wrought by him It is your Duty but it is God's Gift it is your Act but it is God's Work Eph. 6.23 Peace be to the brethren and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only Peace is from God that is the God of Peace and Faith from him the Worker of it but Love is from God that is the God of Love Love to Christ must be had from God and Christ or you will never have it For this the Apostle prayed for others 2 Thess 3.5 And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ And you may be the more encouraged to ask for this because such a Petition is pleasing to God that you beg an heart to love his Son rather than for Riches and Honours and length of Life in this world as in that of Solomon's in asking for Wisdom 1 Kings 3.9 10. And in your praying be earnest for love to Christ more than for your Life for love to him will be to you everlasting Life and take that Promise and turn it into a Prayer and then most like to be effectual Deut. 30.6 And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul that thou mayst live VII Improve the Principle of self-love to the promoting of love to Jesus Christ and say Do not I love my self Have I not so much love to my own Soul as to wish it well for ever Would I have my self miserable and accursed for ever If I be sick do not I love my self so far as to desire health If in pain to desire ease If in want to seek supply And is there any way for me to procure good everlasting good but by Jesus Christ I might love my self to please my self in sinful delights to destroy my self and damn my self without loving of Christ But such Self-love at last will prove Self-hatred and is that the best love I have for my self Surely if I love not Christ I hate my self VIII Make use of the sense of natural and friendly Love to raise in thee Love to Jesus Christ Thou hast some experience of the sweetness and delight there is in loving of a Friend Oh then what will be the delight of love to Christ Thou feelest what it is to love thy Parents to love thy Children thy Wife thy Husband if thou meetest with troubles Love doth make them light Is there so much sweetness in the love of a Creature and will there not be much more in the love of the Saviour If the Streams be sweet is not the Fountain much more I have found comfort and pleasure in the love of Relations I will now try what is to be found in love to Christ the Lord. IX Improve the vanity and vexation of the Creature and all thy disappointments and afflictions to raise and promote in thee the love of Christ Thou hast let out thy love upon the world how hath it proved and what hath it afforded thee Hast thou not found it to be a wearisom empty world A world of Care and Grief and Pain Thou hast looked for Ease and behold Trouble for Content and behold Vexation for Satisfaction and behold Emptiness and is this a World to be loved more than Christ Is not it's Sweetness sowre It 's Mirth Sorrow It 's Riches poor Oh then I must love Christ or have nothing to love out Vanity and Deceit When by the Word this Love is not wrought God might effect it by the Rod. When thou wast deaf to all Instructions God can open thy Ear and Heart by some Affliction and shake thee over the grave if thereby he might shake the love of the World and Sin out of thy Heart and by threatning thee by sickness that thou shalt have no longer room in the World make room for the love of Christ in thy Heart and by threatning to separate thy Soul and Body he might part thy Soul and the love of sin By some sickness he brings thee to the brink of the Grave and bids thee look where thou must lodge and then to the borders of Hell and bids thee look where thou must lie if thou wilt not hearken to his Son He lays thee on thy weary Bed and shews thee a sight of another World and thy nearness to it and doth threaten a Divorce of Soul and Body that thou mightest be willing thy sin might be divorced from thy Soul that thy Soul might love and be married to his Son of which some have had such good experience that they can say This was healthful sickness recovering weakness The view of Death the means of Love and Life If I had not been sick I had not been well if God had not shewn me Death I had never seen Life If I had not been filled with these fears I had past my days without hope if I had not been brought into these straits I had never been set at liberty If I had not been poor I had never been rich if I had not been empty I had never been filled if I had not been driven to feed on husks I had never been feasted in my Father's House if I had not found bitterness in the love of the Creature I had never tasted the sweetness of the Love of Christ X. Improve all the mercies thou receivest from God and look upon them as Love-tokens sent to gain thy love Love-tokens often take our love and such silent Gifts are very Rhetorical The Cloaths upon thy back thy Meat and Drink thy Bed thy Health thy ease from Pain bespeak the Love of thy Heart for Christ By sin thou hast deserved thou shouldst have no Bread to put into thy mouth that Sleep should depart from thine Eyes thy Bed should be filled with Thorns thy Body with Diseases thy Conscience with Horrour thy Heart with Fears thy Soul with Sorrows thy Life with Bitterness but Christ hath bought good things for thee by his Blood and hath given them to thee from his Bounty and by all these he pleads with thee that thou wouldst not deny thy love to him that is so kind to thee Nay thy very being on God's Earth thy breathing in his Air that thy Body is above ground and thy Soul on this side Hell that thou art not silent among the dead nor crying out among the damned is a great Love-token indeed For Justice would have cut thee down long since Sin these 20 40 60 years hath cried to Heaven that thou may'st be pack'd to Hell Devils have long desired the day of thy death hoping it will prove the day of thy damnation but this hath been Christ's love to thee to beg for thee longer time even time unto this day but for how much longer he might ask on thy behalf is more than is known to thee or me or any man And is not love in Christ the
not troubled because we do not love him For my own part I do complain I cannot love this Blessed Jesus with that strength of Love I ought and earnestly do desire and endeavour to grieve more because I love him no more and to loath my self so much the more by how much I fall short of that Love I ought to have to him Oh that others may make up what I do want and might be enlarged and abound in that love wherein I am straitned and defective that what degrees of Love I cannot reach others on Earth might attain unto that while I mourn for the smalness of my own Love I might rejoyce in the greatness of the Love of others unto this lovely Jesus and yet when all this is less than he is worthy of let it be some joy unto my grieved Soul that saved Souls above and Angels in Glory do love him with a perfect and eternal Love that though I cannot love him as they do yet I may rejoyce on Earth that there are Ten Thousand times Ten Thousands and Thousands of Thousands in Heaven rejoycing in the fullness of Love which is in them to him when Thousands upon Earth never will and Millions in Hell never can love this most lovely Lord Jesus Christ But still I must grieve and groan that when my Lord doth ask me Lovest thou me more than these sometimes I doubt and dare not say Lord thou that knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee but my Heart doth pant my Soul doth long that my love to him might be inflamed that the Actings of it might be more vigorous and the Workings of it so sensible that they may put me into pleasant Pangs and sweetest Pains of Love Lord I shall not account my self to be well till I am sick of love to thee that so I might from what I feel and find in my own Soul recommend the sweetest Delights the Rational Pleasures and the Spiritual Comforts to the Lovers of Vanity to allure and draw their Love to Christ that I may speak more of the unspeakable Joy that fills the Breast of a strong Lover of Christ and more pathetically Perswade more effectually Plead till God powerfully prevail with them to turn the Stream of their Love which now runs waste into the right Channel and glide along till it empty it self into that Sea of Love which Saints and Angels flow in unto Christ I have made a small Attempt in this little Treatise of the Necessity of Sincere Love to Christ whether God by Me might move the Hearts of any to fix their Love upon him in which I have not studied Words and Phrases to recommend Christ to wanton Wits in their Dress but with as much plainness and Gospel simplicity as I could in the very Words in which it was Preached to a People that love plain Preaching and easie to be understood If any for this shall dislike it when they have took it up and look'd into it and see it to be such may as easily lay it down and slight it as they please I sought not my Self in it but the love of Men to Christ by it I can be willing to be accounted a Fool for Christ and I doubt not but I shall have more Comfort on a Dying-Bed when I shall reflect I aimed not at vain Applause of Dying men but to gain the Hearts and hearty Love of once the Hearers and now the Readers of these Sermons and if God will please to own them in mens Reading as he did in the Hearing of them by many when not I but the Grace of God did so much affect their Hearts that they did desire it might be Preached to them some time after the second time which I did and did Work and had as great Success as at the first Not that I was any thing but God did all both first and last Many very many that did confess they loved not Christ but World and Vanity and Sin before did desire all in the Congregation earnestly to Pray That God would give them this love unto his Son which I hope they have and are increasing and growing therein and that God may so Bless it to any Poor plain Country People whom my voice cannot reach and to whom I cannot go where this may shall be the fervent Prayers that one so mean can put up to Heaven Where let the Prayers of all true Lovers of Christ meet that the Number of such may be increased Amen Tho. Doolittle THE Contents THE Introduction pag. 1 2 Anathema explained p. 3 to 9 Maranatha explained p. 3 to 9 The parts of the Text p. 9 A Paraphrase upon the Text p. 10 to 14 The Doctrine and Method p. 14 15 Twelve Requisites in sincere Love to Christ p. 15 to 41 Delighting Love p. 41 42 Desiring Love p. 41 42 Mourning Love p. 41 42 A Description of Love to Christ p. 43 The Necessity of sincere Love to Christ to escape the Curse proved by ten Arguments p. 44 to 55 Ten Properties of the Curse due to Non-Lovers of Christ p. 56 to 69 Eight Reasons why Love is so strictly required that Christ must be Loved or the Sinner Accursed p. 69. to 75 The Uses to be made of this Subject p. 75 76 Ten Inferences deduced from it p. 78 to 96 Twenty Aggravations of want of Love to Christ p. 96 to 124 The Case Resolved how a Man may know he hath or wants sincere Love to Christ p. 124 to 143 An Attempt to gain Sinners Consent to Love Christ p. 143 to 151 Twenty Motives or Pleas that Christ might have the Love of Mens Hearts p. 151 to 176 Ten Directions to get sincere Love to Christ p. 176 to 197 Ten Springs of Spiritual Comfort flowing into the Hearts of the Lovers of Christ p. 197 to 210 The Conclusion and Blessing p. 210 to the end LOVE to CHRIST NECESSARY TO ESCAPE the CURSE At His COMING 1 COR. XVI 22. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maran-atha CHAP. I. SECT I. The Introduction HOW Not love the Lord Hellish Sin How Not love Jesus Stupendous Wickedness What! Not love Christ Monstrous Impiety Not love him that is both Lord and Jesus and Christ What name might we call him by A Man or a Beast A Man or a Devil That doth not love the Lord Jesus Christ Do you confess him to be Lord and Jesus and Christ and love Sin and not Him Love the World and not Him Love Relations and not Him This may be the Astonishment of the Heavens the Amazement of the Earth the Wonder of Angels the Joy of Devils the Burthen of the Creation of God The Earth doth groan to bear them the Sun is grieved to give light unto them the Air laments its putrefaction to be suck'd into such filthy bodies wherein are more filthy souls because void of the Love of Christ Yea all this world looks more like Hell than Heaven because of
thereof Doth that Woman love her Husband that is gone a Journey and the tidings of his coming back is sorrowful News unto her The loving of the coming of Christ is a character of such as shall be crowned when he comes 2 Tim. 4.8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto all them also that love his appearing And the Spouse that was inflamed with Love concludeth that Song of Love with this Request Cant. 8.14 Make haste my beloved and be thou like to a Roe or to a young Hart upon the mountains of spices And when in the last words save one verse of all the Book of God Christ promiseth his last and speedy coming the Church that loveth Christ catcheth the promise out of his mouth and turns it into a Prayer Rev. 22.20 He which testifieth these things saith Surely I come quickly Amen Even so come Lord Jesus But your heart saith rather Oh not so Lord Jesus great love in the mean time in your heart Yet one that truly loveth Christ might be sometimes filled with fear at the thoughts of Christs coming not because he doth not love and desire it but because he thinks he is not prepared for his coming lest Christ should find him unfitted and unready at his coming to enter with him into his glory but while he doth defer his coming the loving Soul is hasting in his preparations for it As a Woman that is told her Suiter is coming is greatly troubled not because he is coming but because she fears he might come before she he adorned as she doth desire What say ye now Sirs Do ye love Christ or do ye not Upon the laying these things to your heart by examination of your heart by them can ye upon mature deliberation say that ye find the love of Christ is there Then I shall shew in the close of this subject what cause of joy in God ye have what comfort for the present and what ground of expectation of better greater things for the future and for ever this love to Christ might be unto you But is this the case of all you in this Congregation I would to God it were Is love to Christ in every heart among you I wish it were but I fear it is not I hope some of you do love Christ but can I hope so of you all If I would never so fain I cannot while some are ignorant and some are prophane and too many are excluded by the former characters of Love from having for the present the Grace of Love Oh that I my self had more love to Christ that I might grieve more that blessed Jesus is not loved by more among you Oh that for Jesus sake I had more love to your Souls that I could weep abundantly over you that neither for Jesus sake nor your own have hitherto loved the Lord Jesus What then Have ye not Good God pardon it Will ye not Good God forbid it What shall I do Take it for granted that many of you do not love the Lord Jesus Yea I have proved that ye do not And oh how bitter are these thoughts to me that so many of you do not love the sweetest Jesus Shall I take it for granted that ye will not This were enough if my heart were not a stone to break it to pieces Shall I let you alone without this Love I dare not Shall I try to gain your Love not to me but to my Lord I am afraid ye will deny me Deny me In this that is of everlasting concernment to your Souls shall I take a denial and be gone At your first denial I will not be gone I know ye must have love unto him or be cursed by him how then can I acquiesce in a denial from you I know the Sinner doth not know what he saith when he doth deny to give Christ his love and therefore in hopes he might come to a better understanding of himself and what makes for his own eternal good I will proceed to the fourth Use by which I hope God will change some of your hearts and minds and win the love of some of you for Christ that all you that yet do not love him will not give this as your final answer That ye will not love him CHAP. X. Where the fourth Vse is an attempt of gaining Sinners consent to love Christ a serious wish for good success OH then be perswaded as ye love your Souls as ye would escape the Damnation of Hell as ye would obtain the Happiness of Heaven as ye would avoid the punishment of Devils as ye would dye in a good condition and after Death give a good account of the Wooings of Grace this day and not be Anathema when Maranatha be perswaded to set your hearts and love upon Jesus Christ for he must be loved by you or ye must be cursed by him Abraham Gen. 24. sent his Servant bound with an Oath to seek a Wife for his Son Isaac with this proviâ—o If the Womâ—n would nor be willing he should be clear from his Oath ver 1. to 10th The Servant prepares to go on this Message and Prays O Lord God of my master Abraham I pray thee send me good speed this day and shew kindness to my master Abraham ver 10.11 12. He meets with Rebekah by the Well of Water enquireth whose Daughter she was and whether there were room in her Fathers House for him to Lodge in he is invited by her Brother Laban saying Come in thou blessed of the Lord wherefore standest thou without for I have prepared the house and room for the camels to ver 32. There was Meat set before him to eat but he said I will not eat till I have told my errand And he was desired to speak on and he said I am Abrahams servant and the Lord hath blessed my master greatly and he is become great and he hath a Son and he hath given him all that he hath and my master made me swear saying Thou shalt go unto my fathers house and to my kindred and take a wife unto my son and now if ye will deal kindly and truly with my master tell me and if not tell me that I may turn to the right hand or to the left Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said The thing proceedeth from the Lord we cannot speak unto thee bad or good behold Rebekah is before thee take her and go and let her be thy masters sons wife as the Lord hath spoken And the servant brought forth Jewels of silver and Jewels of gold and raiment and gave them to Rebekah and they said to Rebekah Wilt thou go with this man and she said I will go O that I might have such success with Souls this Day for the Lord my Master hath sent me bound with the obligation of a Woe to seek the love and
Instant Now there is hope and yet thou wilt not give me thy Love and Heart then there will be no hope and that might even break thy Heart Besides 3. Will it not be universal pain All over no part free Here if thou art pained in thy Head thy Heart may not be sick if pained in more yet not in all but then thou wilt be all over Tormented Thy Vnderstanding will torment thee when thou shalt know the God the Heaven the Happiness thou hast lost and all for want of Love to me and the misery thou hast found Thy Memory will increase the vexation of thy Heart in calling to mind thine opportunities upon Earth how Mercy did intreat thee how Grace did Wooe thee how I called my Spirit strived and Patience long waited for thy Love and yet I could not obtain it of thee Thy Conscience will sting and gnaw thee saying Did not I tell thee this would be the end of thy Refusals Did not I forewarn thee Did not I say it would be thy wisest only way to hearken unto Christ and to set thy Love upon him But thou wouldst not didst not hearken to my voice nor to the voice of Christ intreating of thee for thy Love And at the Resurrection thy Body will be sharer of punishment with thy Soul and all thy Senses be tormented with afflicting Obects Thine Ears in hearing doleful Lamentations â—hine Eyes in seeing a cursed Crew of Damnâ—d Creatures thy Smell afflicted with the stench of burning Brimstone thy Taste in continual drinking of the Cup of Wrath full of Dregs without mixture of Mercy thy Touch in feeling the Fire burning but never consuming of thee It was a Wonder unto Moses that the Bush did burn and not consume on Earth and these brambles shall burn in Hell and not consume which will be a greater Wonder Now tell me poor Sinner saith Christ what is thine Answer Hadst thou rather endure all this than love me Hadst thou rather love the World and thy present Pleasures and hereafter lye in these extream eternal and universal pains than love me and be delivered from them One of these must be be wise therefore in thy choice As Christ takes this course to gain thy Love so do thou join in with Christ by serious consideration for thine own Conviction that thou maist give thy love to him Urge thy self and work it on thy Heart that thou art under the Curse and Threatnings of God which are true terrible intolerable and eternal thou art the Man that art threatned by God with the forest Punishments Plagues Judgments in this Life and in the Life to come thou art the Man that Law and Gospel will condemn if thou finally deny thy love to Christ Think seriously with thy self that thou art under the Wrath of God which is great Wrath Jer. 21.5 Whole Treasures of it Rom. 2.5 Abiding Wrath. Joh. 3.36 Tearing and destroying Wrath. Amos 1.11 Psal 50.22 Ezek. 43.8 Intolerable Nah. 1.6 Most of it to come Mat. 3.7 And Eternal Rev. 14.10 11. Endeavour to get thine Heart affected that while thou lovest not Christ thou hast no Title to Heaven no Actual Hope no Promise no Pledge nor Earnest no Plea no Interest no Warrant to expect Salvation that Hell is thy due Torments thy desert Hell is appointed for thy Lodging Dwelling place The Place is prepared the Fire is kindled Devils are waiting and all Hell is moved to meet thee at thy coming Oh think what manner of Hell it is that thou art every moment in danger of it is hot long large dark deep a restless and remediless Hell When thou hast got a sight and sense of thy Sin and that thou art lost in thy self then II. Consider there is no help for thee in any meer Creature among all the Creation of God none such can prevent thy Damnation set thee in Gods favour bring thee to his Kingdom If thou lookest upwards Angels cannot or downwards Devils neither can nor will Look round about thee all Creatures say There is no help in us for Wrath must be pacified and that cannot be till Justice is satisfied and how shall any meer finite Creature satisfie Infinite-offended-Justice Tears Prayers Reformation cannot satisfie God so that as all other Creatures cannot give relief unto thee so thou thy self canst not help thy self Then III. By serious thoughts dwell upon thy own Mortality and on the consideration of Judgment Heaven and Hell Ponder upon the certainty and the nearness of approaching Death thou mightest dye this Year before the next this Week this Day this Hour before the next and say Oh what will become of me then Where shall I be then What shall I do Nay What shall I suffer then Am I under the Curse and Death at my back Is God angry with me and Death at my heels Have I no Title to Heaven no Reason to hope for it and yet do not know how soon Death might come Am I in danger of Hell and might drop into it any day in the Week any hour in the Day Oh woful case that I am in Wrath is over my head and Hell is under my feet Wrath is ready to fall upon me and I am in danger of falling into Hell I never thought my Heart for want of love had been so bad my danger so great my Soul so black my Self so near to Hell Torments Woe is me that all my Life I have loved loathsom Sin A very Monster Even Sin which is a provocation to the Majesty of God a contradiction to the Will of God an opposition to the Nature of God a rejection of the Son of God a vexation to the Spirit of God and Damnation to my own Soul surely this Love was blind Oh! Will God bear such slightings of his Son Such abusings of his Grace Such contemning of his Mercy Woe is me Can I live without Life And be saved without a Saviour Oh what shall I do And where must I have help By whom may I be relieved restored saved Oh in this distress that I am in if I could but hear of one that could and would relieve and save me of one that could take off the Curse and make me Blessed that could turn away Gods wrath and reconcile me unto him that would save me from Hell and bring me to Heaven then What then distressed Soul Oh then him would I love Love Yea with all my Heart with all my Soul as surely I should have cause to do Love him Did I know such a one his very Name would be precious unto my Soul it should be Engraven on my Heart and I should think I could never love such a one enough Saist thou so Sinner I will tell thee there is one and but one that can and that is full and fit and free to help thee and to save and succour thee in this distress that thou art in Oh good Sir what is his Name that I might apply my self unto him and place
Thou art not come to offer us any terms of Mercy or to make any Propositions of Peace betwixt God and us and therefore our recovery is impossible and therefore being fallen do lie down in utter despair of any communication of the Benefits of thy Death and Sufferings unto us and having no hope of merciful Redemption by Thee we neither have nor will nor can have any love unto Thee 2. The same is now the condition of Damned Souls as that of Damned Devils Men on Earth might have love to Christ but in Hell they cannot for on earth Christ had to do with them and they with Christ and Mercy had to do with them and Grace and Patience had to do with them but when once in Hell Christ hath done with them and the Spirit hath done with them Grace Mercy and Patience of God hath done with them no offer of Grace no tender of Peace and Reconciliation no overtures of Mercy more to all Eternity But now Wrath hath to do with them and vindictive punishing Justice hath to do with them and they are fallen into the hands of the Living God and being past all possibility of benefit and advantage by Christ they cannot love him but have more rooted hatred to him than ever By the way let me note That ye should with fear and trembling diligently labour fervently pray speedily repent and turn from sin sincerely believe that ye might not at death be doom'd down to Hell because by damn'd Souls Christ cannot be loved 3. But the case is otherwise with men on earth with the worst of you in this Congregation this day The Swearer might yet have benefit Pardon by Christ the vilest the greatest sinner that stands here before God this day may yet be saved if he will hearken to the Voice of Mercy to the Commands and Invitations of the only Saviour to the Calls of Grace and answer to those Calls Christ hath dyed for you for every one of you so far that Salvation yet is possible to you and God reconcilable to you and Christ and his Benefits upon the conditions of the Gospel communicable to you For who dare say there is no difference between the state of the damned in Hell and the worst of men upon earth or that there is no more hope or possibility of Salvation by Christ for the greatest sinners upon the earth than of the Devils themselves or that God is no more reconcilable and the Benefits of Christ no more communicable to them than to these while to sinners on earth Commands are given to repent and believe and turn to God in hopes of Mercy and Conditional Promises of Life and a conditional Grant of Pardon is given to them which is not the case of Devils or damned Souls and therefore we Study in hope and Pray in hope and Preach in hope of your Conversion and Salvation when there is no hope of them that are gone down to death and utter and eternal darkness Methinks this considered should win thy Love to Christ and cause thee to break forth into such Language as this and say O my Soul as yet through the Mercy and Patience of God to thee there is a wide difference betwixt thy state and the state of damned souls for tho thou hitherto hast not loved Christ which is thy hainous sin yet thou mayest which is God's great Mercy to thee For tho now thou art without Christ which is thy misery yet thou mightest have Christ which will be thy remedy when the Damned love not Christ nor can love him for they have not Christ nor can have him Thou art yet in the land of hope and under the means of hope and thy remedy is at hand if by thy wilful refusals of recovering Grace thou dost not dash this hope when those poor wretched Souls that are passed out of Time into Eternity from Earth to Hell from Hearing in this world to Howling in the next are now and there Christless and because now and there Christless are therefore there now and for ever hopeless and remediless O then my Soul look towards this Christ that thou mayest have Behold This Christ and all his Benefits upon Gospel-Conditions are yet communicable unto thee for thine Everlasting Good Dost thou not hear the Offers of Pardon Peace and Glory made to thee in his name Dost thou not perceive him yet standing at thy door and knocking crying calling there Open to me and I will save thee Dost thou not feel his Spirit yet striving with thee Dost thou not see Mercy hath not yet delivered thee into the hands of Justice and to God's fiery Indignation Here thou standest while others are lying rowling in a Lake of burning Brimstone Doth not his Grace still woo thee for thy Love Doth not his Goodness still intreat thee and his Patience still wait upon thee If thou wilt be holy yet thou mayest if thou wilt have Mercy Mercy thou mayest have and if thou wilt have the fruit and benefits of Christ's Death as yet it is not too late Is not this enough to melt an heart of stone To break an heart as hard as adamant To dissolve thee into tears to kindle and inflame thy love And with admiration cause thee to cry out and say Is this thy Mercy Lord to me to me to me that have so long abused thy Grace despised thy Mercy and slighted thy Love To me that have lived so long and never loved thee To me that might have been damned before this day and so have been shut up under an impossibility of Salvation by thy Blood and bloody Sufferings Yea have had the hatred of my heart fixed upon thee and Love never bent towards thee But forasmuch as thou art pleased to this day to follow me with thy Calls of Mercy with the Entreaties of thy Grace and still the voice of Love is sounding in my ears and thou sayest to me If thou wilt love me I will pardon thee if thou at last wilt give me thy heart I will be thy Saviour it is long that I have waited but if now thou wilt hearken and consent all shall be thine own my Righteousness shall be thine my Merits shall be thine my Spirit shall be thine and Heaven shall be thine O Blessed Lord I cannot withstand this pleading Love I can no longer gainsay this expostulating Grace I have but now I cannot I have but now I will not Thou sayest that Thou wilt yet be mine and the Blessings of the Covenant may yet be mine and Heaven it self may yet be mine Dearest Lord thou hast won my heart thou hast got my Love and lo I give it all to thee I place it all upon thee SECT VI. The Fifth Requisite of Love to Christ FIfthly This Love to Christ includes highest Valuation of him greatest estimation which is appretiating Love for can we love him and not prize him Or can we love him most and not prize him most Or do you use to despise
degrees of Love might be considered in a twofold respect 1. In respect of other Lovers of Christ of which one might have degrees of Love that is sincere more and above what another man might have whose Love is yet sincere And of this More or degree of Love is Christ's question to Peter to be understood John 21.15 Simon son of Jonas Lovest thou me more than these viz. Other Disciples love me where the comparative More respects THESE as other Agents in Love or Lovers and therefore Peter answers in the Positive I love thee not in the Comparative More than they all do love thee But the Comparative More doth not respect THESE as the Object of Peter's Love as if Christ had asked Lovest thou me more than thou lovest these To which doubtless Peter could have readily replied Yea Lord I love thee more than I love these or all men or things in this world And in this sense God doth not damn any for want of more degrees of Love or other Graces 2. Degrees of Love might be considered in respect of the things loved or the object of our Love That the word More means Do you love Christ more than the World Sin Self or do you love These more than Christ And then I say this Doctrine is so far from being offensive that I judge it is of great concernment and necessary for every man that hath a Soul that must be damned or saved to know and understand For I do not fear to say for want of these degrees of Love whereby a man's Love is less to Christ than to the World and Sin and carnal Self God will surely damn him Doth this grate upon any Christian ears That a man that loveth not Christ more than Sin and more than Pleasures and Profits hath no sincere Love to Christ nor shall be saved by him Surely such a man would judge in another case if he had a Wife that loves him yet loves another man more than himself she had not sincere Conjugal Love to him 3. The plainest fullest and I hope no offensive Answer shall be the Words of Christ himself shewing wherein sincerity of Love to him doth consist Mat. 10.37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me 38. And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me 39. He that findeth his life shall lose it and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it And all the love to all inferior things in comparison of the degrees of love we should have to Christ more than unto these is rather Hatred than Love Luke 14.26 If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters yea and his own life also he cannot be my disciple What Interpretation can these words bear This That no real Disciple of Christ may or ought to have true love to Father or Mother Brother or Sister Wife and Children or to his own Life Absurd and irreligious sense being contrary to the Law of Nature and Christ's constant Doctrine in his Word What then This That a true Disciple of Christ must and ought to love these things less than Christ and Christ with more till they be prevailing degrees and Love in the heart to Christ be like the Biass to the Bowl that make it incline more to Christ than to all other things This is that which is asserted and being the sense of Christ's Words I hope will not offend any that have more Love to Christ than to all these things and for the rest that love these things more than Christ they shall find that for this very thing Christ with them will be offended SECT IX The Eighth Requisite in Love to Christ EIghthly This Love chuseth Christ for himself and for the Excellency of his own Person tho not with the exclusion of our own Benefit and Salvation by him Our own Benefits by Christ might be looked at by the returning soul at first as ordine prima but not quoad dignitatem praecipua ultima The Soul might first be allured and drawn to look after Christ and to love him by the consideration of the matchless Good and Benefits it might have by him which the convinced sinner seeth he can find in no other but in process of time and in his progress in the way to Heaven he learns and sees that Excellency and Beauty in Christ that he is in himself more amiable than all the Objects of his former Love To ask therefore Whether we are to love Christ for himself or for his Benefits we have by him is to propound a question which yet I have not observed in the Scripture nor disjunctively answered therein for one is subordinate to the other and subordinata non sunt opposita nec pugnant I am to love Christ for himself and for the Goodness Excellency and Amiableness of his own Person and I am to love Christ for the good I have received by him and for the benefits I hope further for his sake to be made partaker of and the one is an help unto the other Though I am to love Christ more for himself than for my advantage by him yet in loving of him I do not conceive I am to cast away the consideration of the benefits by him As we should not put the seeking of God's Glory and our own Salvation in opposition but in subordination tho God's Glory and the pleasing of his Will be the ultimate end and our Salvation to be sought by us in order thereunto Wherefore in seeking after an evidence of Grace and Title to Heaven I think it is a needless and unwarrantable puzzling of our selves and that which hath sorely afflicted some gracious persons and filled them with unnecessary doubts and fears and torments of mind to demand of our selves Whether we could be content to be damn'd to go to Hell to suffer everlasting Torments and the burning fiery flaming Wrath of God poured out upon the damned so that God may be thereby glorified I shall forbear to judge the state of my Soul by this as a Character of Grace and Preaching of it unto others till some shall shew me this is propounded in the Gospel as a Condition of the Pardon of my Sin and the Salvation of my Soul which hitherto I have not observed For how can I earnestly desire to be Saved and yet be willing and content to be Damned Long to be with him and yet content to be for ever separated from him I do find God threatens men with Hell to awaken them to look after Heaven and deliverance from Hell but I do not find God propounding as a condition of Salvation to be content to go to Hell that we might be received up to Heaven That I leave and loathe my sin repent and turn to God believe and love him
that come to pray and hear and not love Christ are such Deceivers All such mens Religious Duties and Services are done in deceit and hypocrisy they are Deceivers of themselves Deceivers of other men and go about to deceive God himself What is to play the Hypocrite if this be not to give God your Words but not your Hearts what is deceitful dealing if this be not to give God and Christ outward Service and deny him your Love to do the outward Action and withhold from him the inward Affection would you be paid what is owing to you in such Coyn in that which hath the colour and resemblance of Gold but underneath is base Metal Would you not cry out of such a one as a Deceiver and is this a fault in men to you and is it no fault in you to God are you ready to curse such a man and will not God curse you Read Mal. 1.14 But cursed be the deceiver which hath in his flock a male and voweth and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing For I am a great King saith the Lord of hosts and my name is dreadful among the heathen You bring him some cold Prayers have you not an Heart to give him you bring him some outward Expressions have not you inwards Affections to bring him you offer him Words and deny him your Love Are these cursed Doings and yet not you the Doers of them accursed Arg. 8. Robbers and Thieves are accursed Non-Lovers of Christ are Robbers and Thieves For whose are you God's or your own Whose by right are your Hearts the World 's or Christ's Who should have your Love as due to whom doth it belong to the World or Vanity to Self or to Christ that which you purchase do not you call your own that which you pay dear for is it not your own and would it not be robbery in another without your Consent to keep it from you Hath not Christ bought you with a price given for you more than you are worth He made your Hearts to love him and when you defaced them and sinned away the love of God did not Christ buy you hath not he paid dear to have your Love might you set your Love upon what you please might you place it upon what Object you list for are not you Body and Soul Christ's by purchase 1 Cor. 6.19 What know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you which ye have of God and ye are not your own 20. For ye are bought with a price therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's Is it not a robbing of Christ to deny him his own and is not he that is a Robber of God and Christ a cursed Wretch If thou shouldest rob thy Father or Mother or a Stranger wouldst thou not be accounted a vile Transgressor how comes it to pass that thou robbest God and Christ and makes no matter of it but God doth Mal. 3.8 Will a man rob God yet ye have robbed me But ye say wherein have we robbed thee in tithes and offerings 9. Ye are cursed with a curse for ye have robbed me even this whole nation They are said to rob God in Tithes and Offerings and you in your Hearts and Affections And what is the taking away of Tithes to the taking away of the Heart and love thereof and yet God cursed them with a Curse that is certainly accursed them how then wilt thou escape God might charge thee that thou hast played the Thief with him and hast stoln away thy Love from him and hast gone and pawned it for a little Silver or a filthy Lust and yet hast no mind nor serious thought for to get it redeemed or fetched out of pawn Arg. 9. Those that love not Christ are spiritual Adulterers and go a whoring from God Do not you profess to be married to Christ what and give your love to the World to Pleasures to the Strumpet Sin Is that a chast Woman that loveth another man more than her own Husband to love other things more than God and Christ is called in Scripture a going a Whoring from God Hos 4.12 A playing the harlot Jer. 3.1 Thou hast played the harlot with many lovers Committing adultery vers 8. and are Adulterers Jam. 4.4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses know ye not that the friendship of this world is enmity with God Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God A Lover of the World is an Enemy of God and are not those that God taketh for his Enemies in a bad and miserable condition and will be worse when the Lord comes Some please themselves with this as an Evidence of their good Condition and hope of Salvation that they are neither Whores nor Thieves but such as love not Christ above all in a Spiritual and Scriptural Sense are both Such a one is a Thief in robbing God of that Love that is his due and guilty of spiritual Whoredom in loving other things more than Christ and if you think to escape the Curse continuing in such Sins when the Lord comes and you tried at his Bar shall find you were wonderfully mistaken and meet with a Curse when you expected a Blessing Arg. 10. Such as shall be commanded to depart from Christ and be driven from his glorious presence are accursed Final Non-Lovers of Christ shall be commanded to depart from Christ and be driven from his glorious presence Your Heart that loves not Christ is not towards God and Christ and when he comes his Heart shall not be towards you your Heart is alienated from Christ and then Christ's Heart shall be alienated from you While you will not love you say in your hearts to Christ depart from us and Christ will say to you depart ye from me As he that trusteth in the Creature his heart departeth from God so he that loveth the Creature more than God his heart departeth from God and he whose heart departeth from God either by trusting to or loving of the Creature more than God is accursed Jer. 17.5 Thus saith the Lord Cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm and whose heart departeth from the Lord. And when Christ shall command you to depart from him you shall find your selves in a cursed condition Matth. 25.40 Such as do not love the Lord Jesus do not obey the Gospel for the Gospel commands your Love and they that do not obey the Gospel at Christ's coming shall be separated from him and they that shall be separated from him then shall find and feel themselves accursed 2 Thess 1.7 When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels 8. In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ 9. Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the
glory of his power Are you yet convinced of your deplorable Condition by reason of the want of love to Jesus Christ Do you not see the Curse of God hangs over your Soul Can you reply to this proof or deny it or will you still hold to your old Conclusion that you shall not be thus accursed like to what is recorded Deut. 29.19 And it shall come to pass when he heareth the words of this curse that he bless himself in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of mine heart to add drunkennese to thirst Behold a man blessing himself whom the Lord declared accursed But what then Is the Curse the further from him or the Blessing nearer to him Read on Verse 20. The Lord will not spare him but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoak ageinst that man and all the curses that are written in this hook shall lie upon him and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven 21. And the Lord shall separate him unto evil out of all the Tribes of Israel according to all the curses of the Covenant that are written in this book of the Law It is but a poor shift to Iull your Consciences asleep with groundless hopes of escaping the Curse contrary to the express word of God who will not suffer one tittle of it to fall to the ground though in the accomplishment and fulfilling of it millions of Sinners fall into Hell The Curse then being certainly to fall upon the Final-Non-Lovers of Christ the third thing in order follows to open to you what kind of Curse it shall be to be Anathema when Maran-atha accursed when the Lord shall come CHAP. IV. Ten Properties of the Curse upon Non-Lovers of Christ 1. TO be Anathema when Maran-atha will be to be cursed with a dreadful curse This is more general and the following Properties will shew it to be so dreadful so dreadful as will make your Joints to tremble your Knees to knock together your Faces gather paleness for you will be cursed by God himself and as to be blessed by God is the greatest Blessing so to be cursed of God is the sorest Curse A great Emphasis is laid upon those words where God calls a People a People of My Curse Isa 34.5 When the Church prayed against her Enemies it was a sore Petition Lam. 3.65 Give them sorrow of heart thy curse unto them If the Devil should curse you yet God may bless you if men should curse yet God might bless you as David begged in Psal 109.28 Let them curse but bless thou As if he had said If I have God's blessing I will not fear wicked mens cursings for when they curse God can turn it into a blessing Deut 23.5 Nevertheless the Lord thy God would not hearken unto Balaam but the Lord thy God turned the curse into a blessing unto thee because the Lord thy God loved thee The form of the rash and wicked Speech of ungodly men much given to cursing shews it to be a dreadful thing to be cursed of God when they say The Curse of God fall upon you The Curse of God overtake you they mean the forell the heaviest the greatest Curse by the Curse of God but though men might wish you so accursed yet you might be far from it but if you love not sincerely the Son of God then the Curse of God will overtake you light and lie upon you and then you will be accursed indeed Oh now love Christ indeed that you might then escape the Curse indeed which else will be a Curse indeed heavy indeed and indeed intolerable 2. To be Anathema when Maran-atha accursed when the Lord comes will be to be accursed totally all the Sinners shall lie under this Curse his Body shall be cursed and his Soul shall be cursed as the Curse in this world falls upon all that belong to the Disobedient and rebellious Deut. 28.15 But it shall come to pass if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day that all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee 16. Cursed shalt thou be in the city and cursed shalt thou be in the field 17. Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store 18. Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body and the fruit of thy land the increase of thy kine and the flocks of thy sheep 19. Cursed shalt thou be in thy coming in and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out So when the Lord comes thou shalt be cursed in all thou art in thy Body and all the parts thereof cursed shall be thine Eyes that were as Windows to let vanity into thy heart Cursed shall be thine Ears that hearkened to the Enticements of Sinners but not to the Commands and Calls of God Cursed shall be thy Hands and Feet that acted wickedly and carried thee on in ways of Sin Cursed shalt thou be in thy Soul and in all the Powers and Faculties thereof Cursed shall be thine Vnderstanding that never was inlightned with the saving Knowledge of Jesus Christ Cursed shall be thy Will that never made choice of him for thy Saviour and thy Lord. Cursed shall be thy Conscience that did not effectually stir thee up to look after and to hasten to Jesus Christ Cursed shall be all thine Affections that thou shalt be constrained to confess that Love that was set upon the World and Sin which should have been better placed upon Christ was cursed Love Those Desires which run out after Vanity which should have been upon the wing in moving after Christ were cursed Desires and those Delights which are fetched from the Creature and from sinful Objects were cursed Delights and that Hatred which I had to Christ and his ways which should have risen against Sin was cursed Hatred Thus as now where the Love of Christ doth not rule in the Heart Sin is spread all over so then the Sinner shall be cursed all over In this Life Spiritual Curses upon the Soul are the heaviest Curses as Blessings on the Soul are the best of Blessings When men will not be persuaded to love the Lord Jesus but will love their Cups and their Whores and their Profits and Sporting Pleasures better than Christ but after long wooings of Grace and intreaties of Mercy after many strivings of the Spirit and Calls of Conscience and waitings of patience they will love their Sin and not Christ the World and not Christ God and Christ and Holy Spirit may give them up to these vile and cursed Affections and say to them as Christ cursed the Fig-tree on which there was no Fruit Mark 11.13 14 20 21. Never fruit grow on thee more Sinner wilt thou not love me never Repentance be found in thee never Pardon be bestowed on thee Wilt thou not love me let him love his Swearing still let him
faith so that I could remove mountains and have no charity I am nothing 3. And tho I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and tho I give my body to be burn'd and have not charity it profiteth me nothing Love therefore is above all these for all these without love are nothing 5. Love makes us most like to God for God is love 1 Joh. 4.8 And God loveth Christ above all the men on earth and above all the Angels in Heaven therefore calls him his Beloved Son Mat. 3.17 God loveth All men with a Common Love John 3.16 Tit. 3.4 Holy men with a Special Love Angels with an Higher Love Christ most of all who is the Son of his Love Col. 1.13 So our Love is gradual we ought to love all men with some degrees of Love Holy men and Angels with an higher Love and Christ with the highest Love And when we love as God loves our Love makes us most like to God 6. Love is the highest improvement of the faculties of our Souls 1. We have Vnderstandings to know God and Christ And Love to God and Christ is the highest improvement of all our knowledg for if we know him and not love him the more we know of him the more our knowledge doth increase our sin and will aggravate our condemnation 2. We have Wills to chuse the Lord Jesus Christ and when we chuse him Love is the improvement of our Wills in taking complacency in him who is the Object of our choice 3. We have Consciences that do dictate to us that Christ is best and best for us and then we improve those dictates when we love him else all those dictates of Conscience are lost and come to nothing 4. We have Memories wherein the Sayings of Christ to us the Sufferings of Christ for us and the Benefits of Christ bestowed upon us should be lodged and laid up and when we love him we shall love to remember all these things that we have by him and from him and himself that is Purchaser and the Donor of them But if our Love is predominantly placed upon any thing below Christ all the Powers of the Soul are debased the Reason of man is degraded in contriving the getting of such ignoble and fordid enjoyments as his highest end the Will is debased in chusing of them and the Memory in being stuffed with the remembrance of them forgetting God and Christ and better things so that a man is more a brute than a man without sincere Love to Christ 7. Love is the end of all other Graces and in which they terminate their Operations Our knowledge of Christ endeth in our loving of Christ our believing on him hoping in him trusting to him like so many streams at last run into the Love of Christ 8. Love is the Everlasting Grace that shall abide and be in use and exercise when the actings of other Graces shall cease There are some Graces suitable especially to our state of imperfection in this world To live by Faith to Repent and Mourn for sin to live in hope of the glory that is to be revealed to wait till we be possessed of the Mansions that are above to desire all the good that is promised to us but not yet conferred upon us But hereafter Faith shall be turned into Vision Hope into Fruition Desires into Possession waiting into Obtaining And then we shall thus believe no more nor hope nor desire nor wait but then we shall love still yea more than ever more abundantly yea perfectly without diminution continually without intermission and eternally without cessation in which respect among the three Cardinal Graces Love hath the preheminence 1 Cor. 13.13 Now abideth faith hope charity these three but the greatest of these is charity because it is the longest in duration So that those that love Christ sincerely here shall love him perfectly hereafter and be for ever blessed in that love But those that love him not on earth cannot love him in the other world and for want of such Love shall be accursed for ever CHAP. VI. The Application of the Doctrine THE last thing propounded in the method of this Subject is the Vse and Application of it to bring it down to our own hearts to work this truth upon our Minds Consciences and Affections And now O that God would help me and Christ would help me and the blessed Spirit of God and Christ would so help me and give me lively words a lively Heart lively and inflamed Love to blessed Jesus and your immortal precions Souls that I might speak and apply this great Truth as becomes a man that deth believe every one of you before God in this Congregation this day must be Anathema when Maran-atha if you live and die void of love to Jesus Christ as becomes a man that doth believe you must be blessed or cursed damned or saved for ever as you are prevailed with or not prevailed with to give Christ your Hearts and hearty love as becomes a man that doth believe your Everlasting Stare is much concerned in this one point that now is before us Alas Methinks I do foresee the great multitudes that this Anathema will fall upon Methinks I see the Lord a-coming methinks I hear the Trumpet sounding and the Voice calling to the Dead Arise and come to judgment Come ye cursed Souls that have been in the Infernal Lake and appear before my Bar come ye cursed Bodies awake arise and stand before my Judgment-Seat and let those cursed Souls be again united to those cursed Bodies and now be both cursed together and cursed for ever and let both be inseparably linked together to endure this Curse to all eternity Methinks I see them coming but unwillingly they come but with fear and trembling with horrour and amazement Now what is to do now now Maran-atha and now every one of us that loved not that Lord that now is come must be Anathema O woful Souls O miserable Sinners O cursed Caitifs What shall we now do and whither shall we now go do that we should have asked before this day that the Lord is come Do We should have done that which we did not do and now must go thither whither we would not go O that we might rather cease to be than to be what we must for ever be and go from whence we never must return and feel what will make us cry and roar toss and throw and be for ever restless and the more restless because hopeless and remediless O Sirs my Heart is pained my Bowels roul within me my Joints do shake with trembling for fear lest any of you that pray in this place and hear in this place should fall under this Curse when the Lord shall come The Uses of this Doctrine shall be 1. By way of Inference or Instruction what things from hence may be deduced and learned 2. For Reprehension or Reproof aggravating the Charge against such as love not the
under our feet which was predominant in our hearts and how hard a task is this there must be calling off the love of the heart from Sin which was as our right Eye or right Hand unto us and how difficult a work is this there must be a loving above all what we hated more than all and an hating above all what we loved most of all and thus to turn the stream of a man's Affections is exceeding difficult There must be striving to an Agony Luk. 13.24 25. there must be wrestling with Devils Eph. 6.12 with God himself so as not to let him go except he bless us Gen 32.24 26. there must be fighting and watching and maintaining our spiritual Warfare 2 Tim. 4.7 there must be running as for life 1 Cor. 9.24 all this to get the Blessing when the Lord shall come all hard and laborious But it is the easiest thing in the world to come under the Curse and Wrath of God Nay it is hard not to have it come upon us What mean then the most of men to take so much pains to bring the Curse of God upon them what need you be at so much labour to undo your selves what needs such swearing sweating in a way of Sin as if you were striving to get to Hell as if you thought you could not go thither fast enough nor get thither soon enough what need you rail at the People of Christ and revile the ways of Christ and rent and tear his holy Name in your prophane polluted Mouths Hell might be had with lesser pains and if cursed you WILL be cursed you MAY be without wearying of your selves in committing of Iniquity Sit still and you will run to Hell do nothing and you will soon be there It is but letting Faith and Repentance and Christ alone it is but forbearing what you ought to do and the Curse will fall upon your Soul and stick fast to you for ever It is easie to do what you should not to love the World more than Christ It is easier not to do what you should not to love Christ and for the easier of these you may be as sure of Hell as if you were there already therefore hold your Hands and Tongue and Feet from sinning so fast from making such speed and haste from committing sin manibus pedibusque with all our might and power for if not loving of Christ not believing on him not repenting for sin will and doth expose you to the Wrath and Curse of God Good Lord how easie a thing is it to be overtaken with it VII Must such as want love to Christ be thus accursed Then what great care and Conscience should Ministers have to preach the Lord Jesus Christ unto the People with that plainness and power that Christ might have their love and they might have the blessings of Christ Cursed must the People be that do not love Jesus Christ then cursed must the Preacher be that preacheth himself and not Christ and studieth to set out his own Gifts and Parts that men might admire him for an Eloquent Orator for his lofty Style for his fruitful pregnant Fancy and as the Phrase now prevails for his fine English or for a profound Philosopher or a great polemical Divine while by his starched Sentences seraphical Notions and needless Pulpit Disputations and manner of Expressions he soars aloft above the Peoples Capacities and casts a vail upon their Eyes as if he studied in preaching of Christ to hide Christ from their Vnderstandings while he preacheth to instruct them in the knowledge of Christ he clouds the Doctrine of Christ and makes the plain necessary Truths to be obscure that after his polite Discourse poor ignorant Souls remain as ignorant as before as if he stood amongst a thousand People that must be damned and cursed with everlasting Curses if they love not Christ to flourish his Parts to get the name of a great Scholar in making easie things hard and hard more hard when the true use of Learning and great Learning it is to make hard things easie and to bring things sublime and lofty down to the capacity of the meanest in the Congregation that hath a Soul that must be damned or saved Alas it would make a serious man to tremble when he thinks all these People stand upon the brink of Eternity and if Death jog them they fall and enter into it and when he heareth the Preacher speak with lofty Rhetorical Strains great swelling Words as if he were making an Oration in the Schools not considering the Ignorance the weak Capacity of hundreds of his Auditors Can he think that Servants that have precious Souls and many ignorant and unlearned Trades-men that are taken up with the matters of the World all the Week can be profited on the Lord's Day with such a Style or manner of expressing the great things of God that though it be their Mother-tongue transcends their Apprehension almost as much as if he spake in an unknown Language and so indeed is no better than an English Barbarian to the People What cursed Pride is this to seek Applause from men when he should be gaining Sinners to Christ to seek to have their perishing breath when he should seek to save their Immortal Souls What cursed doing is this to stand in Christ's stead and commend himself instead of commending Christ What though Christ be the Subject of his Discourse when his Discourse upon that Subject is so managed that it glides from Christ unto himself both as the Subject and the End In hatred to such doings I was about to say What cursed Preaching is this wherein dying Self is sought to be advanced in the esteem of dying People when Blessed Jesus should be so set forth that he might be magnified in the hearts of all be loved by all be received by all and immortal Souls so loving and receiving of him might be for ever saved and blessed by him And what is the end of all that he might be reverenced for his Parts extolled for his profound adorned Language and have the common Vogue of a man of more than ordinary Wisdom A Wise man and through his wisdom ignorant Souls do perish a Wise man and by his preaching with the enticing words of man's Wisdom even by the preaching of the only Saviour in the words which man's Wisdom teacheth and not the Holy Ghost the Devil goes away with and makes a prey of the Hearers Souls who in hearing do not hear neither do they understand not because the Hearers are such Fools but because the Preacher is so wise Let him pass for a Wiseman in his own Conceit let him be esteemed a Wiseman by them that do admire him because they do not understand him nor the worth of Souls nor the weighty work and end of Preaching but with me he shall never pass for a wise Preacher who had rather be a Fool for Christ than wise for my self for in such a place
and work in being wise in the reproved sense for my self I should be found an egregious Fool. He that preacheth so that no man can rationally contemn him and yet every man understand him and thereby wins Souls to set their love on Christ is a Wiseman and a Learned Preacher when he that preacheth so that few or none of the meaner Capacities which are the greater number can understand him any further than to understand they do not understand him and so the People perish for want of knowledge under the sound of profoundest knowledge shall have little thanks from such People at the Judgment-day and what Reward he shall have from Christ when he comes to take an account of Ministers for preaching and People for hearing let him take into his serious thoughts and learn of Learned Paul who hath left a pattern of the wisest Preaching 2 Cor. 4.5 For we preach not our selves but Christ Jesus the Lord and our selves your servants for Jesus sake lest not preaching Jesus the Lord but himself as if he were more than a Servant and Jesus not Lord he find when Preaching and Hearing are ended and cease Maran-atha and Anathema be joined together VIII Must they be cursed that love not Christ then know that outward Prosperity and this Curse are consistent A man might be a prospering man in this World and cursed in this World and in the World to come Do you see many whose Lives declare they have no sincere love to Christ in their Hearts thrive and abound in outward Enjoyments not love Christ and yet are strong not love Christ and yet are rich not love Christ and yet be in honour What then Might not a man in health be a cursed man nay the more strength he hath the more able he is to do the Devil Service and so his strength is a curse unto him The more he enjoyeth of the World the more he hath to love and the more he loves it and so his Enjoyments are a curse unto him when they keep him from placing his love upon Jesus Christ Have you not read that mens Blessings are cursed Mal. 2.2 If ye will not hear and if ye will not lay it to heart to give glory to my name saith the Lord of hosts I will even send a curse upon you and I will curse your blessings yea I have cursed them already because ye do not lay it to heart God threatens to curse wicked mens Blessings I will curse your blessings I will that is not to do now I have cursed them already Many are apt to call the proud happy Mal. 3.15 The Rich though bad are thought by many to be blessed a great mistake all men might see their outward Blessings but all have not eyes to behold the inward Curses that lie under those outward Blessings Is it not a Curse to have Riches without Grace to have our Portion and Blessings and all in this Life to prosper in the World and to be every moment in danger of Hell do you look upon it to be such happiness to have all for the Body and nothing for the Soul to have Earth and nothing of Heaven and nothing to shew for them You read of some that have their Portion in this life on Earth Psal 17.14 and you might read that their Portion on Earth is a cursed Portion Job 24.18 and was it not so with the Rich man spoken of in the Gospel that on Earth had his purple robes and fine linen and sumptuous costly dishes every day O happy man but stay till you hear the end He died and whither then to Hell Where is now your happy man and what is his condition there what there he finds more pain than on Earth pleasure there he feels more torment and terror than all his days on Earth had pleasure and delight Luk. 16.25 But Abraham said Son remember that thou in thy life-time receivedst thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented Remember that vexeth not easeth in thy life-time but that was but for the time of life which then was short and sweet but this Life where now I am more properly called Death than Life is long and bitter receivest thy good things but amongst them all hadst not a good God a good Conscience nor one good Fruit of the Spirit no not so much as love to Christ but now he is comforted and thou art tormented he is blessed and thou art cursed he is happy and thou art miserable Behold the change the world 's blessed man is now the cursed man and he that was the miserable man in the esteem of the World is now the blessed man Then do not judge of Blessedness or Misery by the prosperity or poverty of this World but by the graces of the Spirit or want of them in your hearts particularly by your love or want of love to Jesus Christ For it is not said Let him that is not rich but let him that loves not Christ be Anathema Maran-atha IX Must all that love not Christ be cursed then tremble at the thoughts of the great number that shall be cursed There are but few comparatively that have sincere Love to Christ therefore but few comparatively that shall be blessed by entring into Eternal blessed life Mat. 7.13 Enter in at the strait gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in thereat 14. Be cause strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and few there be that find it Many for want of Love to Christ will not bear his Cross but all that want this love Finally shall bear his Curse The number of the Curse-bearers and Non-lovers of Christ shall be an equal number so many and no more Consider then what multitudes there are that love other things more than Christ and see what vast numbers of men shall be accursed 1. How many are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lovers of pleasures more than lovers of Christ 2 Tim. 3.4 2. How many are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lovers of money more than lovers of Christ They prize their Silver above the Saviour and part with him to keep that Luke 16.14 2 Tim. 3.2 3. How many are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lovers of honours more than lovers of Christ John 5.42 44 and and 12 43. 4. How many are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lovers of themselves more than lovers of Christ 2 Tim. 3.2 And indeed sinful self-love is the very heart and core of the carnal man and the great Idol of all unconverted sinners Principles of selfishness are the rise of all their actions and self is the end and scope at which they aim in all they do and so set up self in the room of God and Christ and love carnal self when they should love Christ and so shall lye under the Curse when they would have a Blessing Few love
Christ and few blessed by Christ Most are void of love unto him and most shall be accursed at his coming Is it an hard saying If hard yet true Is it a hard saying But it will be harder feeling when the Curse shall fully be inflicted XI Shall every one that loves not Christ be Anathema when Maran-atha accursed when the Lord shall come then the day of Christ's coming will be a doleful day to the Non-Lovers of Christ Then all the World shall be divided into cursed ones and blessed ones You love not Christ and yet bless your self but I pray you consider Maran-atha the Lord comes You glory in your Estate though Christ hath not your Heart but I beg of you that you would remember Maran-atha You put the Curse and the Evil day far from you but I beseech you let Maran-atha sound in your ears Then Oh then you shall curse the day that ever you were born you shall curse the time that you lived under the Gospel and heard of Christ but did not love him You shall curse your self for your wickedness madness and folly that so lovely a Christ was set before you and you had not an heart to set your love upon him and say Oh cursed heart that would love the World and not love yonder glorious Christ Oh cursed Will that didst chuse the Vanities of the World before the Son of God! Oh cursed was that love which I gave unto the Creature and did deny to Christ How can I hold up my head now to behold that Christ whom I never had an heart to love How can I hear that Voice and yet it is so great so thundring and so loud that I cannot but hear it commanding me to depart like a cursed Wretch when I never did and never would hearken to his Voice calling to me to love him and to give my Heart and Affections to him Wo is me now Maran-atha and now I am Anathema Wo is me the Lord is come and with him wrath is come and banishment from Heaven is come Wo wo wo is me the Lord is come and I feel fear and trembling is come ten thousand woes to me for the Lord is come and now compleat damnation comes the Lord is come and I must go I poor Wretch must go go Whither must I go to a cursed place to whom Alas to cursed Company But how wo is me like a cursed Wretch Cursed most bitterly cursed finally totally Body and Soul and all eternally for I had no Love for Christ and now Christ hath no Blessing for me When it is said throughout the World Maranatha then the World will ring with this Cry every one that loves not Christ is now Anathema CHAP. VIII Twenty Aggravations of want of Love to Christ THE Second Use doth bring a Charge and an Accusation against you for not loving the Lord Jesus Christ Some openly declare by their actions and manner of conversation That they do not love him Some openly pretend Love to Christ but really have no love unto him Ezek. 33.31 And they come unto thee as the people cometh and they sit before thee as my people and they hear thy words but they will not do them for with their mouth they shew much love but their heart goeth after their covetousness Love to Christ is in their mouth but love to the world is in their heart Some say they love him but God knows they do not John 5.42 But I know you that ye have not the love of God in you No! Do you know how great a sin this is Why then do you make so light of it Why then are you no more ashamed that you want this love Would you not be ashamed if this report went of you That you did not love your Wife your Children or your Neighbour And is it not an incomparably greater sin and shame that you do not love the Lord Jesus The only Son of God the only Saviour of lost sinners How is it that you do so seldom or never bewail the want of love to Christ in your Prayers or scarce put it in amongst the Confession of your Sins What do you love your Gold and not your God Or do you make your Gold your God and then love your Gold instead of loving the true God Can you love your Silver and not the precious Saviour Are you bound to love your very Enemies and yet have no love to him that would be your surest greatest and most faithful friend What shall I say Good Lord I am ashamed and blush to say which yet is true of too many of the sons of men that they both can and do love their very beasts their dog their horse and all their cattel and yet will not be prevailed with to love thy Son thy only Son and by thee beloved Son Nay what shall I say That you do love your very lusts and filthy sins that will destroy and damn you for ever and yet not love that only Lord and Jesus that would save you from your sins and from Hell for ever What can I say but that you love not Christ because you love your sin so much Oh horrid shame Love Deformity and not Beauty Where are your eyes Surely your love to sin is blind O monstrous Lover Love that which is worst of all and not him that is best of all Where is your reason Have you lost the understanding of a man Hath sin bereaved you of your wits Then oh Madness and Folly Are you so fond of sin as to be damn'd for it Are you so foolishly fond of this world as for the love of it to be hated of God and banished out of his Glorious Presence for ever Is your Soul so clogg'd with flesh and sunk so deep into it that it can rise no higher in its love than sensual earthly and fleshly delights and pleasures Will this love be so sweet in the review as you think it is in the present taste thereof Is this so vile a thing so base and sordid love that sets you below the rank of men not to be reproved For this are you not justly blamed Blamed yea and justly reckoned an Anathema that hath such an incomparable Object as Christ propounded to him and yet will nor love him Whose Excellencies are set forth and yet he seeth no Beauty in him That when there is nothing in the world so suitable to a sinner as Christ and yet will you be so perverse as to imagine and your heart maintain that Riches are more suitable and Pleasures are more suitable and Christ and the things of Christ the only inconvenient things for you If you do not think so why do you do so as you do in denying him your love Are you not to be blamed that when yet you might have Christ are not past a capacity a possibility of having Christ and all his benefits and good by him that you do not turn your love unto him Are you not to be
he will not be entreated Surely the infinite distance that there is betwixt God and Man might fill us with wonder that God should become a Suiter to man for his love when there is not so much distance between Man and Nothing as there is between God and Man and yet he is pleased to stoop so low to urge us to consent to him that we might be advanced as high as Heaven who else must be plunged into the depths of Hell On what is this that the Creator should seek to be loved by the Creature The Lord to be loved by the Servant The King of Saints to the Subjects of Sin that he might have our Heart and Love Whereas if we did consider that our striâ—test Service to him would be our largest Liberty our having of him our only Happiness our missing of him our greatest Misery we should know it were our Interest to prostrate our selves at his Feet to lye at his Door with Prayers and Tears with Cries and Calls with Grief and Groans to make it our daily Suit to him that he would love us and give us an Heart to love him Man was first in departing from God and in removing of that love that at first there was betwixt God and Man yet God is first in seeking the renewing of Love else Man would always hate and never love him And that God should seek to Man for his Love and be denied might be astonishment to the Angels in Heaven and make matter of joy if they be capable of any joy to the Devils in Hell that Men that may love Christ and will not might be as miserable as themselves to whom he is not propounded as an object of Faith Love or Hope But whether you will love or not love him God hath commanded me and others of his Ministers to lye hard at you for your Love he hath given us a Commission to make a motion of love betwixt Christ and you in order to your matching with him Mat. 22.2 3 4 c. and hath committed to us the Word of Reconciliation and made it our Work to Wooe you for your love unto his Son and to try to gain your consent 2 Cor. 5.18 19 20. And if you will love him to espouse you to him 2 Cor. 11.2 This is my Message and for this end am I come this day If I do not ask you I hazard my Soul if you deny you lose yours God therefore grant that I might so ask that you may not deny that both your Souls and mine might Love and so be Saved For the gaining of your Love for Christ I shall use these Arguments propounded by way of Question and when you have given a right Answer to them I hope Christ will have a good Answer from you CHAP. XI Twenty Motives or Pleas that Christ might have the Love of your Hearts I. CAN you find a more excellent object for your Love than Christ If you search through the whole Creation of God is there any like to Christ Whatsoever you think who dare say there is Are Riches Honours Pleasures Relations which you have loved comparable to Christ whom you ought to love If Good be only the object of Love is not the best Good the best object Can you love the lesser Good and not the greater Yea the greatest of all Is not all the Goodness in the Creature but as a drop to the Sea as a Candle to the Sun as a Sand to a Mountain if compared to the Goodness there is in Christ If David were worth ten thousand of others 2 Sam. 18.3 is not Christ Davids Lord better than all the World Read Cant. 2.3 5 16. Prov. 3.14 15. Phil. 3.8 Dost thou waver in thy thoughts or hesitate about this Tell me First Is not Christ a Good most suitable for thee Is Liberty so suitable to a Captive Man or Bread to an Hungry Man or Health to a Sick Man or Ease to a Pained Man as Christ is to a Sinsul Man For 1. Art thou not lost undone in danger to be Damned Christ will be thy Saviour thy Keeper and Recoverer Luk. 19.10 The son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost Heb. 7.25 Wherefore he is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them Isa 63.1 Mighty to save 2. Art not thou ignorant dark and blind knowest not the way to Heaven and eternal Happiness and mightâ—st weary thy self to find the Gate of Life and yet miss of it when thou hast done all He will be thy Teacher and thy Guide and direct thee Infallibly to it He will Anoint thine Eyes and cause thee to see such things as never yet thou sawest ver 3.18 If he Anoint thine Eyes with his Eye-salve though thou wast born blind thou shalt have thy sight 3. Art thou not Sick and full of Spiritual Diseases Abounding with Soul Distempers Even sick to Death Nigh unto eternal Death He will be thy Physician who is so able and so skilful that never any yet that he undertook to Cure Died under his Hands for rather than thou shouldst dye of thy Disease he will make thee a Potion of his own Blood which if thou Drinkest thou shalt certainly recover Therefore he came to be a Soul Physician and gave this as a reason why he did converse with Publicans and Sinners That he might cure them Mat. 9.12 4. Art thou not indebted Owest thou not Millions to God Hast thou a Mite to pay If God demand satisfaction from thee will it not prove thy Damnation If Justice pursue thee Death Arrest thee will not Devils seize thy Soul and hale it to the Prison of Hell from whence thou shalt not be delivered till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing which will never be This Christ if thou wilt but love him will be thy Bail become thy Surety and make payment of thy Debt and give thee a Discharge 5. Art thou not polluted and unclean Hath not the Leprosie of Sin overspread thy Vnderstanding Will Conscience Memory and all thine Affections So that thou art defiled all over liest wallowing in thy Blood art cast out to the loathing of thy person and canst thou in this filthy case enter into the holy Kingdom of God If thou wilt give him thy Love he will take away thy silthy Rags and give thee change of Raiment Zac. 3.1 2 3. If thou wilt come to him with Faith and Love and say Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean he in Love to thee will say I will be thou clean Mat. 8.2 3. He will make for thee a Bath of his own Blood and his Blood shall cleanse thee from all thy Sins 1 Joh. 1.7 Yea though they be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow though they be red like crimson they shall be as wooll Isa 1.18 6. Art thou not a Captive to Satan and to Sin Drudging Elbow deep in
For 1. Love to Christ will be the sweetest Love He that loveth other things and not Christ loves nothing but Vanity and to love Vanity will prove vexation He that loveth Riches hath vexing sorrow with his love fretting fears and perplexing cutting cares When thou lovest thy Relations if they be bad the more thou lovest the more thou art Wounded If they be good the more evil befalls them the more thou art grieved There cannot be love to other things without love to Christ but it will be bitter Love for thou wilt repent of that love or thou wilt not If thou dost then thou wilt find more forrow for it more bitterness in it than ever thou didst find delight and say Oh now it doth repent me that ever I loved the World as I have done my Pleasures my Sin as I have done But thou wilt never have cause to say I repent that ever I loved Christ Never was such a Word heard from the mouth of a sincere Lover of Christ if thou dost never repent of thy Love to the World and Sin that Love will certainly end in sorrow and with bitterness of Soul be fruitlesly lamented in Hell But what content satisfaction delight comfort joy there is in loving of Christ none can tell so well as he that loves him 2. Love to Christ is the safest Love No fear of Sinning in this Love except it be in the smalness of the measure of it but that is not to Sin in loving but not loving more You might fear and tremble in loving other things and say Do not I sin in this Is there not sinning in my loving 3. Love to Christ is the surest Love to other things is often turned into hatred Love to day and hate to morrow but this remaineth firm The Object is the surest Object neither Men nor Death nor Devils can take away the Object of this Love It is surest in the Habit and Principle the Power of God the Prayer of Christ the promise of both secure the preservation of it It is surest in the Act for if we be careful our selves no Men nor Devils can hinder our acting of this Love they might keep us from hearing of his Word but not from loving of his Person 4. Love to Christ is the Noblest Love Love to Pleasures to the World to Sin is base polluted Love this most sublime and raised it hath the noblest and the highest Object it carrieth the Soul in his Thoughts and Meditations after him into the highest Heavens and hath complacency in the highest Degree and shall have for ever the highest Reward 5. Love to Christ is the longest Love that shall never end Sirs ere long you will have done loving this World even ye that love it most and have your hearts most set upon it Ye that now have your hearts full of Earth when ye shall have your mouths full too and your Corps lye rotting in the Earth you shall have done loving of it Death that ends your life in the World shall end your love to the World which Grace never did Ye shall also have done ere long loving your Relations ye shall have done loving Father and Mother Brother and Sister and Husband and Wife and Children as now in that relation but the gracious Soul the Lover of Christ shall never have done loving of Christ It is sweet to have it but this doth make it more sweet to think he shall always have it Have it in Life have it at Death and have it after Death O blessed Love that shall never be lost but ever last While I was Musing upon this it came into my mind to consider what those that never love Christ in this World can love in the next and I could not imagine any thing that Damned Souls in Hell can Love If it be that I understand not nor am acquainted with the acting of their Souls nor State God grant I never may as they do I thought can they love God Christ the holy Spirit Angels Saints Their hatred to all these is and shall be more deeply radicated that is Rooted in them than ever upon Earth Can they love the place of Hell They wish they never had come thither Can they love the pains of Hell They grieve and groan under them and are weary to bear them Can they love the Devils in Hell They curse them for tempting them to Sin that brought them to that place Can they love their Companions in Hell They are an aggravation of one anothers misery Can they love their Sin in Hell Alas all that was pleasurable in it is gone and the pain and sting only doth remain Can they love their Beings in Hell They had rather dye than live and cease to be at all than to continue to be there I know not what it is that they can love O loathsome place where there is and can be no love O lovely Heaven where Love doth Reign where Love doth Live and the Life of them therein shall be for ever a Life of Love And in this World where Love is wanting so far it looks like Hell Where Love and that which is the best which is that which is to Christ doth prevail so far it looks like Heaven Dear Lord save me from Hell because there there is no love to thee nor to any thing that is good Sweet Saviour lead me in thy way to Heaven and bring me thither where Love to thee shall live and last for ever IV. Is it not great folly to love other things and not Christ For love ye will There is such an affection as Love in all your Hearts and something it will be set upon in this World what e're it be with Damned Souls in the next Now if Christ have it not the World will If Christ hath it not Sin will And do ye act as Rational Creatures as Men endued with Reason to deny your Love to Christ and give it to the World and Sin Set one over against the other and then tell me 1. Is it not great folly to love that which is worse than your selves and not that which is infinitely better Do ye think your Silver and your Gold is better than your selves as much as ye love it That your Houses and your Lands as bad as ye are are better than your selves But ye are not yet so good nor yet so bad but I hope ye will say and ackdowledge that Christ is better 2. Is it not great folly to love that which cannot love you again and not him that would Ye love your Gold but that cannot love you again The Cloaths upon your back the Furniture in your Houses ye love but these can make no returns of Love Ye give your love to them but ye receive no love from them Are ye not vexed when ye love a Man that doth not love you again nor return love for love And why are ye so well pleased and are so well contented in placing the very
much more when he faith Let your Hearts but burn in Love unto me when that burning will not be painful but delightful When Naaman came to the Prophet to be cleansed of his Leprosie being directed to go and Wash in Jordan and he should be clean in Wrath he went away but his Servant came to him and said My Father if the Prophet had bid thee do some great thing wouldst thou not have done it How much rather then when he saith to thee wash and be clean 2 King 5.13 If Christ had required some great thing that thou mightest escape great torments and be partaker of great Salvation wouldest thou not have done it How much rather then when he saith Love me and be Saved When you have received great kindness from a Friend whom you cannot requite yet you say I cannot do less than love him yet this small thing is more in Christs account than all without this You Pray to him but to Love him is more an Heart full of Love is more to Christ than a thousand Prayers full of the most eloquent Expressions without Love You hear his Word but to love him is more You might suffer for him but to have love to him is more Should 〈◊〉 give all your Goods to the Poor and your 〈◊〉 to the Fire for him to give your Heart and 〈◊〉 him is still more And indeed except 〈◊〉 the former proceed from Love and are accompanied with it they are not pleasing to Christ nor profitable to your Salvation 1 Cor. 13.1 2 3. VI. Will you love that which you might easily love too much and not Christ whom you can never over-love You might love your Riches your Relations your Pleasures your Self your Liberty your Life too much In these your love might soon exceed and transgress the bounds and it is hard not to exceed but to keep within bounds And indeed so much love as you give to these more than to Christ is too much but could you love Christ with as much love as all the Saints in Heaven love him it would not be too much for him if you were able to bear it Many have complained they loved Christ too little but never any that he had too much of their love God doth blame you and Conscience doth accuse you for your great love to things below but neither God nor Conscience for the highest degrees of love to Christ and things that are above VII Can you love your selves truly and not love the Lord Jesus sincerely There is a Self-love which is inconsistent with the love of Christ and there is a Self-love which is the best that no man hath but he that loveth Christ Doth that man love himself indeed that regardeth not the Salvation of his Soul That doth ruin himself and damn himself and shut himself out of Heaven Doth that man love himself indeed that doth expose himself to the wrath of God to the damnation of Hell and to banishment from the glorious presence of the blessed God All which a man brings upon himself for want of love to Jesus Christ if then you will love your self truly you must love Christ sincerely VIII Are not all the Duties of Religion tedious to you for want of love to Christ Do you find it a burden to Pray A burden to hear or read the Word of God Is it a burden to you to medirate upon God and Christ and things above It is all for want of love to Christ for Love makes hard Things easie and heavy Labour to be light IX Doth any thing make you more like to God than to love Christ Do you not in this most resemble God Do you believe in Christ So doth not God Do you trust in Christ for Life and Salvation So doth not God Do you obey the commands of Christ God hath no superiour to command him But do you love Christ So doth God Joh. 3.35 The father loveth the son and hath given all things into his hands Joh. 5.20 X. Might you return to God and Christ like for like in any thing but in Love Or in any thing carry it towards God as God doth towards you If God be angry with you might you be angry with God If God withdraw comfort from you might you with-hold Duty from God If he rebuke you might you rebuke him If he be displeased with you might you be displeased with him Would not all this be your sin and perversness of heart towards him But if he love you you may and ought to love him If he hath set his heart upon you your Duty is to set your heart on him XI Can you hope for Salvation by him without sincere affection to him Or who bids you hope for any such thing Can you have the face to expect such great things by through and from Christ as Pardon of all your Sins deliverance from Hell the happiness of Heaven and yet not love him Do you hope for eternal Life by Christ I know you do might not Christ then expect love from you when you expect Life by Christ As you would have Life by Christ let Christ have Love from you or else your expectation of Life will be disappointed and end in Death without end XII Dare you dye without love to Christ Dare you can you leave this World with a quiet mind if you love not Christ No surely except you dye as Blind as you were Born What think you when you come to be Sick and when you come to Dye will it not be a cut to thy Heart to think I have lived twenty forty years but I never loved Christ Now must I go to appear before him whom I never loved Why not love him while you live in health as well as wish you had loved him when health is gone and sickness come When Life is going as fast as Death is coming XIII Is not your Love Christs due Do you not owe it to him Is it not due to him by vertue of Creation Did not he give your Being to you By vertue of Redemption when you were worse than nothing did not he lay down his Soul his Life his Blood as a Price for your Ransom By vertue of Preservation hath not Christ kept you out of the Grave and Hell unto this day Justice would have hewn thee down and Wrath would have damned thee long ago and who hath procured a Reprieval for thee but Christ That thou art on this side the Torments of the Damned not past Praying and Hearing and Hoping is all through Christs procuring for thee longer time By vertue of Provision which Christ maketh for thee thou wouldst not have had a Rag to thy Back nor a Morsel for thy Mouth nor Sleep in thy Eyes if Christ had not bought and by Purchase procured for thee what thou hast Thy love is due to Christ by vertue of Command whereby thou art obliged and bound to give it to him and shalt be accounted a Transgressor and a great one
but you can if you would for have you not the means to help you to love him Is not he Preached to you Is not the Spirit striving with you Will you say you cannot love him though you would That I utterly deny for if you were really willing to love him you could love him nay if you do unfeignedly Will to love him you do love him for what is Willing but Loving And what hinders you from Loving but your not willing to love him Will you say you want power What power do you mean The Natural faculty or power of the Will That you have how else do you Will any thing you do Will you say you want a power of Willing to love Christ What is that but that you are unwilling to love him And if you cannot because you will not the more you plead your Cannot the more you aggravate your Will not A Natural Power God hath given you that is a Will if you lye under a Moral Impotency that is your Sin and what is this Moral Cannot or Impotency but the averseness of the Will from Christ Therefore though without the powerful workings of the Grace and Spirit of God you cannot love Christ sincerely yet this Cannot is your Will not for if by the Grace of God you were enabled to Will you could and if you were as willing to love Christ as some now are that once were as unwilling as now you be you could love him as well as they Why should you stand off and say If it were possible for me to love Christ I would How Possible What! Is there no difference betwixt you and a Devil Betwixt you and the Damned in Hell You can love the World can you do that You can love your Self can you do that Yes And I suppose you can love Sin too can you not To our Grief and your Shame we find it But why can you love World and Self and Sin Is it not because you will Do you do it against your Will I wish you did then there might be more hopes you would be perswaded to love Christ You can and do love Sin because you are willing have but as great willingness to love Christ as the World and Sin and then it may be said Not only that you can but do love Christ However though I am no Asserter of the Liberty and Power of the Will in things Supernatural nor an opposer of the necessity of the workings of the Spirit to enable a Sinner to love Christ yet it is most manifest that your unwillingness is the hinderance of such Love and this unwillingness is your weakness since then your unwillingness certainly by Grace might be removed your Love is possible therefore cease not till it be actual Are ye at length convinced of the Necessity of love to Christ And are ye at length perswaded to seek it and willing to get love to him I shall then next proceed to the Directions whereby ye might through Grace fall in love with Jesus Christ CHAP. XII Ten Directions to get sincere Love to Christ shewing the way of Love to him I. CLearly understand and be throughly convinced of thy lost Estate and miserable Condition for Conviction sight and sense of Sin and of our lost Estate thereby usually goes before the setting of the Heart and Love upon Jesus Christ though God doth not deal with all Sinners in all circumstances alike in working and begetting in them consent and love unto his Son in divers persons the measure of Conviction is different as in the Natural Birth some are born after more pangs and throws than others are so in the Spiritual Birth in which the Love is turned unto and set upon Christ the day of this Birth being the day of Espousals some God dealeth with more gently with some more roughly Some he melts like Wax and some he hews like knotty Wood some he carrieth by the Gates of Hell to the Door of Heaven and some he brings to Christ and leads to Heaven with lesser Terrors To gain your love to Christ he expresly threatens Damnation that is so great it cannot be fully expressed and lets the Sinner know that Consent and Love he must or be Damned he must He doth let in such light into the Mind that the Soul doth see there is is no way to escape the darkness of Hell than by consenting to Christ that came from Heaven and Christ presseth hard upon the Conscience of the Sinner whom he Wooeth for his Love saying Poor Sinner What dost thou mean To be Damned rather than to have me for thy Saviour To go to Hell with thy Lusts than to Heaven with me the Lord What wilt thou do Shall I have thy Love or No Wilt thou at last consent or wilt thou still refuse I tell thee plainly if I and thou part Hell and thou must meet I have been Wooing long and Waiting long but now it is come to a parting or a closing point and it is time for thee to come to a resolution This is the Case Deny my Suit and God will Damn thy Soul If thou hear not me thou shalt howl in Hell If I leave thee God will leave thee and Mercy will leave thee and all Misery will come upon thee Poor Sinner Consider the issue of thy final refusal of me and of denying thy love to me 1. Will it not be thy being cast into pain of greatest extremity And how wilt thou do to bear it If God do but touch thee with his Finger thou dost sigh and sob thou dost cry and roar and canst not rest O how wilt thou rest when God shall lay on blows with his Almighty Arm If pain in thy Head or sickness at thy Heart or Gripings in thy Bowels make thee cry out like a Distracted Man what wilt thou do to bear the wrath of God in a place prepared on purpose to shew his indignation against Christ-refusing Sinners When the sorest affliction in this Life is but as the pricking of a Pin to the piercing of a Sword if compared to the Torments of the Damned 2. Will it not be Misery joined with endless Eternity And hadst thou rather bear pains extream and eternal too than Love me that would deliver thee from them Doth not a small affliction make one Day or Night seem long much more if it be heavy Then in the Night thou askest Is it not Day Thou countest the Clock thou numberest the Hours and think'st that Time doth pass but slowly on Would it were but break-a-day that I might rise But all the time between the Creation and the Dissolution of the World is but a moment to Eternity Where there is no striking of Clocks no telling of Hours no returns of Night and Day but always Night and never Day never shall be break-a-day A thousand years shall pass and never the less to come Nay nothing past and nothing to come and yet more to come than is already past an everlasting