him with the best they have and in the best manner they can Love thinks nothing too good for God and Christ else it is but deceitful and pretended love Mal. 1.13 Ye said also behold what a weariness is it and ye have snuffed at it saith the Lord of hosts and ye brought that which was torn and the lame and the sick thus ye brought an offering should I accept this of your hands saith the Lord You bring Prayers but they are sleepy Prayers thus ye Pray Ye Pray but with your minds roving because of the prevailing habitual love ye have unto the World THUS ye Pray Could sincere Love find no better Service Give no better Duties than such for which a man is a Deceiver and Accursed v. 14. But cursed be the deceiver which hath in his slock a maele and voweth and sacrificeth unto the Lord
too if thou dost with-hold it from him If it be due so many ways what Injustice will it be in thee to deny to Christ that which is his due Art thou not careful to give to every one their own And is it not an ease to thy mind that though thou art not Rich yet thou hast to give every one his due Dost thou not Trade Work Cark and Care to give all their own and shall Christ be the only Person to whom thou wilt be Unjust If thou hast not enough to satisfie all thy Creditors yet of one whom thou lovest and bearest more respect unto thou sayest If it please God such a one shall lose nothing by me Poor Sinner wilt thou say Though I cannot do what I should yet Christ shall not be so far a Loser by me as not to have my Heart and Love Look to it that he do not for if he do thou wilt lose thy Soul and then who will be the greatest loser XIV Is it not great condescention in Christ that he will so kindly accept of thy Love One so great accept the Love of one so mean One so holy accept the love of one that is so sinful One so glorious of one so vile Do great Men value the love of Beggars or Princes the love of Peasants Would a Man of great Birth and Estate give leave to one cloathed in Rags to love him in order to Marriage Or would he not scorn and reject both the person and her love Methinks considering what Christ is and what thou art thou shouldst say If Christ will give me leave I will love him Give thee leave Not only so but gives the command and that upon pain and peril of everlasting Damnation if thou dost not He doth give thee leave and charge to love him but no leave to live without love to him though for thy long refusal he might justly leave thee to live without love to him XV. Should you ever have any cause or reason to be ashamed of your love to Christ Is not the time coming and the day hastning when covetous men shall be ashamed of their loving of the World and voluptuous men ashamed of loving their Pleasures and the ambitious of their Honours but the time will never come the day will never be that a gracious Soul shall be ashamed of his sincere love to Jesus Christ For what is said of Hope is true of Love Rom. 5.5 it maketh not ashamed but as all Sin is matter of shame Rom. 6.21 What fruit have ye of those things of which ye are now ashamed so especially the Lovers of Sin shall be ashamed that they loved not Christ For is it not an horrid shame that a rational Creature should be such a Sot as to love Sin that is most loathsom and not love Christ that is most lovely To love deformity and not beauty A real evil under the notion and appearance and paint of a seeming good and not a Christ that is a real good without appearance of the least evil O shame shame I am ashamed that Sin should have such esteem and Christ so great contempt put upon him but shame shall ere long confound these now shameless Wretches when they shall cry out We are ashamed that we loved Profits and not Christ House Lands Lusts and not Christ This is the confusion of our Faces and shame doth cover us that we should be so foolish and so blind that we had not Wit nor Reason to distinguish betwixt the greatest and most lovely good and the greatest and most odious evil XVI Is there any love so profitable as the love of Christ Gain draweth Love by the love of other things more than Christ you will lose more than you gain By such love God Christ Heaven and your own Soul will be for ever lost and should your gains of the World be proportionable to your love of the World yea and exceed it to the gaining of the whole World to your self which never man yet did your gain would prove your loss and when you come to cast up your Accompt at Death or Judgment you will find your self cast much behind hand because from Gods face and favour Mat. 16.26 What is a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul But by the loving of Christ you shall have gain that no man can value no Wit can estimate no Arithmetician by all his Numbers and Figures can compute even pardon of innumerable Sins the favour of an infinite God deliverance from unconceiveable Torments possession of endless Life and more than I or any man can describe or comprehend XVII Is there any love so universally necessary as the love of Christ One man loves one thing and a second another and a third another but there is no necessity that all men should love any one thing but Christ and things appertaining to our having and enjoying of him and love to Christ is necessary for poor and rich for great and small for noble and ignoble for learned and unlearned for bond and free Oh then what doings are these that that love which is necessary not only for the most but for all should be neglected not only by the most but almost comparatively by all XVIII Do not you want one great help against the temptations of Satan while you are void of love to Christ Is not Satan your Enemy Is not your heart forward to yield to him Doth it not concern you to resist him when if you yield you deserve to dye But this love would Garrison your Hearts Fortifie your Souls make you Couragious and Resolute against all the batteries of Satan assaults of Sin and watchful against the Assurements and Ambushments of the World and that you would say Shall I offend my dearest Lord Shall I displease him that hath had such good pleasure to do me such good such everlasting good Oh! how can I do this or that great evil and sin against him whom I do love For do you not find that Love forbids and exceedingly restrains from grieving offending or wronging him whom you do entirely love XIX Will you ever be able to hold your profession of Christ without sincere love unto him When trials come will not such as have no saving love to Christ turn their backs upon him Will they that love Riches Ease Liberty Honours Life or any thing more than Christ lease lose lay down these for Christ What you love most will you not endeavour to keep longest These must be harboured but Christ then shall be abandoned Mat. 19.21 22. but if you have not that love that will keep you stedfast and constant in suffering for Christ on Earth for want of that love you shall suffer eternally in Hell XX. Is it not possible for you to set your love upon Christ Is it not attainable Devils cannot love him but you can Damned Souls cannot love him
Instant Now there is hope and yet thou wilt not give me thy Love and Heart then there will be no hope and that might even break thy Heart Besides 3. Will it not be universal pain All over no part free Here if thou art pained in thy Head thy Heart may not be sick if pained in more yet not in all but then thou wilt be all over Tormented Thy Vnderstanding will torment thee when thou shalt know the God the Heaven the Happiness thou hast lost and all for want of Love to me and the misery thou hast found Thy Memory will increase the vexation of thy Heart in calling to mind thine opportunities upon Earth how Mercy did intreat thee how Grace did Wooe thee how I called my Spirit strived and Patience long waited for thy Love and yet I could not obtain it of thee Thy Conscience will sting and gnaw thee saying Did not I tell thee this would be the end of thy Refusals Did not I forewarn thee Did not I say it would be thy wisest only way to hearken unto Christ and to set thy Love upon him But thou wouldst not didst not hearken to my voice nor to the voice of Christ intreating of thee for thy Love And at the Resurrection thy Body will be sharer of punishment with thy Soul and all thy Senses be tormented with afflicting Obects Thine Ears in hearing doleful Lamentations â—hine Eyes in seeing a cursed Crew of Damnâ—d Creatures thy Smell afflicted with the stench of burning Brimstone thy Taste in continual drinking of the Cup of Wrath full of Dregs without mixture of Mercy thy Touch in feeling the Fire burning but never consuming of thee It was a Wonder unto Moses that the Bush did burn and not consume on Earth and these brambles shall burn in Hell and not consume which will be a greater Wonder Now tell me poor Sinner saith Christ what is thine Answer Hadst thou rather endure all this than love me Hadst thou rather love the World and thy present Pleasures and hereafter lye in these extream eternal and universal pains than love me and be delivered from them One of these must be be wise therefore in thy choice As Christ takes this course to gain thy Love so do thou join in with Christ by serious consideration for thine own Conviction that thou maist give thy love to him Urge thy self and work it on thy Heart that thou art under the Curse and Threatnings of God which are true terrible intolerable and eternal thou art the Man that art threatned by God with the forest Punishments Plagues Judgments in this Life and in the Life to come thou art the Man that Law and Gospel will condemn if thou finally deny thy love to Christ Think seriously with thy self that thou art under the Wrath of God which is great Wrath Jer. 21.5 Whole Treasures of it Rom. 2.5 Abiding Wrath. Joh. 3.36 Tearing and destroying Wrath. Amos 1.11 Psal 50.22 Ezek. 43.8 Intolerable Nah. 1.6 Most of it to come Mat. 3.7 And Eternal Rev. 14.10 11. Endeavour to get thine Heart affected that while thou lovest not Christ thou hast no Title to Heaven no Actual Hope no Promise no Pledge nor Earnest no Plea no Interest no Warrant to expect Salvation that Hell is thy due Torments thy desert Hell is appointed for thy Lodging Dwelling place The Place is prepared the Fire is kindled Devils are waiting and all Hell is moved to meet thee at thy coming Oh think what manner of Hell it is that thou art every moment in danger of it is hot long large dark deep a restless and remediless Hell When thou hast got a sight and sense of thy Sin and that thou art lost in thy self then II. Consider there is no help for thee in any meer Creature among all the Creation of God none such can prevent thy Damnation set thee in Gods favour bring thee to his Kingdom If thou lookest upwards Angels cannot or downwards Devils neither can nor will Look round about thee all Creatures say There is no help in us for Wrath must be pacified and that cannot be till Justice is satisfied and how shall any meer finite Creature satisfie Infinite-offended-Justice Tears Prayers Reformation cannot satisfie God so that as all other Creatures cannot give relief unto thee so thou thy self canst not help thy self Then III. By serious thoughts dwell upon thy own Mortality and on the consideration of Judgment Heaven and Hell Ponder upon the certainty and the nearness of approaching Death thou mightest dye this Year before the next this Week this Day this Hour before the next and say Oh what will become of me then Where shall I be then What shall I do Nay What shall I suffer then Am I under the Curse and Death at my back Is God angry with me and Death at my heels Have I no Title to Heaven no Reason to hope for it and yet do not know how soon Death might come Am I in danger of Hell and might drop into it any day in the Week any hour in the Day Oh woful case that I am in Wrath is over my head and Hell is under my feet Wrath is ready to fall upon me and I am in danger of falling into Hell I never thought my Heart for want of love had been so bad my danger so great my Soul so black my Self so near to Hell Torments Woe is me that all my Life I have loved loathsom Sin A very Monster Even Sin which is a provocation to the Majesty of God a contradiction to the Will of God an opposition to the Nature of God a rejection of the Son of God a vexation to the Spirit of God and Damnation to my own Soul surely this Love was blind Oh! Will God bear such slightings of his Son Such abusings of his Grace Such contemning of his Mercy Woe is me Can I live without Life And be saved without a Saviour Oh what shall I do And where must I have help By whom may I be relieved restored saved Oh in this distress that I am in if I could but hear of one that could and would relieve and save me of one that could take off the Curse and make me Blessed that could turn away Gods wrath and reconcile me unto him that would save me from Hell and bring me to Heaven then What then distressed Soul Oh then him would I love Love Yea with all my Heart with all my Soul as surely I should have cause to do Love him Did I know such a one his very Name would be precious unto my Soul it should be Engraven on my Heart and I should think I could never love such a one enough Saist thou so Sinner I will tell thee there is one and but one that can and that is full and fit and free to help thee and to save and succour thee in this distress that thou art in Oh good Sir what is his Name that I might apply my self unto him and place
all my Love upon him His Name is the Lord Jesus Christ Lord Jesus Christ Oh blessed Lord Oh sweetest Jesus Oh loving lovely Christ Lord Jesus Christ Methinks the sound of his Name is Melody to mine Ears is Honey to my Taste is Light unto mine Eyes a sweet Perfume of precious Ointment it is Balm to my wounded Conscience it is a reviving Cordial to my sinking Spirit to my fainting Soul Methinks now you have told me his Name runs in my Mind I love to have it with love and reverence in my Mouth and upon my Tongue The Lord Jesus Christ will help me the Lord Jesus Christ will save me if I love him if I love him that is Lord and Jesus and Christ Oh if the very hearing of his Name hath given this hopes fain I would know more of him for surely the more I know of him the more my Love will be set upon him Oh that some would tell me more what he is and what I might do that I might love him That 's next IV. Get the Knowledge of Christ what he is and what he will be to thee and dwell on those thoughts till thou findest thy heart to glow to burn to flame in love to him And to this purpose consider 1. His Name Lord Jesus and Christ 2. His Relation to God yet given for Man 3. His own Excellencies and undertaking for you 4. His Affection and what he will be to you 5. His Benefits that he will confer upon you 1. The consideration of his Name hath much in it to attract and draw thy Love for he is 1. Lord. Even Lord of Lords and King of Kings the Blessed and only Potentate 1 Tim. 6.15 He is Lord by vertue of Creation he gave thee thy Being brought thee out of Nothing made thee a Man he gave thee Understanding Will Affections Now wilt thou love thy Father and thy Mother and not thy Maker He is Lord by right of Redemption when thou wast in thy Sin worse than Nothing in Bondage to Satan and Sin he bought thee out with his own Blood Act. 20.28 by giving his Soul for thine Isa 53.10 his Life for thine Mat. 20.28 himself for thee 1 Tim. 2.6 Let the thoughts how dear he paid for thy good draw thy Love He is Lord by universal Jurisdiction given by the Father Mat. 28.18 All power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth Joh. 5.22 The father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son 27. And hath given him authority to execute judgment also because he is the Son of man Joh. 17.2 As thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him Rom. 14.9 For this end Christ both died rose and revived that he may be Lord both of the dead and living Behold no Lord like this that hath power to judge and execute to damn and save a means this is to beget both fear and love 2. Jesus A gracious Name a Saviour Mat. 1.21 Thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sin His very Name tells you what you might expect by him Jesus A glorious Name Phil. 2.9 Wherefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a name above every name 10. That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow all be subject unto him Jesus A precious Name Gant 1.3 This Name is a sweet Perfume more than all precious Oyntments Jesus A miraculous Name Acts 3.6 In this name the lame have been made to walk the blind to see the deaf to hear the guilty are justified the polluted are purged the aliens reconciled and sinners saved 3. Christ Anointed Psal 45.7 God thy God hath anointed thee with the oyl of gladness above thy fellows Isa 61.1 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings If he hath been anointed to be a Saviour to lost Sinners should not the thoughts of this be an attractive of your love 2. To gain your love to Christ consider him in his relation to the Father who yet gave him foryou All Beings have some relation to God but none nearer to him than Christ who is God's own Son and that in a sense beyond all Angels that were the Sons of God by creation Job 38.7 Believers by Adoption John 1.12 Gal. 3.26 but Christ by eternal Generation Psal 2.7 Christ God's only begotten Son such an one he had but one and yet this only one was given for you O where is your love Is not this enough to kindle it in your hearts Christ was God's dear Son his very Darling his daily delight Prov. 8.30 The Son of his love Col. 1.13 And shall he not be the Object of yours Behold the Son of his love was given and came for the Children of Wrath. And is not he to be beloved upon that account and for that very reason Do men love the Sons of Princes and will not you love the Son of God Do you love your own Children your own Sons and Daughters and will you not love the Son of God He did not say Father since I am thy Son why should I suffer and die for thine Enemies Father I am thine only Son and thou hast not another in Heaven or Earth as I am why then should I be crowned with Thorns that Sinners might have a Crown of Glory But this only Son did die for Rebels the Son of God's Bosom lay in the Bosom of the Earth Dear Saviour Thou art worthy of every man's bosom-love 3. To attract and draw your Love consider how wonderful Christ is in himself and in his undertakings for you and then love him with wonderful love for if you should not love it would be wonderful Isa 9.6 His name shall be called Wonderful 1. Christ was wonderful in his Conception and Birth Isa 7.14 Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel Luke 1.35 The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God Behold Mary a Mother and yet a Virgin Wonderful Mary that bore Jesus was a Sinner and yet Jesus born of her was without Sin or Spot Wonderful 2. In his Person He was Man and yet he was God he was God and yet he was Man 1 Tim. 3.16 Wonderful 3. In his Works and Operations He healed the sick without medicines he opened the Eyes of a man born blind with Clay and Spittle John 9.1.6.7 cast out Devils with a word did calm the raging Sea Matth. 8.26 27. All wonderful 4. In his Death and Passion Matth. 27.50 Jesus when he had cried again with a loud voice yielded up the Ghost 51. And behold the vail of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom and the earth did quake and the rocks
rent 52. And the graves were opened and many bodies of Saints which slept arose And before ver 45. From the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour All wonderful 5. In his Resurrection John 10.18 The Dead were raised by him and he being dead was raised by himself Wonderful 6. In his Ascension Acts 1.9 10 11. The Disciples stood gazing and looking and wondring at his going up to Heaven Now was this wonderful Jesus born in sâ—â—ch a wonderful manner lived doing Wonders dyed with Wonders rose by a Wonder and wonderfully ascended into Glory and all this for the sake and salvation of lost Sinners if ye will not love him will it not be the Wonder of Angels of Devils and all the Creation of God Might not Angels wonder at you and Devils wonder at you and the Saints of God at his coming wonder at you Behold so many of you as will not love this wonderful Jesus shall be the Wonder of the World at the last day 7. Nay yet more he was the Ancient of Days from all Eternity John 8.58 and 17.5 Prov. 8.22 31. and yet he became a Babe for you 8. He was cloathed with Majesty Heb. 1.3 and yet for your sakes did subject himself to greatest Ignominy Isa 50.6 9. He was eminent for Beauty above all men Psal 45.3 And yet for you his Countenance was marred more than any man's Isa 52.14 10. He was mighty in Power by his Word commanded Devils stilled the Sea supporteth the World yet for you dyed like a weak man 11. He was perfect in Holiness without spot or guile and yet standing in your room was greatly accused of Blasphemy 12. He was full of Wisdom Col. 2.3 yet derided and laughed to scorn for you 13. He is judge of all the World and yet for you condemned at the Barr of Men to take away your sins and if ye would love him to prevent your being condemned at the Barr of God All this is wonderful And yet that such a wonderful Person did so wonderfully condescend and after all this should not be beloved by you will be and is wonderful shame 4. To draw your love to Christ consider what he will be to you For relation breeds affection The love of Christ to you should beget love in you to Christ What will he be to thee if thou wilt love him He will be thy Bridegroom and thy Husband the richest Match that can be offered or motion'd to thee He will be thy Shepherd and gather thy Soul unto his Fold and save thee from the destroying Wolf He will be thy Redeemer by price to buy thee out of the hands of revenging Justice and by Power to rescue thee out of the Jaws of the roaring Lion He will be thy Priest and Surety to pay thy Debt and reconcile thee unto God He will be thine Advocate to plead thy Cause against Satan thine Accuser and will continually appear before the Father for thee 1 John 2.2 He will be thy King and Captain to conquer thine Enemies and trample them under thy feet Is there nothing in all these things to gain thy Love to woo and win thy heart to this blessed Jesus How canst thou for shame deny him Canst thou go out of this place this day and not plight him thy truth not give him thy love Oh say this is he whom I will love 5. Moreover let this powerfully draw thy love to Christ what benefits thou mayst have by him in respect of deliverance from evil he would then deliver thee from the guilt and power of sin Matth. 1.21 from the tyranny of Satan Luke 11.22 Heb. 2.14 from the Curse of the Law Gal. 4.4 from the Wrath to come 1 Thess 1.10 Rom. 5.10 and from the sting of Death and Damnation of Hell 1 Cor. 15.54 55 56. in respect of the collation of good he will reconcile thee unto God and bring thee into the Adoption of Children purge thy Heart justifie thy Person procure audience of thy Prayers stand by thee at Death and save thee for ever Now poor Sinner what dost thou think of this Lord Jesus Christ that makes a motion for thy affection Tell me as before God would not thy love be better bestowed upon this Christ than upon the World and Sin Thou darest say no otherwise with thy mouth Oh say so also unfeignedly in thy heart and give it him as thou sayst and I have my end of preaching this lovely Jesus to thee and Christ will have the end of his dying for thee and thou wilt have that good by hearing which was not in thy heart to aim at when thou camest within these doors that camest a slighter of Christ and goest away a lover of Christ that camest from thy house to this with an heart cleaving in love unto the World and Sin but returnest from this unto thy own with the love of sin turn'd out and with the love of Christ entred into thy heart will make thee say O blessed change How much is this new love better than my old O blessed Word that it ever sounded in my ears and God brought it to my heart O blessed day the day of days the best day I ever had This day shall be recorded by me for this day Christ and I did fall in love Some come to a Sermon and by their wandring eyes and roving filthy hearts fall in love with a Creature but I came I confess I know not why nor how and God hath been in mercy pleased to change my heart and love which is the best change I ever made for this is the sweetest love I ever found But it may be this is not yet the happy Case of some others thereto to such I add V. When thou hast got this knowledge of Christ willingly entertain him and heartily receive him as offered in the Gospel and resign thy self to him and when he hath propriety in thee and thou in him love will arise in thy heart to him Faith is the Root and Love is the Flower that groweth upon it and Faith thus implanted will quickly work by love Gal. 6.5 When by Faith he is thy Christ and thy Lord and Saviour he will certainly be the beloved of thy Soul The Foundation of Love is laid in the relation to the person that is the object of love and propriety and interest doth beget it you love that which is your own because it is your own Your Children your Wife your Husband above all others And you will love Christ when once by Faith he is your own Cant. 2.16 I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine Then all other things which now are highly valued by you will be accounted as dross Phil. 3.8 Yea doubtless and I count all things but dross in comparison of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. VI. Pray much to God to work this Love in your hearts to Christ it is the Fruit of the Spirit and