of sight and troubles not his lusts or from some accidentall circumstantiall Ornaments which attend the Ministery and Truth as wit learning expression elocution or credit of visible conformity to them not from an inward apprehension of the proportionablenesse sutablenesse and fitnesse of Christ to all his desires and capacities Luke 7.47 1 Joh. 4.16.19 as being the fairest of ten thousand or from any reall interest and propriety in Christ which are the grounds of love when true and sincere 2. This love to God is superlattive it surpasseth all other loves the soule in which it abides seeing infinitely more lovelinesse in one God then in all the combined assembled excellencies of all worldly Objects loves him infinitely more than them all It often not only steps over them but kicks them away not only laying them down as sacrifices but hating them as snares when they would draw from Christ When Christ and the World meet as it were upon so narrow a bridge that both cannot passe by Christ shall go on and the World shall go back Christ in a Christian shall have no Corrivals as Christ bestowes himselfe wholly upon a Christian wholly upon every one as every line hath the whole indivisible point so a Christian gives himselfe wholly to Christ he shares not his heart betwixt him and the world all within him he sets on work to love Christ keeping nothing back from him for whom all is too little The greatest worth that it sees in any thing but Christ is this that it may be left for Christ ever rejoycing that it hath any thing to which it may prefer him To a soul in which is this love Christ is as oyle put into a viall with water in which though both be never so much shaken together the oyl will ever be uppermost or as one rising Sun which drowneth the light of a numberlesse number of Stars It loves the world as alwayes about to leave and loath it not as that for which it doth live but as that without which it cannot live The world hath not the top and strength of it's affection It loves nothing much but him whom it cannot love too much It lodgeth not the world in it's best room and admits not such a stranger into the closet of the heart but only into the hall of the senses 3. It 's a jealous or zealous love suspicious lest any thing should and burning in a holy heat of indignation against any thing that doth disturb the Souls beloved Love is a solicitous grace and makes the soul account it selfe never sufficiently trim'd for Christs imbracements never to think that any thing done is well enough done All the soul is and can is esteemed too little for him who is its optimus maximus its best and greatest the more brightly shining the beams of love to Christ are the more motes and imperfections doth the soule ever see in its services It s fear only is lest by sinne and unsutable carriage it stirs up Gal. 4.11.16 Act. 15.2 17.16 18.25 19.8 Jude 3. and awakes the beloved It cannot put up a disgrace expressed by the greatest against Christ It zealously contends for his Word Wayes Worship Worshippers Kingdome All it's anger is against those intercurrent impediments that would stop it in the advancing of Christ it labours to bear down those hinderances of Gods glory with a floud of tears if it cannot with a stream of power The meekest soule in love with God knowes how to be holily impatient and like Moses though when with God to pray for men yet when with men to contend for God Every sin by how much the nearer to it by so much is it more detested by it Of all sins therefore its own have the deepest share of hatred for what it cannot remove Rom. 7. Heb. 12. it mourns heartily crying out of the body of death the sin that doth so easily beset it as of the constant companie of a noysome carcasse endeavouring that every sin may be more bitter to remember then 't was ever sweet to commit looking upon the want of sorrow after sinne as a greater argument of want of love then was the sin it self 4. It 's a chast a loyall love not set upon what God hath so much as upon what God is not upon his but him not upon his rings but his person not his cloathes but his comelinesse upon a Christ though not adventitiously adorned his gifts are loved for him not he for them he is sweet without any thing though nothing is so without him Love desires no wages 't is wages enough to it selfe it payes it selfe in seeing and serving the Beloved A Nurse doth much for the child and so doth the Mother but the former for the love of wages the later for the wages of love Love carries meat in the mouth the very doing of Gods will is meat and drink to one who loves him A heart in love with Christ is willing with Mephibosheth that others should take all so it may behold the King Worldly Comforts shall not fallere but monere Nil dulcescit sine Jesu only they shall be used to admonish how much worth is in Christ not to bewitch the soul from Christ Si ista terrena diligitis ut subjecta diligite ut munera amici ut beneficia domini ut arrham Sponsi Aug. Med. as spectacles by which the soul may read him the better or as steps by which it may be raised up to him the nearer and no further shall they be delighted in then as they are pledges of or furtherances unto the injoyment of him Should God give all to one who loves him and not give himselfe he would say with Absalom What doth all availe me so long as I see not the Kings face Communion with God is the Heaven of him who loves God It 's heaven upon earth for God to be with him and the Heaven of Heaven for him to be with God 5. It 's an active John 14.24 Psal 119.68.140 Esay 45 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say some 2 Cor. 5.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stirring expressive love the fire of love cannot be held in 't will break out at lips hands feet by speaking working walking Love saith as Elijah to Obadiah as the Lord liveth I will shew my selfe the strength of love will have a vent The Love of Christ constraineth and as the word used by the Apostle signifieth hemmeth in shutteth up pinfolds the heart that it cannot winde out from service and cannot chuse but do for Christ Love is a mighty stream bearing all before it It cares not for shame or losse It carries away these as did Samson the other gates upon it's shoulders 'T is strong as death A man in love with God is as a man who is carried away in a crowd who cannot keep himselfe back but is hurried without his own labour with the throng Love
with ease dispatcheth great imployments The Commands of God are not grievous to it Love is the wing that weight and holy proclivity of the soul which if it finds not makes a way Nay 't is so speedy and present an affection that it endures no delayes It accounts not the least time little in which God is withdrawn It follows hard after God and puts not off it's pursuits of dutie or comfort till to morrow or a more convenient time 6. It 's an expensive Psal 16. bountifull costly love It will not offer that which cost it nothing even the meanest gift as alas how much below Christ is all we are or doe comes from a Kingly heart Love contends after excellency and perfection in attending upon that object which it loves under the apprehension of the greatest good How willingly did those Converts lay down all their goods at the Apostles feet and those afterwards burn their books of curious Arts 1 Chr. 22.29 2 Sam. 24.24 though of great value How great was Davids expence for the Temple and his desire that his purchase which he bought of Araunah should be being for his God costly Luke 7. How bountifull was that formerly sinfull woman in her expression of love to Christ How freely were her tears hairs kisses ointment imployed The greatnesse of the debt forgiven her made her love much and the greatnesse of her love made her spend much What save love made Zachâ—â— part with halfe of his goods to the poor Luke 19.8 John 1. Actâ—â—â— â—â— Gâ—n 43.34 and a four-fold restitution to the wronged by false accusation Love will make Peter willing to feed the sheep of Christ and Paul not to account his life dear to him to finish his Ministery Joseph loved Benjamin most and gave him a messe five times so much as any of the rest He that loves God most will lay out most for God 1 Thes 1.3 Heb. 6.10 More then once we read in the Scripture of the labour of love Love resteth in its labour and then resteth most when it laboureth most Nothing labours more or thinks it labours lesse then love I have heard of one that was ask'd for what sort of men he laboured most he answered for his friends He was again ask'd for whom then he laboured least he answered for his friends both answers were true for love made him think he did least for those for whom indeed he did most 7. It 's a submissive stooping patient love bearing from and forbearing for the Beloved any thing It puts us upon things below us for the pleasing of him whom we love it makes us to undertake that which another may esteem weaknesse and indecencie Davids love to Gods presence transported him to leaping and dancing thereby though Mical esteemed it basenesse to honour God Parents out of love to their children play and lisp and stammer Christ himselfe emptied and humbled himselfe for our sakes Love flies not like chaffe in the face of him that fans Rom. 8.38 39 The soule that loves is reconciled to God Cant. 8.7 though it sees not that God is reconciled to it It hath a child-like ingenuity to love and stay with a father that scourgeth it not a servile unsubmissivenesse to threaten presently after stripes departure It doth iratum colere numen follow a frowning father It lives contented with Gods allowance It will patiently be without what he thinks either fit to remove or not fit to bestow and all this not upon force but upon choice It loseth its own will in Gods and had rather will as doth God than understand as doth an Angel It taketh with joy the spoiling of its goods It ever thinks it hath enough left so long as God takes not away himselfe Omnia quae horribilia audis servire mori expiata sancta sunt amori Nier de art vol. It beareth the indignation of the Lord and accepteth the punishment of its iniquity and is willing to receive evill as well as good because from the hand of a God whom it loves For his sake it 's willing to be kill'd all the day long nor can the waters of death extinguish the taper of love 8. It 's a conforming love The Will of God is the Compasse by which it steers It fashions not it selfe according to the world It walkes not by example but by rule The heart will be set like a Watch which goeth exactly not by others but by the Sun It walks not by president but precept It regards not what is either its own or other mens but what is Gods will Its will and Gods are like two strings of an Instrument the one whereof being tuned to the other if the one be struck and sound the other also stirs and trembles when Gods will is declared the will of him that loves God moves accordingly It is much more solicitous to understand duty then to avoid danger It desires to have a heart according to Gods heart to be effigiated and moulded according to Scripture Impressions to love what God loves and hate what he hates to think and will the same with God 9. It 's a sociable love It moves to the full enjoyment of God as its Center Converse with God is its Element The soule where this love is debarr'd from prayer hearing is as the fish on dry land It restrains not prayer from the Almighty It walks with God It sings in the absence of Christ no more than did they in a strange land It loves to have its bundle of Myrh all the night between its breast It delights in every thing in which Christ may be seen Word Sacraments Conditions Soscietie Ministers and the more these have of Christs presence the more it loves them the closest purest powerfullest and most sin-discovering sin-disturbing preaching it loves best The holiest and most exactly walking Saints it loves best The Sacrament or Prayer wherein Christ smiles most sweetly it loves best The condition though outwardly bitterest wherein it sees the face of Christ most clearly it loves best 2 Tim 4.8 2 Pet. 3.12 Chiefly is the sociableness of love discovered in longing after the second coming of Christ in counting it best of all to be with him in loving his appearance in hasting to the coming of the day of God The unwillingness to have that day come proceeds from a Christians unrenewed part so much soreness as is in the eye so much lothness is there in a man to see the light proportionable to our love to sin is the disaffection to Christs appearance and the fear which is in a gracious heart of Christs second coming rather proceeds from a sense of its own unfitness to appear before Christ than an unwillingness to have Christ appear to it and more from a desire to be made meet for him than to remain without him 10. Lastly It s an uncessant Love A flame never to be quenched The Waters of affliction cannot drown it but
godly with a love of complacency True Christians shall have a Benjamins portion of love Mark 10.21 it doth good especially to the houshold of faith brotherly-Brotherly-love is set upon brethren Christ loved the young man a Pharisee by shewing loving respect toward him but he loved Lazarus a godly man with a dear intimate love John 11.3 5.11 the best men shall have the best love There 's a prudence also in the measure of expressing love so to love to day as we may love to morrow We sow not by the bushel but the handfull 8. It 's a mutual reciprocal love Hence 't is Joh. 13.34 Gal. 5.13 Col. 3.13 Gal. 6.2 Jam. 5.16 1 Thes 5.11 that there is so frequent mention of Loving one another giving and receiving benefits is by some compared to the Game at Tennis wherein the Ball is tossed from one to the other and if it falls it 's his forfeit who mist his stroke His disposition is very bad who if he will not provoke will not repay love where Affection there Gain is reciprocal The Pole sustains the Hop and the Hop adorns the Pole the Wall bears up the Roof and the Roof preserves the Wall from wet the wise directeth the strong and the strong protecteth the wise the zealous inflameth the moderate and the moderate tempers the zealous the rich supplyeth the poor and the poor worketh for the rich Love must have an eccho to resound and return 9. It 's a fervent burning love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 q. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Puritie and fervencie of love are joyned together 1 Pet. 1.22 and 1 Pet. 4.8 Have fervent charitie among your selves It must be a love to the utmost not remiss and faint not a love of courtesie and civil correspondencie but of intireness and holy vehemencie such a love as was between Jonathan and David surpassing the love of women The fervencie of it must be so great as that it may burn and consume all intervening occasions of hatred and dislike by bearing with infirmities covering of sins construing mens meanings in the better part condescending to those of lower parts and places 1 King 18. like the fire that fell from Heaven upon Elijahs Sacrifice which lick'd up a trench full of water A love that overcomes the greatest difficulties for the good of others and triumphs over all opposition 10. It 's a constant and unwearied love 1 Phil. 9. Joh. 13.1 15.12 A love that must abound more and more A love that must be like that of Christs who loved his to the end Love is a debt alway to be owed and alway to be paid 't is a debt which the more we pay the more we have And which herein differs from all civil debts that it cannot be pardoned When we have well chosen our Love we should Love our choice and be true Scripture-friends to love at all times not fawning upon our friends when high and frowning upon them when low not looking upon them as Dyals onely when the Sun of success shines upon them we should love them most when they want us not when we want them most This for the explication of the third and last blessing which the Apostle requesteth for these Christians Love 2. The Observations follow 1. Love to God flows not from Nature Observ 1. 1 John 4.7 God is not onely the Object but the Author of it From him for these Christians the Apostle desires it The Affection of Love is natural the Grace of Love is divine As Love is the motion of the will toward good ti 's in us by Nature but as it is the motion of the will toward such an object or as terminated upon God it is by Grace Love is one of the Graces to be put on Col. 3.14 Rom. 1.30 and we are no more born with it in us than with our clothes on us Wicked men are haters of God and that as the word signifieth with the greatest abhorrency 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abhorreo unde Styx they so hate him as to desire he were not that so they might live without the limits of his Law the reach of his Justice God is onely by them look'd upon with fear Ps 139.21 2 Chro. 19.2 1 Joh. 3.13 Joh. 15.18.20 Rom. 8.7 as a Judge and whom men fear as hurtfull they hate and wish they were taken out of the way Mens hearts and Gods holiness are very opposite The carnal mind is enmity against God The very reason of it the best thing that is in Corrupt Nature even Lady-Reason her self is not an enemy onely but enmity and irreconcileable There is in it an Enmity against every truth preferring before it humane mixtures and Traditions and undervaluing Gods mercy and the way of obtaining it in his Sonne misjudging all his wayes as grievous and unprofitable accounting all his Servants base and contemptible An enmitie there is in Affection against his Word wishing every truth which crosseth its lust razed out of the Scripture quenching the motions of the Spirit refusing to hear his voice rejecting the councel of God against his people his Messengers hating them most that speak most of God either with the language of lip or life Enmity in conversation holding the truth in unrighteousness by wilful disobedience forsaking the waies of God to walk in those of Nature casting off his Yoke and refusing to be reformed And all this hatred is against God though man by it hurts not God but himself man being Gods enemy not by hurting his will but resisting it Non nocendo sed resistendo The consideration whereof should humble us for our folly and danger in hating so good and great a God It should also teach from whom to beg renewed inclinations Lord Whither should we go but to thee and how but by thee 2. Love is the best thing which we can bestow upon God Observ 2. 'T is our All And the All which the Apostle desires these Christians may return to God who had bestowed upon them mercy and peace Love from God is the top of our happiness and love to God the summe of our duty It 's that onely grace whereby we most neerly answer God in his own kind he commands corrects comforts directs pitties sustains c. in these we cannot resemble him but he loves us and in this respect we may and must answer returning love for love Love is the best thing that the best man did ever give his God Love is a gift in bestowing whereof hypocrites cannot joyn with the faithful there 's nothing else but they may give as abundantly as the most upright in heart they may give their tongue hand estate children nay life but Love with these or these in love they cannot give And the truth is not giving this they give to God in his esteem just nothing The best thing that an Hypocrite can bestow is his Life and yet Paul tels us That though
whole it swims if broken it sinks he never droops in any trouble unless he apprehends a breaking between him and Christ He is like the marigold that opens with the shining and shuts with the setting of the Sun His heart is lockt up in sorrow when God hides his face and he cannot find another key fit to open it again among all the keyes in the house What 's all the world to him without the presence of God but as a sive pluckt out of the water His comforts are only full when God is in them What are companions to him in whom he sees nothing of God but objects either irkesome or pitied What are Ordinances unless with Christ but as candles that have no light put to them Nay what would the joyes of heaven it self be if it were not for the presence of God but as a funeral feast or banquet where is much provision but no chear 2 There 's a love of Complacency and delight Amor Complacentiae when the soul having ark'd it self in Gods embracements now with infinite sweetness and security reposeth it self in them saying then as David Psal 4.7 8. Thou hast put gladness into my heart more than when their Corn and Wine encreased I will lay me down in peace and sleep and with Peter Lord its good being here and with the Spouse I charge you stir not up nor awake my beloved And when Christ meets it sweetly in Prayer Sacraments or a Sermon breathing thus Oh that Lord this meeting might never end deer Jesus why comest thou so seldom and stayest no longer All the night long do thou lodge between my brests Psal 84.10 A day in thy house is better than a thousand elsewhere Cant. 2.4 My soul is fill'd as with marrow Thou hast brought me into a banquetting-house thou hast made me drink abundantly Thy left hand is under me thy right hand embraceth me How contented could the soul be in such an in-come of Christ were not his pleasure otherwise that it had no avocation to take it off no earthly employment no family feeding of body or relations to call it away from those secret enjoyments of such a beloved Oh thinks the soul what a blessed place will heaven be where I shall never be severed one moment from the embracements of Christ to eternity 3 There 's Amor amicitiae A love to be set upon God for the goodness and excellency which is in himself To love God for the creatures is not to enjoy but to use God To love him for another end than himself Medium quà tale et per se nullam boni appetibilis rationem possidet tota quippe ratio amandi medium est convenientia cum fine Aquin. Mat. 13.21 is to turn the ultimate end into a mean Love to God grounded upon humane inducements is but spurious When the inducement suppose profit preferment is removed that love will discover its falsness And by that very reason for which men contend for the outward appearance and profession of love to God viz. because they love their pleasures and profits which without such a profession they cannot peaceably enjoy By that very reason I say they will be beaten off even from that their outside appearing profession when thereby those profits and pleasures which they love so much shall come to be hazarded It s a dead love to God that cannot stand unless it be shored up True love will stand alone without politick props To shroud our own private ends under the name of love to God is not amicitia but mercatura not to love but to make merchandize of him The love that cannot be warm any longer than 't is rubd with the warm clothes of preferment is but the carkasse of love Then hath this love a soul when God himself is the object of it when 't is not of what he hath but of what he is when he is beloved though we beg with him or though all his Rings and Ornaments are pluckt off nay when he plucks off ours In a word all his wayes ordinances people will have our love drawn out to them for that of God which is imparted to them The word will be received in its purity and power most loved when least adulterated when it discovers most of God to us and most of sin in us when the dearest corruption is struck at the closest duty urged the secret corners of the soul searched when the spiritual sword is laid on with severest blows The persons also in whom most shines the beauty of Gods likeness we shall most be taken with and those shall have our love shine upon them who can reflect nothing back again but holiness 4. There 's Amor benevolentiae A love set upon God endeavouring to bring to him so far as creatures can to an infinite Creator Psal 16 to whom their good extendeth not all service and honour This love returns to God not only a heart but a tongue a hand of praises and obedience All its pleasant fruits are laid up for its beloved all it is and hath is accounted too little Lord saith the soul that I could love thee more and serve thee better how impure is my heart how poor and imperfect are my performances what I have is neither enough nor good enough for thee but had I something better than my self and Oh that I my self were a thousand times better for thy sake it should be bestowed upon thee A soul in love with God is boundless in duty The smalness of his obedience is the greatness of his trouble when another man observes his zeal and vehemency his tears and sobs and wrastling in prayer and sees him so strict and exact in living he thinks it a great matter and is ready as the Disciples who looked upon the beautiful buildings of the Temple to admire him but then the party himself that loves Christ thinks all this as nothing in comparison of what Christ deserves he looks upon his services as Christ fore-told of the Temple as if there were not one stone left upon another This love causeth an universal Joh. 14.24 cheerful constant obedience to the Commandments of Christ In it all our services are steep'd and with it made easie to us and coming from Faith acceptable to God Nor will love think it much to suffer much for Christ 1 Cor. 13.7 nay it accounts it little to endure all things for him who hath born our burdees and shed better bloud for us than any we have to shed for him Faith worketh by love Love is the instrument in the hand of Faith A hand alone can lay hold and receive and so the proper work of faith is to lay hold upon Christ but a hand without an instrument cannot cut any thing no more can faith practise any morall duties without love Faith in justification is alone but in the life of man it worketh by love 3 From this love to God floweth another
sort in respect of the object of love and a third to be considered viz. Love to man whereby our neighbour is loved as our selves This comprehends a love 1 Of our selves 2 Of others 1 Of our selves Levit. 19.18 Mat. 22.39 Quid anima invides carni Nemo tam proximus tibi quem post Dominum diligas Princeps amor humanus est sui ipsius Qui sibi malignus cui bonus It s made the rule of loving others None is so neer us after God as our selves Frequent are the commands of Scripture for the regarding of our selves Act. 20.28 Take heed to your selves 1 Tim. 4.16 Take heed to thy self Phil. 2.12 Work out your own salvation 1 Cor. 11.28 Let every one examine himself And vers 31. If we would judge our selves c. Examine your selves whether you be in the faith Prove your selves Every one is bound to wish to himself that good which to wish is truest love namely The everlasting enjoyment of God None can love God but at the same time he loves himself for he that loves God desires to enjoy him but whosoever desireth to enjoy such a good must needs love himself and this enjoyment of God a man more desires for himself than for another and if it could be communicated to no more than one a man should desire it rather for himself than any one for there are more causes concur why a man should thus love himself than any other Precepto non est opus ut se quisque et corpus suum diligat quoni am id quod sumus et id quod infra nos est in concussâ naturae lege diligimus quae in bestias etiam promulgata est restabat ut et de illo quod supra nos est et de illo quod juxta nos est praecepta sumeremus Aug. de Doct. Chr. l. 1. c. 25 26. for another man may miss of true blessedness without either my fault or misery but I my self cannot And though there be not this express and direct precept in terms Thou shalt love thy self yet where we are commanded to love God we are at the same time enjoyned to love our selves for to love God is to desire to enjoy him for ours who is the chief good and this is the chiefest love And some note that the written Law of God was given for help and relief of the Law of Nature which was much defaced and darkned in every one by sin but the Law of Nature was not impaired as it moved and put men upon the loving and caring for themselves and therefore an expresse command of loving our selves was not needful And whereas the love of our selves is noted in the Scripture as a great sin 2 Tim. 3.2 There 's a Threefold love of our selves 1 Naturalis whereby every Creature by natures instinct desires its own preservation and this is not discōmended 2 Spiritualis or Amor Charitatis A true Charitative love whereby a man desireth to obtain divine and spiritual good and this damps not but inflames the love of God None can desire a divine good too much This is commended and commanded 3 Inordinatus Love which only respecteth good things that please the sense Such a love which so makes us love our selves as to contemn God and to neglect spiritual good things this inordinate love of our selves is taxed by the Apostle We should not so love our bodies as to neglect God but we must so love God as to neglect nay to hate our bodies and this hatred of our bodies is true love to our selves because it s most profitable for us A man may be willing to have a limb cut nay cut off and yet this man may love himself nay because he loves himself and desires the preservation of the rest he therefore yeilds to lose one limb To love our selves is not Curare cutem but Animam to regard our souls not our skins and to regard the soul is to love God and loath sin Prov. 8.36 He that sinneth hateth his own soul He that loves a garment hates the Moth that eats it Neither can he love his neighbor well who doth not so love himself as he cannot write a right line who writeth by a wrong rule It were better that some man should say to one Proximus est vel cui à nobis praebendum est vel à quo nobis praebendum est officium misericordiae Aug. l. 11. c. 30. de Doct. Chr. Proximus non sanguinis propinquitate sed rationis socictate pensitandus est Aug. E. 52 Rom. 15.16 I love you as well as my swine than as well as my soul 2 Love to man comprehends a love to all others who are meant by the word neighbor Thou shalt love thy neighbor Now he is our neighbor and to be beloved with a love both of benevolence and beneficence not only who is our friend as the Pharisees thought Mat. 5.43 but every one who standeth in need of our help Luk. 10.37 He is a neighbour who may want our relief and whose relief we may want A neighbour is to be esteemed not by the neerness of blood but by the society of reason 1 Even those who are most remote in respect of place are to be beloved and are comprehended within this neighbour-hood They of Macedonia and Achaia made a Contribution for the poor Saints at Jerusalem 3 Joh. 5 Quod praestamus nostris per affectum praestamus aliis per humanitatem Lactant. Mat. 5.44 1 Pet. 2.23 Luk. 6.27 Ps 35.13 14 Rom. 12.14 Amicos diiige re omnium est inimicos solorum Christianorum Tert. ad Scap. Gaius is commended for his love to strangers A good man having ability is as diffusive as a common treasury or a fountain A great fire will warm those that sit far from it and love that is fervent will extend to them that are most remote 2 Our Enemies It s the command and example of Christ to love our enemies Blesse them that curse you Do good to them that hate you Every one can love his friend but t is only a Christian that can love his enemy Love like fire in cold weather must be made the hotter by the sharpnesse of cold unkindnesse Our Saviour and Stephen prayed for their enemies Davids imprecations are rather Prophesies than Curses His and Pauls were both against men as they were known to be enemies to God and incurable sinners In our enemy we may find something to be beloved a participation of that nature which may possibly partake of holinesse and eternal blessednesse Theodosius being moved to execute one that had reviled him Answered That if his enemy were dead he had rather restore him to life if it were in his power than being alive to put him to death It s not manhood but childishness to be quieted with striking the thing that hurt us Though enemies be not worthy to be loved by us yet malice is unworthy to be lodged in us
onely as they increase elevate it The very snuffers of death shall make it burn the more brightly It unconquered out-lives as opposition so its fellow-graces 1 Cor. 13. the faithful are rooted and grounded in love They love God for himself who fails not Ep. 3.17 1 Cor. 13.8 and therefore Love it self fails not Hypocrites are uneven in their love feigned things are unequal appearing friends cannot dissemble so exactly but that at one time or other their hatred will appear In some companies or conditions they will shew what they are In the time of persecution they fall away Mat. 13.21 like rotten Apples they fall off in a windy day True love to Christ Amor uescit ferias knows no holy-daies it ever hath a rest of Contentment never hath a rest of Cessation 2. I proceed to the Properties of love to man First Rom. 12.9 1 Pet. 1.22 1 John 3.18 It 's a love unfeigned without dissimulation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Love without hypocrisie Love indeed and in truth not in word and tongue a love from the heart 'T is not like the love of Joab and Judas that outwardly kiss'd and inwardly at that time designed killing It contents not it self in giving like Nephthali Gen. 49.21 Goodly words The Apostle speaks of Soundness in Charity Tit. 2.2 Unsound Charitie is Courtship not Christianity Of all things dissimulation doth worst in love as being most corrupting of and contrarie to the nature of it and appearing love is nothing but Christianity acted and Religion painted some sins scratch the face of love but hypocrisie stabs it at the heart Secondly It 's an expressive open-handed Love though it ariseth at the heart yet it reacheth to the hand Love is a fruitful grace it bears not onely the leaves and blossoms of words and promises 1 John 3.18 but the fruit also of beneficial performances If Love be in truth t' will also be in deed words be they never so adorned cloath not the naked be they never so delicate they feed not the hungry be they never so zealous they warm not the cold be they never so free they set not the bound at liberty our Faith must work by love Love must be seen felt and understood verbal Love is But painted fire Love is so beautiful a Grace that it 's willing to be seen The Apostle saith Rom. 13.10 Love worketh no ill it 's a diminutive expression there 's more intended even the doing of all the good the Law requires and therefore he adds Love is the fulfiling of the Law Thirdly It 's a forward chearful Love It is not drawn or driven but runs it staies not till the poor seeks it but it seeks for him Onesiphorus sought out Paul diligently Prov. 23.6 2 Tim. 1.17 Rom. 12.13 It relieves not with an evil eye It makes men given to hospitality the water of bountie flows from it as from a Fountain and goes not out as from a narrow mouth'd bottle with grumbling It is not like the spunge that sucks up the water greedily but gives it not out unless it be squeezed Hoc ipso amplius gaudent pauperes cum paupertati corum consultum fuerit pudori Leo. Serm. 4. Duplex Eleemosyna quia damus quia hilariter damus Ingenuous poverty rejoyceth in this forwardness of love as much as in the gift it self for thereby not only it's want but bashfulness is relieved It s a double beneficence when we give and give chearfully The mind of the receiver is more refreshed with the chearfulness of the Giver than is his bodie with the greatness of the Gift Fourthly It 's an extensive universal Love 1. Vniversal in respect of duties it shuns no performance that may benefit Bodie Name Mind Soul of another Love is a Pandora abounding in every good work and gift Rom. 13.10 it 's therefore called the fulfilling of the Law Love is the Decalogue contracted and the Decalogue is Love unfolded Love is a Mother the ten Commandments her ten children and she forgets none neglects none Gal. 6.10 2. It 's Vniversal in respect of persons It remembers the Apostles rule to do good to All even wicked men it loves though not as wicked yet as men the men not their manners Col. 1.4 Non peccatorem sed justum in paupere nutrit qui in illo non culpam sed naturam diligit Gr. 3. past 1 Pet. 2.17 Jam. 2.1 The Love of the Collosians was extended to all the Saints wherever there 's grace love will follow for grace is beautiful wherever it is The Oyntment of Love falls even upon the skirts of the garment as well as the head Love is set upon the Brotherhood the whole Fraternitie of Believers not here and there upon one Holy Love regards grace in its working-day clothes upon a Dung-hill in a Prison Grace in the Ideot as well as in the Scholar in the Servant as well as the Master As all our delight must be in the Saints Ps 16.3 so our delight must be in all the Saints 5. It 's a religious and a holy love It 's from in and for holinesse From it he that loves his brother first 1 Tim. 1.5 loves God 1 Tim. 1.5 first he gives his heart to God as a son before he reacheth out his hand to man as his brother His love is said to be out of a pure heart First he gives himself then his Secondly In holinesse and holy wayes It joynes not hands with any in a way of sin For this is not unity but faction it hath no fellowship with fruitfull works Ephes 5.11 but reproves them it makes a man most angry with the sin of him whom he loves most He fears not only to be fratricida but fideicida he doth not so love a man as to be an Enemy to religion Thirdly for holinesse this love is set upon holy ones because they are so not because they are great but good Gods Image in them is the Load-stone of our love 1 John 5.2 6. It 's a just and righteous love It bestowes gifts not spoyles it hurts not some to help others it buyes not a burying place for strangers with the bloud of Christ it is not bountifull upon any others cost The people of God must be blamelesse and harmlesse Phil. 2.15 not having in the one hand bread for one and in the other a stone for another We must not build Gods house with Satans tools the poorest Saint wants not our unrighteousnesse to help him 7. It 's a prudent discerning love It loves all yet with a difference it is most set upon those that are the fittest objects either for want or worth it beats not the poor from the door while it makes strangers drunk in the Cellar It is not like the Oak which drops its acorns to swine Gal. 6.10 It loves Gods friends best the wicked with a love of pity the
who hath not love enough for a man Eph. 1.15 where will he find it for a God Love is the pulse of faith and the breath of Christianity Faith worketh by love Gal. 5.6 though love be not a hand to receive Christ yet is it a tool in the hand to work for Christ and that in working for Christians The flames of zeal never consumed the moysture of Charity he who loves God for his own sake will love his brother for Gods Add to your Godliness saith the Apostle Brotherly kindness 2 Pet. 1.7 1 John 3.17 He who shutteth up his bowels to a wanting brother how dwelleth the love of God in him The nearer the lines come to the Center the nearer are they to one another Our love to the godly increaseth with our love to God The Sun-shine upon the dyal moves though not so swiftly yet according to that proportion which the Sun in the firmament moveth and our love to the people of God though it be not so great as unto God yet is it according to the measure of our love to God 7. Observ 7. It 's a great discovery of Gods goodnesse in that with our loving of him he joyns our loving of one another He might have so challenged our love to himselfe as thereby we might neither have had time will strength or allowance to love one another But behold his love he will be served of us in our serving of man He accounts this pure religion Jam. 1. ult Gal. 5.13 to visit the fatherlesse and widow The serving of one another by love he requires as a token of our serving him by faith So gracious is he that he esteems what we do to our own flesh and bloud as done to himselfe Pro. 19.17 Pro. 21.13 Psal 112.9 Mat. 25.40 and accounts himselfe a debtor to us for what we do for our selves he remembers it long rewards it largely and doth both exactly he hath appointed charity as the most safe and gainfull invention in the world Ars quaestuosissima Heb. 13.16 Luke 12.33 It 's a payment to the poor Christian in this place who sends his bill of exchange his prayer to God and he accepts the bill and payes it for our use in heaven we keep nothing as a mercy but what we are willing and one way thus to lose Death robs us by the way if we think to carry our wealth to heaven with us but if we send it by bils we shall receive it safely He who hath laden himselfe with apples in the ortyard and is sure to be searched when he comes out of the gate throwes his apples over the wall to a friend who keeps them for him In this world we lade our selves with gifts death wil undoubtedly search us when we go hence but if while we are here we throw by charity our enjoyments into heaven we have there a friend that keeps them safe He that denyes to give this Interest of his gifts by charity forfets the Principall and he that takes in his worldly commodities without paying God this custome shall lose the whole 8. Prayer is a singular help to bring us to love God Obser ult it was here the Apostolicall Engine in the Text. When we cry for his holy spirit the spirit of love he cannot deny us he heal'd the lame when they cryed When thou cryest and sayest from the heart I would fain love thee but I cannot will he not give thee legs to run after him Prayer brings us into familiarity with God and by converse you know love grows between men God delights to shew himself in his own way and as he did to Moses to send us down from the Mount of Prayer with soules shining with love Prayer exerciseth our love it blowes up the sparkes of love into a flame Love is an especiall gift of the spirit We are taught of God to love one another Gal. 5.22 1 Thes 4.9 'T is he that must warm our hearts with this divine grace and he being sought unto and his power implor'd and acknowledg'd will not deny it Thus much of the first particular in this third and last part of the title the Prayer viz. the Blessings pray'd for mercy peace love The second followeth the measure in which the Apostle desireth these blessings may be bestowed in this expression be multiplyed For the Explication whereof two things would be opened 1. Explicat 1. Wherein stands the multiplication of these Blessings or what it is that the Apostle desireth when he prayeth for the multiplication of these gifts graces 2. Why the Apostle makes this request and prayeth not onely for the bestowing Multiplicari dilatari incrementum capere adimpleri Tum de multiplicatione in quantitate discreta tum de augmento in quantitate continua accipitar Mat. 24.12 Acts 6.17 7.17 9.31 2 Cor. 9.10 1 Pet. 1.2 2 Pet. 1.2 Jude 2. Gerh. in 1 Pet. 1.2 but the multiplying of these Blessings 1. What this multiplying is The word in the original signifieth as to be multiplied so to be increased fill'd enlarged and it is in Scripture indifferently usedto signifie the multiplication of things in their number and their augmentation in measure and greatnesse Whence it is that some render this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 multiplicetur be multiplyed others adimpleatur be fill'd or fulfill'd or fill'd up or increas'd It properly signifieth to increase in number and not in measure and when it is applyed to people and the Church as 't is oft in the Acts of the Apostles it 's only used for an increase in number but when 't is spoken of sin or graces as Mat. 24.12 Pet. 1.2 2 Pet. 1.2 in this place of Jude it may signifie an increase in measure onely And so the Apostle prayeth that the gifts graces which these Christians had already obtain'd Eph. 4.16 1 Pet. 2.2 2 â—et 3.18 John 2.5 Psal 84.7 1 Thes 4.1 11 2 Cor. 13.9 might receive a further degree of augmentation that believers might grow abound and increase in them more and more And thus though the mercy of God which was the first of the three blessings here desired by the Apostle as it is in it self and as in God cannot be increased it being infinite yet in respect of the effects and graces flowing from it upon believers it may be increased More particularly when the Apostle prayeth that these Christians may have this increase and augmentation of grace he comprehends in that his request these several blessings 1. That they may be sensible and observing of their wants and deficencies of Grace That they may often cast up their accounts and see as what they have gained so wherein they are defective that they may resent as their gains with thankfulness so their wants with humility They who see not can neither desire nor receive what they want A Christian must be like a covetous man totus in rationibus much imployed in searching
these Christians or what it was that put him upon this profitable performance of exhorting them in these words Beloved when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation it was needfull for me to write unto you 2. The Exhortation it self in these words And exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the Saints 3. Sundry weighty and unanswerable Arguments to move the Christians to follow and imbrace this excellent Exhortation from the third to the 17th verse 4. Severall apt and holy Directions to guide and teach these Christians how to follow and observe the Exhortation which he had back'd with the former arguments to the 24th verse I begin with the former The Reasons which put the Apostle upon sending this following Exhortation And the Reasons contained in these words Beloved when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation it was needfull for me to write unto you are these three 1. The first is drawn from the dear love which the Apostle did bear to them they to whom he wrote were beloved 2. The second is drawn from the care and diligence of the Apostle for the doing of them good and the furthering of their salvation When I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation wherein consider 1. With what mind and disposition he endeavoured their good or how he was affected in endeavouring it he gave all diligence 2. In what work he was imployed for their spirituall good or by what means he endeavoured it by writing 3. The Weightinesse and great Concernment of that Subject about which he wrote the common salvation 3. The third reason is taken from their need of having such an Exhortation sent to them It was needfull for me to write unto you 1. The first reason is taken from the love which the Apostle did bear to them They were beloved For the Explication whereof Explicat two things are briefly to be opened 1. What the word Beloved importeth and what is contained in it 2. Why the Apostle here bestoweth this title upon them calling them beloved For the first the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beloved noteth two things 1. An amiablenesse and fitnesse for and worthinesse of love in the thing beloved which can and doth commend it selfe to our love It importeth more than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 diligendi they who are to be loved for that word comprehends every one even the wicked and our enemies but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beloved properly respects those who have something of excellency to draw out our love towards them Vid. passim and therefore it 's in Scripture only attributed to the faithfull 2. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beloved noteth a very intense dear tender vehement love Rom. 16.5 8.9.12 Col. 1.7 4.7 4.14 Philem. 1.3 3 John 1. Jam. 1.16 Phil. 16.19.2.5 Ephes 6.21 Col. 4.9 1 Cor. 15.58 1 Cor. 4.14 Ephes 5.1 1 Cor. 4.17 2 Tim. 1.2 to the thing beloved and therfore it 's in Scripture not only the title of some most dear friends but of brethren of children and sons nay Christ who was the Son of God by nature who was his only Son that his Son in whom he was well pleased is also called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his beloved Son The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is by Greek Authours attributed to an only child the Septuagint do with this word interpret that phrase Only Son Gen. 22.2 Take thy Son thine only Son They translate take thy Son thy beloved One. And Zech. 12.10 They shall mourn for him as one that mourneth for his only Son they translate as one that mourneth for his beloved One and others attribute this word to an only eye as when a man hath but one eye they call it a beloved eye 2. For the second why the Apostle bestoweth upon them this title of beloved He did it for two reasons 1. To shew what was his duty not onely as a man in which respect love is a debt due to all Rom. 13.8 or as a Christian it being the duty of Christians peculiarly to love Christians the houshold of faith brethren John 13.34 the members of one body c. but especially as an Apostle and Minister What more sutable than for a Father a Nurse 1 Cor. 4.14 15. 1 Thes 2.7 8. John 21. to love their children a Shepherd his flock The Apostles were spirituall Fathers Nurses Shepherds 2. To gain their loves by this affectionate Compellation Beloved that they by observing his love to them might both love him and thereby more readily imbrace the following Exhortation He is very uningenuous who if he will not provoke love from an enemy will not repay love to a friend Mat. 5.46 Even Publicans love those who love them The stone wall reflects heat when the scorching Sun shines upon it Love must be reciprocall if we are to love those who are friends to our bodies estates names c. Si diligis fac quicquid vis are not they to be beloved much more who are our soul-friends Nor was it more the duty of these Christians than their benefit to love this holy Apostle How much would their love to him forward their love to his Ministery Though the message should not be imbraced for the messenger yet it 's not so easily imbraced unlesse the messenger be beloved 1 Cor. 4.14 Gal. 4.19 1 Pet. 4.12 Phil. 1.8 4.1 2.12 Rom. 12.19 1 Cor. 10.14 2 Cor. 12.19 Heb. 6.9 Jam. 1.16.19 1 Joh. 3.2.21 That Minister who is beloved hath a great advantage above another he stands upon the higher ground for doing good and this is the main reason that the Apostles so frequently call those to whom they write beloved They did not desire to insinuate themselves into the hearts of the Christians for their goods But for their good not to set up themselves but Christ they did not wooe for themselves but for the Bridegroom they being his friends they did not seek to advance themselves but their Message their Master 1. Observ 1. Piety is no enemy to courtesie Christianity forbids not sweet compellations Religion doth not remove but rectifie courteous behaviour 1. By a flat prohibition of the act of dissimulation and of sinfull serving mens humours 2. By a moderation of excessivenesse in our expressions which seem courteous 3. By preserving affection pure from being made the instrument of prophanenesse and wantonnesse that the pure seeds of religion may spring up in the terms of affability 2. Observ 2. The work and labour of a Minister should proceed from love to his people The Apostle loved them and therfore he wrote to them Love should be the fountain of ministeriall performances First Christ enquired of Peters love John 21. and then he urged Peter to labour A Minister that speaks with the tongue of men and Angels and hath
not charity is as sounding brasse and a tinkling cymball though he have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and hath all faith though he bestow all his goods to feed the poor nay though he give his body to be burnt 1 Cor. 13. and have not charity he is nothing God will not reward Ministers according to what they have done but according to what they have done in loving to do Love is the marrow the soul of every service All performances without love are but cyphers without a figure in Gods account they stand for nothing they are sacrifices without fire 3. People should study to be fit for the love of their Pastor Observ 3. To encourage him to love them to be diligibiles such as these Christians were whom the Apostle called beloved A painfull Minister should not only be put upon loving his people by conscience of this duty but by encouragement to this duty Ministers are often wrongfully complain'd of for want of love All kind of love must not be afforded to all kind of people a love of intimacy and complacency must only be set upon the godly among his people If a faithfull Minister be not such to his offensive unprofitable hearer as he would 't is because this man is not such to God and his own soul as he should How unworthy a part in any is it to make a faithfull Minister spend that time in weeping complaining reproving which he had much rather spend in sweet complacency familiarity and commendation 4. The love of a Minister must not be slack and remiss Observ 4. but vehement and ardent Ministers are to imitate him in love whose love was the most earnest who was the chiefe Shepherd and had the chiefest care of his flock who purchased it with his own bloud Act. 20.28 who was nothing but love cover'd over with our flesh As he was the President of Ministers love so gave he earnest and frequent precepts to Ministers to testifie this love John 21.15 Love alone can facilitate the difficulties of a Ministers calling Many things must be born as the hatred frowardnesse dulnesse weaknesse of people There must ubera be given though verbera be returned Ministri proferant ubera non verbera Bern. the brest must give its milk though it be struck at Sometimes lawfull liberties must be forborn A Minister must be like indulgent Mothers or Nurses who forbear to eat such meats as they love for fear of hurting the child which they are breeding or giving suck to Paul was such an one who rather then he would offend a weak brother would eat no flesh while he lived A Minister must be lowly in doctrine and life patient laborious and nothing but love can make him be so Every thing will be difficult to him that loves not The object of a Ministers love is the soul the heaven-born soul the precious eternall soul What would it profit a Minister to gain the whole world and lose his peoples souls The beast the name the body of a man must be beloved much more his soul The winning of souls is the wisdome of a Minister Gen. 14.21 A Minister should say of his ease profit and pleasure as the King of Sodom to Abraham Give me the souls and take the goods to thy selfe 5. Observ 5. The Loving of a Ministers person hath a great influence upon the loving of his doctrine The Apostle knew this when he desired that these Christians should know that he loved them It 's the folly of people not to love the word who ever be the speaker The message hath not its commendation from the messenger but the messenger from the message Yet rare is it to finde that Christian who thinks well of that counsell which is given him by a Counseller who is not beloved and therfore it is Satans policy to asperse the Minister thereby to cause a dislike of his Ministry And great is their sin who by their un-amiable carriage often make their Ministry abhorred who either by prophanenesse or unfit austerity confute with their life what they perswade with their lip Some offend by prophanenesse preaching perhaps so holily in the pulpit as some may almost think it pity they should ever come out of it yet when they are out of it shewing so much levity sloth worldlinesse loosenesse as any would almost think it pity they should ever go into it Others offend by unmeet morosity not considering that a Minister must neither be all bait without hook nor all hook without bait as he must not by his flattery sooth so neither by austerity affright his people A Minister must not be a flashing Comet but an influentiall Star not a Storm or a Tempest but a sweetly dropping bedewing Cloud 6. The aim of a Minister in being beloved of his people Observ 6. should be the benefiting of their souls The Apostle desires to be beloved by these Christians that he might have the greater opportunity to further their salvation He robs Christ who improves not the interest he hath in the hearts of his people for the honour of Christ 'T is not service but sacriledge to desire the terminating of peoples loves in our selves It 's better could it be without sinne that all should hate us than that they should love us for our selves for if all should hate us we should have but what is our own if they should love us for our selves we should usurp what is Christs A Ministers designe in being beloved by his people should be but to raise up seed to his elder brother all his services must be but scaffolds to erect a building of glory to Christ Ministers should labour to be good for their own benefit and to be accounted good for the benefit of others They should not do good to get a good name but they should labour for a good name that they may be the more able to do good 7. The love of a Minister to his people Obser 7. should procure love again from his people The Apostle in professing of love to these Christians expected that they should love him again Love must be the eccho of love It 's often seen that they who love their people most are beloved of them least In a spirituall sense 't is likewise true that love descends more than it ascends And ordinarily beggary or at least poverty is all the requitall which is returned for the Jewell of Plain-dealing People love not an eradicative but a palliative cure of their spirituall distempers Spirituall flatterers are commonly more respected than spirituall fathers People and their lusts are so near together that a godly Minister cannot be an enemy to the later but he is esteemed such to the former It 's spirituall phrensie to rage against the Physitian of thy soul A Minister should requite such unkindness with the revenge of pity and prayer and a holy resolution still to love though he be the
meet this ugly guest in any corner of the house but the heart riseth against it this hatred of evill Psal 97.10 is more then of hell it s a killing look that the soul doth cast upon every corruption He that hateth his brother is a man-slayer he that hateth his lust is a sin-slayer not he that hateth the sins or practices of his brother but the person of his brother so not he that hateth the effects and fruits of sin but the nature of sin not he that hateth sin for hell but as hell Every evill by how much the nearer 't is by so much the more it s hated An evill as it is so to our estate names children wife life soul as impendent adjacent incumbent inherent admits of severall degrees of hatred Sin is an inward a soul-foe Love turned into hatred becoms most bitter brethrens divisions are hardest to reconcile the souls old love is turned into new hatred the very ground sin treads upon is hated There 's a kinde of hatred of ones self for sin every act that sin hath a hand in is hated our very duties for sins intermixing with them and we are angry with our selves that we can hate it no more 3. This hatred puts forth it self in labouring the destruction of sin Love cannot be hid neither can this hatred The soul seeks the death of sin by these ways and helps 1. By lamentation to the Lord when going to him for strength with the Apostle Oh wretched man that I am was there ever a soul so sin-pestred Ah woe is me Lord that I am compell'd to be chain'd to this block Never did a slave in Egypt or Turkey so sigh under bondage as a mortifying soul doth under corruption The sorrows of others are outward shallow in the eye the look but these are in the bottom of the soul deep sorrows It s true a man may give a louder cry at the drawing of a tooth then ever he did pining under the deepest consumption but yet the consumption that is the harbinger of death doth afflict him much more and though outward worldly grief as for the death of a child c. may be more intense and expressive yet grief for sin is more deep close sticking oppressive to the soul then all other sorrows the soul of a saint like a sword may be melted when the outward man the scabbard is whole 2. The soul of a sin-subduer fights against sin with the Crosse of Christ and makes the death of Christ the death of sin Ephes 5.25 1. By depending on his death as the meritorious cause of sins subduing of sanctification and cleansing Christs purifying us being upon the condition of his suffering 1 Cor. 6.20 and so it urgeth God thus Lord hath not Christ laid down the price of the purchase why then is Satan in possession Is Satan bought out Lord let him be cast out 2. By taking a pattern from the death of Christ for the killing of sin we being planted into the similitude of his death Rom. 8.5 sin it self hanging upon the crosse as it were when Christ died Oh saith a gracious heart that my corruptions may drink Vinegar that they may be pierced and naild and never come down alive but though they die lingeringly yet certainly Oh that I might see their hands feet side and every limb of the body of death bored the head bowing and the whole laid in the grave the darknesse error and vanity of the understanding the sinfull quietnesse and unquietnesse of my conscience the rebellion of my will the disorder of my affections 3. And especially the soul makes use of the death of Christ as a motive or inducement to put it upon sin-killing Ah my sin is the knife saith the soul that is redded over in my Redeemer's blood Ah it pointed every thorn on his head and nail in his hands and feet Lord Art thou a friend to Christ and shall sin that kill'd him live Thus a sin-mortifying heart brings sin neer to a dead Christ whom faith seeth to fall a bleeding afresh upon the approach of sin and therfore it layes the death of Christ to the charge of sin The crosse of Christ is sins terror the souls armour The bloud of Christ is old sures-be as holy Bradford was wont to say to kill sin As he died for sin so must we to it as his flesh was dead so must ours be Our old man is crucified with him Rom. 6.6 It s not a Pope's hallowing a Crosse that can do it Mr. D. Rogers Pr. Cat. but the power of Christ by a promise which blesseth this Crosse to mortification 3. The soul labours to kill sin by fruitfull enjoyment of Ordinances It never goeth to pray but it desires sin may have some wound and points by prayer like the sick child to the place where its most pained How doth it bemoan it self with Ephraim and pour-forth the bloud of sin at the eys It thus also improves Baptism it looks upon it as a seal to Gods promise that sin shall die We being buried with Christ in baptism that the Egyptians shall be drowned in the sea It never heareth a Sermon but as Joab dealt with Vrijah it labours to set its strongest corruption in the fore-front of the battell that when Christ shoots his arrows and draws his sword in the preaching of the Word sin may be hit An unsanctified person is angry with such preaching and cannot endure the winde of a sermon should blow upon a lust 4. By a right improving all administrations of providence If God send any affliction the sanctified soul concludes that some corruption must go to the lions If there arise any storms presently it enquires for Jonah and labours to cast him over-board If God snatcheth away comforts as Joseph fled from his Mistris presently a sin-mortifying heart saith Lord thou art righteous my unclean heart was prone to be in love with them more then with Christ my true Husband If God at any time hedg up her way with thorns she reflects upon her own gadding after her impure Lovers If her two eys Profits Pleasures be put out and removed a sin-mortifier will desire to pull down the house upon the Philistims and beareth every chastisement cheerfully even death it self that sin may but die too 5. By consideration of the sweetnesse of spirituall life Life is sweet and therfore what cost are men at to be rid of diseases to drive an Enemy out of the Country The soul thinks how happy it should be could it walk with God and be upright and enjoy Christ be rid of a Tyrant and be governed by the laws of a Liege the Lord Jesus How heavie is Satans yoke to him who sees the beutie and tasts the liberty of holy obedience A sick man confined to bed how happy doth he think them that can walk abroad about their imployments Oh saith a gracious heart how sweetly doth such a Christian pray how strictly doth
'T is true the precept of loving enemies is contrary to unsanctified nature It was once said by a good man Either this Precept is a fable or we are no Christians Fatigatur improbitas patientiâ But God alone knows how to punish our enemies without passion and inequality It s our duty to weary Persecutors with patience A Christian must not like the flint seem to be cool but be fiery when struck He that takes up fire to throw though against his enemy hurts himself most To be kind to the kind argues civility To be unkind to the unkind argues corruption To be unkind to the kind argueth divelishnesse To be kind to the unkind argueth Christianity He hath nothing supernatural in charity that comes not to this To be ready to requite evil with good Publicans doing good for good and Heathens absteyning from returning evil for evil When the godly in Scripture have rejoyced in the destruction of their enemies it was not out of delight in the punishment of their enemies whom they loved not but in the Justice of God whom they loved Non de malo inimici fed de bono Judice not that their enemies suffered such evil but that they had so good and upright a Judge We must not so much as use the Magistrate to revenge us on our adversary for this were to make Gods ordinances an instrument of our malice Violent things have the more force upon those that resist them A sword may be spoyled with the force of lightning Rom. 12.19 Eccles 7.9 the scabberd not being hurt at all To give place to wrath is councel both wise and holy Anger resteth in the bosome of fools Love to an enimy is a token of a truly noble mind 1 Sam. 24.20 Prov. 16.32 Rom. 12.21 When David spared Saul having power to kill him Saul told him He knew that he should be King It 's a sign of a weak stomack not to be able to concoct light meats and of a weak mind not to digest injuries Wicked men account revenge to be valour These are not like Adam in his innocency that gave Names to things according to their natures It s an unhappy victory to overcome a man 〈◊〉 â—â—oelix victoria ubi superans virum succumbis vitio Bern. and to be overcome by a lust The wisdome of the World and the Word are contrary Is it not a thrice noble conquest to overcome our own and our enemies passions and Satans tentations three enemies at one blow and all this without shedding blood Nay not only not to hurt an enemy but to help him to feed him give him drink in his hunger and thirst nay to feed him cheerfully tenderly such being the feeding commanded by Paul who bids us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 propriè significat cibum concisum et intinctum frustulatim veluti in os inderc ut puerulis et aegrotis solemus Non significat simpliciter pascere sed indulgenter pascere ut in conviviis fieri solet quum quis alteri ministrat de iis quae ipsi apponuntur Significat et abundanter pascere frustulatim distribuere Pisc Tollet Eras Bez. Steph. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ex 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 propina illi Quod verbum in conviviis locum habet Salaz in Prov. 25.1 feed our enemies as birds feed their yong or as sick folks and yong children are fed with much tending and tendernesse their meat being minced and cut or as a man feeds his friend carving him the best And the Hebrew word rendered Give him drink signifieth most properly propina Drink to him as a token of true love 3 The wicked are not excluded the line of love and neighbourhood T is true In societate fruitionis divinae fundatur charitas Sanctior est copula cordium quam corporum holy men are chiefly the objects of our love With these we have communion both of nature and grace also Gal. 6.10 Let us do good unto all especially to the houshold of Faith The love of Complacency must be set upon the good The love of Benevolence must not be denyed to the bad As those objects are best seen which are most in the light because light is that by which every object is seen so those men are most to be beloved which are neerest to God because he makes every object to be beloved Yet wicked men also are to be beloved because being men they may be good as are good men because being Saints Non hoc ago ut sim homine convitiando superior sed errorum convincendo salubrior Aug. con lit Pet. l. 3 c. 1 Apud summum patrem qui non fuerit in charitate fratrum non habâ—bitur in numero filiorum Leo. Ser. 11. de quadr 1 Pet. 1.22 2.17 3.8 Joh. 13.34 2 Pet. 1.7 Col. 3.14 Rom. 12.10 1 Thess 4.9 Heb. 13.1 Non erit tibi concordia cum Christo si sit discordia cum Christiano they are good If a man be degenerate into a beast and wandring from God bring him to his Master again As the nature of man must not make his vices loved so neither must the vices of man make his nature hated St Augustine thinks that Stephens prayer was a great means of Pauls conversion The denouncing of curses against wicked men by Ministers must not be poysonful but medicinal 4. The faithful call for the chiefest room in our love and are eminently to be looked upon as neighbours With our heavenly father he is not in the Communion of Sons who is not in the charity of Brethren The bond of grace is the strongest Creation hath made us friends but Redemption hath made us brethren The frequent inculcating of the coÌ„mand of love of the brethren the brotherhood the houshold of Faith of brotherly love and of being kindly affectionated with brotherly love c. insinuates the necessity and common disestimation of this duty In pursuance of this duty contentions strifes and controversies among brethren are forbidden 1 Cor. 6.6 It s a fault for brother to go to Law with brother Let there be no strife between us said Abraham to Lot for we are Brethren Gen. 13.8 Why do ye wrong one another said Moses since ye are brethren Act. 7.26 The sowing of discord among brethren is one of the abominations which Gods soul hateth Prov. 6.19 In this respect likewise the Scripture opposeth inward hatred and rancor among brethren Gen. 37.4 How dear did this sin cost Josephs brethren He that hateth his brother is in darknesse 1 Joh. 2.11 He is a murtherer 1 Joh. 3.15 As also anger Mat. 5.22 which is a short hatred as hatred is a long anger This causeles anger puts us in danger of the judgement Choler is not alowed by Christianity Most opposite also to brotherly love is the contempt and despising of any brother Despise you the Church of God 1 Cor. 11. said Paul The poorest brother concurs to make up
the perfection of Christ When Darius his mother had saluted Hephestion instead of Alexander the great who was Alexanders Favourite she blushed and was troubled but Alexander said to her It is well enough done for he is also Alexander The meanest Saint is to be beloved for what of Christ is in him he is an old Casket full of pearls But above all how destructive to brotherly love is oppression 1 Thess 4.6 defrauding and grinding our brethren Let no man saith Paul defraud his brother in any matter Even the Jew who might take usury of an Heathen might not take it of his Brother If Lillyes rend and tear Lillyes what may Thorns do Nor must a Christian content himself in not hurting a Christian his care must be to benefit him to do him good And that for his Soul All thy Spiritual gifts of knowledge utterance c. must profit thy brother 1 Cor. 12. 1 Cor. 14.26 Comfort him in his troubles of mind direct him in his doubts reprehend him gently for his faults Not to rebuke him is to hate him Levit. 19.17 To be angry with the sin of our brother is not to be angry with our brother To love the soul is the soul of love so to love thy brother as to labour to have him live in heaven with thee For his name not casting aspersions on him but wiping them off not receiving much less raysing accusations against him but laying hold upon the theif that pillaged his name as knowing that the receiver in this case is as bad as he For his body visiting and sympathising with him in his sicknesse helping him to utmost ability to find the jewel of health For outward necessaries pittying him in his low estate◠casting the dung of thy wealth on the barren soyl of his poverty making his back thy wardrobe his belly Psal 16.3 thy barn his hand thy treasury For body and soul praying for him calling upon God as Our Father not thine alone In the Primitive time saith one there was so much love Tert. Apol. c. 39. that it was ad stuporem Gentilium to the wonder of Gentiles but now so little that it may be to the shame of Christians That which was the Motto of a Heathen Dic aliquid ut duo simus Say something that we may he two must not belong to Christians It s best that dissention should never be born among brethren and next that it should die presently after its birth When any leak springs in the Ship of Christian society we should stop it with speed The neerer the union is the more dangerous is the breach Bodies that are but glewed together may if severed be set together as beautifully as ever but members rent and torn cannot be healed without a scar What a shame is it 1 Joh. 3.14 1 Joh. 5.1 1 Joh. 4.7 8 c. that the bond of grace and religion should not more firmly unite us than sinful leagues do wicked men A true Christian like the true mother to whom Solomon gave the Child may be known by affection As the spleen grows the body decayeth and as hatred increaseth holiness abateth In summ This love to the faithful must put forth it self both in distributing to them the good they want and in delighting in them and rejoycing with them for the good they have Both these how profitable how honourable how amiable are they Most honourable it is for the meanest Christian to be a Priest to the high God Heb. 13.16 to offer a daily sacrifice with which God is well pleased to resemble God in doing rather then in receiving good to be the hand of God to disperse his bounty to have God for his debtor to lend to the Lord of heaven and earth What likewise is more profitable than that our distribution to Saints like an ambassador by lying Lieger abroad should secure all at home that this most gainfull employment should return us pearls for pibbles jewels for trifles crowns for crumbs after a short seed-time a thousand fold measure heaped shaken thrust together and running over What lastly so amiable as for members of the same body children of the same father and who lay in the same womb suck at the same brests sit at the same table and expect for ever to lodg in the same bosom to be at union with and helpful to one another And on this side heaven Psal 16.3 Vid. doctiss Rivetum in loc where should our complacency center it self but upon the truly excellent noble illustrious ones who are every one Kings and more magnificent than ever were worldly Monarchs for their allyance having the Lord of heaven and earth for their Father the King of Kings for their elder Brother Psal 45.9 a Queen the Church the Spouse of Christ for their Mother having for their treasures those exceeding precious promises 2 Pet. 1.4 more to be desired than gold yea Psal 19.10 than fine gold in comparison of which a mountain of gold is but a heap of dung For their guard having the attendance of Angels Psal 34.7 John 6.27 Cant. 1.2 Cant. 4.7 nay the wisdom care and strength of God For their food having bread that endures to eternal life drink better than wine and a continual feast For their apparel having the robes of Christs righteousnesse here which makes them as beautifull as Angels all fair and without spot and attire to be put on hereafter which will shine more gloriously then an hundred Suns made into one For their habitation a palace of glory a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens Having thus first explained this love here desired by the Apostle in its several sorts I come in the next place to touch briefly upon those rare and excellent properties of this grace of love both as it is set upon 1 God 2 Man 1. This grace of love set upon God is true cordial and sincere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not in word or outward profession but in truth and in the inward man not complemental but reall the inward purpose of the heart having an emphasis Of love that hypocrisie and expressions cannot reach And the truth is our loving of God Eph. 6.24 is not so properly said to be sincere as to be our very sincerity Then and then alone a dutie is done in sincerity when 't is done in love and herein stands hypocrisie when though there is much doing yet there 's no loving The love of an hypocrite to Christ like the shining of the Gloworm is without any inward heat and stands only in a glistering profession or like some spices which are cold in the stomack though hot in the mouth or like the fire in Moses his bush it burneth not while it blazeth it proceeds from humane inducements of education Countenance or Commands of Superiours Interest an apprehension of the love of Christ barely to mankind or from this that Christ is out
The light of knowledge without the heat of love speaks him not excellent A golden key that opens not is not so praised as a wooden one that opens the door The shining pransing and trappings of a Steed commend him not but his serviceablenesse Ministers are not made for sight but for service Sine cura cum pervenerit ad curam Bern. Nothing more unsutable than for him to live without care who hath gotten a Cure Pray the Lord saith Christ to send forth labourers into his harvest Ministers must labour for the pulpit Qui ludit incathedra lugebit in gehenna and in the pulpit there must be the labour of study before we speak the labour of zeal and love in speaking the labour of suffering must be born after preaching alwayes the labour of praying before and after Their plainest performances must be painfull Diligens negligentia There must be a diligence even in their seeming negligence Cursed is he that doth the work of the Lord deceitfully Jer. 48.10 John 4.34 No danger is so great as spirituall nor must any care be so great as Ministeriall A godly Minister must be carefull for those that do not and carefull with those that do care for themselves He should not only eat his bread in the sweat of his brows but his sweat John 4.34 his labour should be his meat and drink Love to Christ souls should constrain him His life is short his reward is eternall Short seasons require quick services The nearnesse of Peters departure made him diligent 2 Pet. 1.13 14. Seldom doth the Kingdom of Heaven suffer violence under a remisse Ministry A sleepy Preacher cannot expect a waking Auditory It 's uncomely to see a Minister weary himselfe in the world in the family in the field in Courts of Justice Omnibus avocamentis valedicat He must take his leave of other imployments He must not leave the word of God to serve tables He is a Warriour and must not intangle himselfe in the affairs of this life They who sweat in worldly imployments are commonly but cold in the pulpit 4. Observ 4. People who partake of the Ministers diligence must take heed of negligence a double negligence 1. They must not neglect themselves Nor 2. their Minister 1. Not themselves their own souls they must carefully gather up that spirituall Manna that raineth upon them in this wildernesse they must not play with that meat which the painfull Minister hath been long a dressing If he take pains to do them good what should they to do themselves good 2 Pet. 1.5 Jam. 1.19 Isai 60.8 They must give all diligence to make their Calling and Election sure In this their day knowing the things of their peace walking while they have the light They must be swift to hear flie as doves to the windows delight in the word Alphonsus King of Naples read the Bible over forty times in his life time The Bereans received the word with all readinesse of mind Acts 17.11 First They must seek the Kingdom of God not labour for that bread which perisheth but for that which endureth to everlasting life 'T is not meat on the table but in the stomack that nourisheth A Ministers care without their own will be but their curse 2. They must not neglect their Minister Double diligence deserves double honour If the Minister consume his strength they must labour to restore it It 's a shame that people should lay out more upon brooms to sweep their kennels than upon a Ministry to cleanse their souls If Ministers bring them venison their souls must blesse them It was a saying of an holy man now with God but his speech died not with him London loves a cheap Gospell Dr. Stoughton If Ministers spend their oile people must supply it They must administer of their temporals Alas they give but pibbles for pearls Since the Ministry was so slighted godlinesse never thrived This for the first Particular considerable in the second Reason Why the Apostle sent the following Exhortation viz. With what mind and disposition the Apostle endeavoured the good of these Christians He gave all diligence The second followes In what work he was imployed for or by what means he endeavoured their good viz. by writing he gave all diligence and it was to write And why would the Apostle chuse to further their salvation by the means of writing Explicat what was the advantage of a performance of that nature His writing was sundry wayes eminently advantagious 1. It was helpfull and advantagious to the absent he could not speak and therefore he writes to them Being absent saith the Apostle I write to them which heretofore have sinned 1 Cor. 13.2 Writing is an invention to deceive absence The use of Epistles is that even the separated by distance of place may be near to one another 〈◊〉 affection that there may be among the absent a resemblance of presence The pen is an artificiall tongue the reliefe of the dumb and the distant by it the former speaks plain and the later alond The rongue is as the pen of a ready writer and the pen is as the tongue of a ready speaker 2. The Apostles writing had the advantage to be diffusive of good to many He was covetous of benefiting as many as he could and his writing scatter'd holinesse Writing as it reacheth further so more than the tongue It 's like a little leaven that leaveneth a great lump even whole Countries nay after-Ages Pauls Epistles are ours though not in their inscriptions yet in their benefit Augustine was converted by reading part of that to the Romans The pen hath the greatest Auditories Rom. 13.13 14. 3. The Apostles writing had the advantage of authority and esteem Often the contemptiblenesse of bodily presence by reason haply of defects in utterance aspect life rank c. dampeth the spirit and diminisheth the esteem of the worthiest speaker Learned Doctor Fulk Master G.H. Many are famous for their writing who have been lesse esteem'd for their speaking Pauls adversaries objected the weaknesse of his bodily presence 2 Cor. 10.10 when they confessed his letters were weighty and powerfull Writing abstracts the work from sundry prejudices against the workman Many there are who build the tombs of the Prophets and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous who publish alledge adorn the books those monuments of the memories of holy Fathers and others whose persons had they lived in their times they would have as much persecuted and opposed as they now do those who are guided by the same spirit and walk in those holy wayes in which those Saints of old did Many but meanly esteem'd of in forraign Countries by reason of their common and contemptible society are most eminently and deservedly esteemed among us for their writings 4. The Apostles writing had the advantage of permanency and continuance it was a standing lasting
Corinthians 2 Tim. 3.15 the Apostle blesseth God The knowledg of the scripture from a child was the praise of Timothy True wisdom gives to the head an Ornament of grace and a crown of glory it makes the face to shine Pro. 4.9 Eccles 8.1 When the Apostle saith that some had not the knowledg of God 1 Cor. 15.34 he spake it to their shame How little to the honour of others was that complaint of the Apostle that when for the time Heb. 5.12 they ought to be teachers of others they had need that one should teach them again which be the first principles c. And as Paul speaks of some Ever learning and never able to come to the knowledg of the truth 2 Tim. 3.7 The whole life of an ignorant person is an aberration from the rule Gal. 6.16 he sayls by no Card. All his actions are wild and roving wandrings His sacrifice is the sacrifice of a fool Psal 119.5 and devout idolatry He cannot pray unlesse it be to the unknown God He cannot beleeve Rom. 10.14 for only they can trust God who know his name Psal 9.10 John 4.10 Nor can he fear and love God or desire Christ Wait therefore on the ordinances O ye ignorant ones with humble hungry souls Be wisdomes Clyents Prov. 8.34 Psal 25.9 1 Pet. 2.3 Purge your hearts of conceits of a Laodicean fulnesse God teacheth only the humble Tast the sweetnesse of divine truths Lay up what ye hear Not he who gets but hee who saves much is the rich man Yeild conscionable obedience to that of Gods will which you know Hold not the truth in unrighteousnesse The more you practice what you know the more shall you know what to practice Knowledg is the mother of obedience and obedience is the nurse of knowledg The former breeds the later the later feeds the former And yet put not off your selves with every kind of knowledge labour for a soul humbling knowledge Job ult 5.6 1 Cor. 8.2 Job 5. ult Prov. 9.12 The more the light shines into you the more you must see your own imperfections Every man is so much a fool as he thinks himself wise Let your knowledg be applicative If ye be wise bee wife for your selves Let not knowledg swim in the brain but sink into the heart Endeavour to possesse for thine own Psal 119.104 Joh. 13.17 1 Joh 2.3 the good of every threatning command promise Let your knowledg be influentiall into heart and life not informing only but reforming not as the light of torches which scatter no influences where they shine but as the light of the sun which makes the earth and plants green and growing He who is rich in knowledg must be plentiful in holiness and not like the rich Indians who have much gold in their possessions and go naked and beggarly In a word let your knowledg be useful and helpfull to others Know not to know that 's curiosity nor to be known that 's vain glory but to do good by your knowledg that 's Christian charity Knowledg increaseth in pouring out And as some have experimentally found it the Teacher learnes more by the Scholer than the Scholer by the Teacher 2 Ministers ought to commend their peoples proficiencies in holinesse Observ 2. Jude here mentions the knowledge of the Christians to their praise When people do what is commendable Ministers should commend what they doe If the former finde matter Rom. 15.15 1 Cor. 11.2 the later should find words I am perswaded of you saith Paul to the Romans that ye are full of goodnesse And I praise you brethren saith he to the Corinthians that you remember me c. A Ministers prudent commendation wins that love to his person without which the best doctrine is often but unprofitable Rare is it to find that Christian who embraceth a message which is brought him from a messenger not beloved A wise commendation will make a Reproof go down the better Constant chiding is like Physick which being too frequently taken grows naturall and therefore proves not operative Ministers should be wise in chusing a fit object for commendation the commendable actions of every one must not be presently commended some can lesse bear the sweetnesse of praise then they can the bitternesse of reproof A little wine will turn a weak brain Nor should we commend any to flatter but benefit them to encourage the humble not to content the proud But truly Christians 't were happy for Ministers if the time you make them spend in weeping and reproving they might fill with encouraging and cheering you The work and delight of a Minister is with the Bee to give honey he puts not forth the sting unlesse you by sin provoke him Of this more pag. 183. 184. 3. Observ 3. Col. 3.16 Joh 5.39 Rom. 15.4 Acts 17.11 Every private Christian should be acquainted with the Scripture It 's sinfull to clasp up the Scriptures in an unknown tongue The end of the writing the Scriptures was the instruction of every one None are so much commended in Scripture as those who most diligently search'd into it To private Christians Paul writes sundry Epistles The study of Scripture is usefull and needfull to people as well as Ministers Illumination Conversion Direction preservation from sin Psal 19.8.9 Psal 119.24 belong to the one as well as to the other and if for the abuse of Scripture the use thereof should be denyed to people why would Christ and his Apostles preach and write to those who perverted and wrested their doctrines yea why should not the reading of Scripture be deny'd not only to ignorant Monks and Priests but erroneous Clerks and Bishops from whom by abuse of Scripture most heresies have proceeded But whether Satan hath not by his methods wrought us into the other extreme when in stead of generall restraint from reading he puts people upon a generall liberty of preaching and expounding the Scripture our present distractions sufficiently witnesse 4. Observ 4. The knowledg of truth is a strong engagement upon Christians to embrace and love it The Apostle from their knowing the examples hopefully expects that they will lay them to heart Truth known and not loved is unprofitable Not he who knows a trade but follows it grows rich It will fare ill enough with the ignorant worse with the obstinate and many stripes are reserved for the opposing of much knowledg But of this before 5. Observ 5. Ministers ought not to content the curiosity but to consult the benefit of their hearers They should rather deliver Truths old and usefull then doctrines new and unprofitable Their work is not to please the Athenian but to profit the Christian They are not Cooks but Physicians and therefore should not study to delight the pallat but to recover the Patient they must not provide sawce but physick If to preach the same things be safe it matters not whether
our owne phrensie 9. No difficulties can hinder Israels deliverance Observ 9. God can command yea create deliverances for his people Psal 25.22 Psal 34.7 Psal 71.20 Isai 43.13 Gen. 18.14 When there is none left and shut up when there is no force and might to relieve he can deliver them alone When there are mountaines of opposition he can levell them and make them become a plain Jesus Christ comes skipping and leaping over them all The wisdom power malice of his enemies do but make his strength tiumphant yea the unworthiness and unkindness of Israel cannot stop the course of delivering mercy So unexpectedly can he scatter difficulties that his people have been like them that dreamed when mercy came they thinking it too good to be true Yea their enemies have been amazed and been compell'd to profess that God hath done great things for his Church How strong must the forces of Gods decree power love wisdome faithfulnesse the prayers and tears of his people needs be when they are all united And hence it is that as the enemies of Israel have cause to fear though they are high So the true Israelites have cause to hope 1 King 2.15 Fides in periculis secura est in securis periclitatur though they are low There 's no defeat so great but faith hath a retreating place Means can do nothing without much lesse against God but God can do all things without yea against means A Saint abhorres indirectly to wind himselfe out of any trouble Why he hath a God who can help in every strait when as a sinner who wants God shiftingly betakes himselfe to any unworthy practice Oh Christian shame thy selfe that every slight trouble should so dismay thee having such a deliverer That the mountain should be full of horses and chariots and thou shouldest not have thy eyes open to see and beleeve them Psal 126.4 What 's a Pharaoh an house of bondage a puissant army a red sea delivering mercy makes way through them all and is a mighty stream that bears all before it It s infinitely stronger than the strongest blast of gun-powder to blow up all opposition Oh Christian fear not thy danger but beleeve in thy deliverer 10. God loves not to give deliverance Observ 10. Deus ad suorum liberationem manum admovet cum omnia videntur desperata Riv. in Exod. p. 70. Psal 12.5 till it be welcome When the bricks are doubled then and not till then Moses comes When Israel is parch'd with the heat of persecution then come the showrs of deliverance God is an help in the needfull time of trouble Then is it Gods time to deliver when there are no visible helps or hopes of deliverance For the oppression of the poor and sighing of the needy now will I arise saith the Lord. In such a case it was that God said to Moses Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh Times of extreme oppression Exod. 6.1 are times of earnest supplication and God loves to bestow mercies when they are by prayer desired The cry of Israel must come up to God before mercy from God comes down upon Israel Further Judg. 6.10 where deliverance comes in a time of extremity it will be entertained upon its own termes Israel will part with any thing that offends their deliverer they will submit to strict reformation which before they would not hear of and say with Saul Act. 6.9 Lord what wilt thou have us to do and with the Egyptians who were pinched with the famine Gen. 47.19 Buy us and our land for bread and we and our land will be servants to Pharaoh Lastly when deliverance is afforded in the Churches extremity the glory of Gods power wisdome and free goodnesse is most clearly discovered God loves so to work for his people as to gaine most by them he will have the tribute of praise out of every salvation And this discovers the true reason why mercy is delaid why God only as it were shews a mercy and then pulls it in again we are not yet so pinchâ—d by the want thereof as to stoop to Gods conditions to accept of an exact universall reformation to be willing that God should do with us what he pleaseth and to those whom God hath so fitted mercy shall not long be delayed nay God hath given to them the best of mercies in bestowing a heart meet to enjoy them 11. Observ 11. God often proportions the sin to the punishment The Egyptians encompasse poor Israel with affliction neither suffering them to go from or remain in Egypt and now they themselves can neither go backward or forward in the sea The bloody rivers and their destruction in the red sea tell them their cruelty in drowning the Israelitish children Sodom was inflamed with the fire of lust and God consumes them with the fire of wrath Joseph's brethren sell Joseph for a slave and they themselves are detained as bond-men Adonibezek cuts off the thumbs and great toes of seventy Kings Judg. 1.7 and as he did to them so did God requite him Haman was hanged upon his own gibbet David's murder and adultery were followed with the death of his children and the ravishment of Thamar It 's thy duty to trace sinne by the foot-prints of punishment and observe what sin thou hast lived in which beares most proportion to thy punishment Art thou sick consider whether thou hast not abus'd thy strength to sin Doth God take away thy sight thy hearing thy tongue thy estate ask thy conscience whether these have not been imploy'd against God And if this direction seem to put thee upon an uncertain course of finding out thy beloved sin imitate the example of Herod who that he might make sure work to kill our Saviour slew all the children in Bethlehem In like manner let us impartially destroy all our sins If we know not which was the thorn that prick'd us cut down the whole hedg If we know not which was the Bee that stung us let us throw down the whole hive 12. Observ 12. When the enemies of God labour most to oppose and frustrate they accomplish and fulfill the will of God Pharaoh studies to destroy Israel but even then Pharaoh by his own daughter preserves and nourisheth him who was to be Israels deliverer Pharaoh resolves to detain Israel in bondage but even he shall shortly not only send them away but compell them to go yea in that very night which God had four hundred and thirty yeers before set down and prefixed Josephs brethren sell him that his dreame might prove false and that they might not be brought to bow before him but so did God order it Ideo veneratus quia venditus that therefore they came to do obeysance to him because they sold him The Jews kild Christ to extinguish his fame and glory but by his death was his glory and fame advanced Oh the folly of Gods
that his commands are profitable to both 3. Sins of unchastity are peculiarly defiling Besides that spirituall uncleannesse wherewith every sin defiles carnall chastity defiles with that which is bodily All sin in generall is called uncleannesse but fornication is the sin which is singled out particularly to be branded with that name Some think that Adulterers are especially compared to Dogs unclean creatures The hire of a whore and the price of a dog are put together and both forbidden to be brought into the house of the Lord Deuter. 23.18 And when Abner was by Ishbosheth reproved for defiling Rizpah he answers Am I a dog Weems on the seventh Commandment The childe begotten in adultery is Deut. 23.2 called Mamzer which some learned men derive from two words signifying another mans spot or defilement how foolish are they who desire to have their dead bodies imbalmed and their living bodies defiled There 's a peculiar opposition between fornication and sanctification 1 Thes 4.3 This is the will of God even your sanctification that ye should abstain from fornication The Saints of God should have a peculiar abhorrence of this sin fornication and uncleanness c. let it not be once named among you as becometh Saints Eph. 5.3 they should cleanse themselves from all filthiness of flesh and Spirit 2 Cor. 7.1 A man who is of a cleanly disposition loves to wear clean garments The body is the garment of the soule and a clean heart will preserve a pure body Remember Christians by what hand your bodies were made by what guest they are inhabited to what head they are united by what price they are purchased in what laver they have been washed and to whose eye they shall hereafter be presented Consider lastly whether Delilah's lap be a fit place for those who expect a room in Abrahams bosome 3. Observ 3. The love of lust makes men erroneous and seducers They who make no conscience of ordering their conversation will soon be hereticall These Seducers who oppos'd the Faith were unclean and Flesh-defilers The fool said in his heart that there was no God Psal 14.1 and the true ground thereof immediately follows they are corrupt and have done abominable works They who put away a good conscience concerning faith will soon make shipwrack 1 Tim. 1.19 The lust of ambition and desire to be teachers of the Law makes men turn aside to vain jangling 1 Tim. 1.7 Diotrephes his love of preheminence puts him upon opposing the truth 3 Joh. ver 10. The lust of covetousness did the like They who supposed that gain was godliness quickly grew destitute of the truth 1 Tim. 6.5 while some covered money they erred from the faith Mich. 3 5. 1 Tim. 6.10 They who subverted whole houses and taught things which they ought not did it for filthy lucres sake Tit. 1.11 The blinde Watchmen and the Shepherds which understood not were such as could never have enough and lookt every one for his gain and they were dumb because greedy dogs Esa 56.10 11. The lust of voluptuousness produced the same effect they who caused divisions contrary to the Doctrine which the Romans had learned were such as served their own belly Rom. 16.17 They who lead captive silly women laden with divers lusts resisted the truth were men of corrupt minds and reprobate concerning the faith 2 Tim. 3. Wine and strong drink made the Prophets erre and go out of the way The Hereticks of old the Gnosticks Basilidians Epiph. adv haer c. 24 25 26. Aug. de haer c. 5 6. Perit judicium cum res transit in affectum Nicolaitans c. were so infamous for carnall uncleanness as Epiphanius Augustine and others report that a modest ear would even suffer by the relation thereof Nor have the Papists and Anabaptists of late come far short of them The lusts make the affections to be judges and where affection swayes judgement decayes Hence Alphonsus advised that affections should be left at the threshold when any went to Councell We are prone to believe that to be right and lawful which we would have to be so Lusts oppose all entrance of light which opposeth them Repentance alone makes men acknowledge the truth 2 Tim. 2.25 How can yee believe saith Christ who receive honour one from another Sensuall men taught that the Resurrection was past 2 Tim. 2.18 because it troubled them to think of it The consideration of a Resurrection an Hell an Heaven disturbs them and therefore they deny these If the light be too much in mens eyes they will either shut their eyes or draw the curtains Lusts will pervert the light which is brought in making men instead of bringing their crooked lives to the strait rule to bring the strait rule to their crooked lives and in stead of bringing their hearts to the Scripture to bring the Scripture to their hearts Hence it is that wicked men study the Scripture for distinctions to maintain their lusts and truly a carnall will is often helpt by the Devill to a carnall wit Lastly God in judgement gives up such who will not see to an inability and utter impotency to discern what they ought and to a reprobate minde they who will not be Scholars of Truth are by God justly delivered up to be Masters of Error And because men will not indure sound Doctrine God suffers them to heap unto themselves teachers after their own lusts to turn away their ears from the truth and to be turned unto fables because that when the very Heathen extinstuish'd the light of Nature and knowing God did not glorifie him as God professing themselves wise they became fools and God gave them up to uncleanness and vile affections much more may God send those who live under the Gospell and receive not the love of the truth strong delusions that they should believe lies 2 Thes 2.10 11. Wonder not therefore at that apostacy from the truth which abounds in these dayes and the opposing of those old precious Doctrines which heretofore men have imbraced in appearance some unmortified lust or other there was in them some worm or other there was of pride licenciousness c. in these beautifull Apples which made them fall from the tree of truth to the dirt of error in stead therefore of being scandalized at them let us bee carefull of our selves if wee would hold the mystery of faith let us put it into a pure conscience Let us keep no lust in delitiis love we no sin if we would leave no truth Let us love what we know and then we shall know what to love let us sincerely do the will of Christ and then we shall surely know the Doctrine of Christ I understand more than the Antients saith David Psal 119.100 because I keep thy precepts The Lord will teach such his way and guide them in judgment Evill men saith Solomon understand not judgement but they that seek the Lord understand all things Prov.