〈◊〉 with the heart and whether you have â—â—y special interest in him O what a damp 〈◊〉 casteth on the soul how it stifleth its â—â—pes and joys and turneth the Sacrament â—hich is appointed for their comfort into â—â—eir greater trouble It hath many a time â—â—ieved me to observe that no ordinance â—â—th cast many upright souls into greater â—erplexities and discouragements and â—â—stresses then the Lords Supper because â—â—ey come to it with double reverence and 〈◊〉 the doubtings of their title and questiâ—ning their preparedness and by their fears of eating and drinking unworthily their â—â—uls are utterly discomposed with perplexâ—â—g passions and turned from the pleasant â—â—â—rcise of faith and the delighful enterâ—ourse that they should have with God and â—â—ey are distempered and put out of relish 〈◊〉 all the sweetness of the Gospel And 〈◊〉 they are frightened from the Sacrament by such sad experiences and dare 〈◊〉 thither no more for fear of eating â—udgement to themselves And should â—oâ— Christians labour to remove the cause of such miserable distracting fears that so much wrong both Christ and them and 〈◊〉 recover their well-grounded peace and comfort 11. Your Love to God which is 〈◊〉 Heart and Life of the new creature 〈◊〉 so much depend upon your knowledge of 〈◊〉 love to you as should make you much 〈◊〉 desirous of such a knowledge Love is 〈◊〉 end of faith and faith the way to 〈◊〉 So much of Love as is in every duty 〈◊〉 much holiness is in it and no more Iâ— is the sum of the commandments 〈◊〉 the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13 â— Mat. 22.37 Mark 12.33 Though God 〈◊〉 us first as purposing our good 〈◊〉 we loved him 1 Joh. 4.9.10 And 〈◊〉 therefore Love him because he first 〈◊〉 us v. 19. Yet doth he Love us by compâ—â—â—cency and acceptance because we love 〈◊〉 Father and the son Joh. 16.27 〈◊〉 the Father himself loveth you because 〈…〉 loved me and have believed that I came 〈◊〉 from God And what will more effectâ—â—â— kindle in you the fervent Love of Chrâ—â—â— then to know that he loveth you and 〈◊〉 in you All this is exprest by 〈◊〉 himself in Joh 14.20.21 22 23. At 〈◊〉 day ye shall know that I am in my Faith and you in me and I in you He that 〈◊〉 my commandments and keepeth them he 〈◊〉 that loveth me and he that loveth me 〈◊〉 be loved of my Father and I will love 〈◊〉 and will manifest my self unto him If a man love me he will keep my word and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him 1 Cor. 8.3 If any man love God the same is known of him with a knowledge of special Love and approbation This is no disparagement to faith whose nature and use is to work by Love Gal. 5.6 What a man Loveth such he is The Love is the man Our Love is judged by our Life as the cause by the effect but the Life is judged by the Love as the fruits by the tree the effects by the cause Mores auâ—em nostri non ex eo quod quisque novit sed ex eo quod diligit dijudicari solentinâ—â— faciâ—â—t bonos vel malos mores nisi boni vel mali amores saith Augustine that is Our manners are not used to be judged of according to that which every man knoweth but according to that which he loveth It is only good or evil love that maketh good or evil manners If Plato could say as Augustine citeth him lib. 8. de Civit. Dei Hoc est Philosophari scilicet Deum amare To be a Philosopher is to Love God Much more should we say Hoc est Christianum agere this is the doctrine and the work of a Christian even the Love of God Indeed it is the work of the Redeemer to recover the heart of man to God and to bring us to Love him by representing him to us as the most amiable suitable object of our Love And the perfection of Love is Heaven it self O jugum sancti amoris inq Bernard quam dulciter capis gloriose laqueas suaviter premis delectanter oneras fortiter stringis prudenter erudis that is The yoak of holy Love O how sweetly dost thou surprize how gloriously dost thou inthrall how plesantly dost thou press how delightfully dost thou load how strongly dost thou bind how prudently dost thou instruct O faelix amor ex quo oritur strenuitas morum puritas affectionum subtilitas intellectuum desideriorum sanctitas operum claritas virtutum faecunditas meritorum dignitas praemiorum sublimitas O happy Love from which ariseth the strength of manners the purity of affections the subtilty of intellects the sanctity of desires the excellency of works the fruitfulness of vertues the dignity of deserts the sublimity of the reward I appeal to your own consciences Christians would you not think it a foretaste of Heaven upon earth if you could but Love God as much as you desire would any kind of life that you can imagine be so desirable and delightful to you Would any thing be more acceptable unto God! And on the contrary a soul without the Love of God is worse then a Corpse without a soul If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be anathama maranatha 1 Cor. 16.22 And do I need to tell you what a powerful incentive it is to Love to know that you are beloved It will make Christ much more dear to you to know how dear you are to him What is said of affective Love in us may partly be said of attractive Love in Christ Eccles 8.7 Many waters cannot quench Love neither can the floods drown it no riches can purchase what it can attract when you find that he hath you as a seal upon his arm and heart v. 6. and that you are dear to him as the apple of his eye what holy flames will this kindle in your breast If it be almost impossible with your equals upon earth not to Love them that Love you which Christ telleth you that even Publicans will do Matth. 5.46 how much more should the Love of Christ constrain us abundantly to Love him when being infinitely above us his Love descendeth that ours may ascend His Love puts forth the hand from heaven to fetch us up O Christians you little know how Satan wrongeth you by drawing you to deny or doubt of the special Love of God How can you Love him that you apprehend to be your enemie and to intend your ruine Doubtless not so easily as if you know him to be your friend In reason is there any likelier way to draw you to hate God then to draw you to believe that he hateth you Can your thoughts be pleasant of him or your speeches of him sweet or can you attend him or draw near him with delight while you think he hateth you and hath decreed your damnation you may fear him as he is a
be void of an effectual knowledge of your sin and misery and need of the Remedy 3. To think you have saving grace when you have none that you are regenerate by the Spirit when you are only sacramentally regenerate by Baptism that you are the members of Christ when it is no such matter that you are Justified Adopted and the Heirs of Heaven when it is not so all this is dolefull and damnable unacquaintedness with yourselues To be unacquainted with a state of Life when you are in such a state is sad and troublesome and casts you upon many and great inconveniences But to be unacquainted with a state of Death when you are in it doth fasten your chains and hinder your recovery To be willing and diligent to know your state and yet be unable to attain to assurance and satisfaction is ordinary with many true Believers But to be ignorant of it because you have no grace to find and because you mind not the matters of your souls or think it not worth your diligent consideration or enquiry this is the case of the miserable despisers of salvation III. THE Commodities and Incommodities to be mentioned are so many and great that many hours would not serve to open them as they deserve 1. Atheism is cherished by self-ignorance The knowledge of our selves as men doth notably conduce to our knowledge of God Here God is known but darkly and as in a glass 1 Cor. 13.12 and by his Image and not as face to face And except his Incarnate and his written word what Glass revealeth him so clearly as the soul of man We bear a double Image of our Maker His Natural Image in the nature of our facuities and his Moral Image in their Holy qualifications in the nature of grace and frame of the new man By knowing our selves it is easie to know that there is a God and it much assisteth us to know what he is not only in his Attributes and Relations but even in the Trinity it self He may easily know that there is a Primitive Being and Life that knoweth he hath himself a Derived Being and Life He must know that there is a Creator that knoweth he is a creature He that findeth a capacious Intellect a Will and Power in the creature and that is conscious of any Wisdom and Goodness in himself may well know that formaliter or eminenter all these are infinite in the first cause that must thus have in it self whatsoever it doth communicate He that knoweth that he made not and preserveth not himself may well know that he is not his Own but his that made him and preserveth him who must needs be his Absolute Proprietary and Lord. He that knoweth that he is an Intellectual free agent and therefore to act Morally and therefore to be moved by Moral means and that he is a sociable creature a member of the Vniverse living among men may well be sure that he is made to be a subject and Governed by Laws and by morall means to be directed and moved to his End and therefore that none but his Absolute Lord the Infinite Wisdom Goodness and Power can be his Absolute and Highest Soveraign He that is convinced that he is he lives he hopeth and enjoyeth all that 's good from a Superior Bounty may be sure that God is his Principal Benefactor And to be The First and Infinite Being Intellect Will and Power Wisdom Goodness and Cause of all things the Absolute Owner the most Righteous Governor and the most Bounteous Benefactor this is to be GOD. This being the Description of him that is so called such a Description as is fetcht from his Created Image Man and expressed in the terms that himself hath chosen and used in his word as knowing that if he will be understood by man he must use the Notions and Expressions of man And though these are spoken but Analogically of God yet are there no fitter conceptions of him that the soul of man in flesh is capable of So that the Atheist carrieth about him that Impress and Evidence of the Deity which may convince him or condemn him for his Foolishness and Impiety He is a Fool indeed that saith in his Heart There is no God Psal 14.1 when that Heart it self in its Being and Life and Motion is his Witness and Soul and Body with all their faculties are nothing but the Effects of this Almighty Cause And when they prove that there is a God even by questioning or denying it being unable without him so much as to deny him that is to think or speak or be As if a fool should write a Volume to prove that there is no Ink or Paper in the world when it is Ink and Paper by which he writes And whether there be no representation of the Trinity in Vnity in the Nature of man let them judge that have well considered how in One Body there are the Natural Vital and Animal parts and spirits And in One Life or Soul there are the Vegetative Sensitive and Rational faculties And in One Rational Soul as such there are an Intellect Will and Executive power Morally perfected by Wisdom Goodness and Promptitude to well doing As in one Sun there is Light and Heat and Moving force So that man is both the Beholder and the Glass the Reader and the Book He is the Index of the Godhead to himself Yea partly of the Trinity in Vnity Of which saith August de Trinit lib. 1. Nec periculosius alicubi erratur nec laboriosius aliquid quaritur nec fructuosius invenitur quam Trinitas We need not say Who shall go up into Heaven saith Seneca himself by the light of nature Prope Deus est tecum est Intus est sacer intra nos Spiritus sed bonorum malorumque nostrorum observator custos Hic prout à nobis tractatur ita nos tractat ipse Bonus vir sine Deo nemo est God is nigh us with us within us A holy spirit resideth within us â—he observer of our evil and good and our â—â—eserver He useth us as he is used by us â—o good man is without God saith August 〈◊〉 Deus est in seipso sicut α ω in mundo â—â—cut rector author in Angelis sicut sapor â— decor in Ecclesia sicut paterfamilias in â—omo in animo sicut sponsus in thalamo 〈◊〉 justis sicut adjutor protector in reprobis â—â—cut pavor horror God is in himself as â—he Alpha and Omega in the world as its â—overnor and Author in Angels as their â—weetness and comeliness in the Church as â—he master of the family in his house in the â—â—ul as the Bridegroom in his bed-chamber 〈◊〉 the righteous as their helper and proteâ—â—or c. And as all declareth him so all â—hould praise him Hunc itaque mens diligat â—â—ngua canat manus scribat atque in his sanâ—tis studiis fidelis animus se exerceat Aug. Let the
mens and of those that are suitable to their dispositions interests or examples and those that are against them They seem to judge of the actions by the persons and not of the persons by the actions Though he be himself a sensualist a worldling drowned in Ambition and Pride whose heart is turned away from God and utterly strange to the mysterie of Regeneration and a heavenly life yet all this is scarce discerned by him and is little troublesome and less odious then the failings of another whose heart and life is devoted unto God The different opinions or modes and circumstances of worship in another that truly feareth God is matter of their severer censures and reproach then their own omissions and aversness and enmity to holiness and the dominion of their deadly sins It seems to them more intolerable for another to pray without a Book then for themselves to pray without any serious belief or love or holy desire without any feeling of their sins or misery or wants that is to pray with the lips without a heart to pray to God without God even without the knowledge or love of God and to pray without prayers It seemed to the Hypocritical Pharisees a greater crime in Christ and his Disciples to violate their Traditions in not washing before they eat to break the Ceremonious rest of their Sabbath by healing the diseased or plucking ears of corn then in themselves to hate and persecute the true believers and worshippers of God and to kill the Lord of life himself They censured the Samaritans for not worshipping at Jerusalem but censured not themselves for not worshipping God that is a Spirit in Spirit and in Truth Which makes me remember the course of their successors the Ceremonious Papists that condemn others for Hereticks and fry them in the flames for not believing that Bread is no Bread and Wine is no Wine and that Bread is to be adored as God and that the souls of dead men know the hearts of all that pray to them in the world at once and that the Pope is the Vice-Christ and Soveraign of all the Christians in the world and for reading the Scriptures and praying in a known tongue when they forbid it and for not observing a world of Ceremonies when all this enmity to Reason Piety Charity Humanity all their Religious Tyranny Hypocrisie and Cruelty do seem but holy zeal and laudable in themselves To lie dissemble forswear depose and murder Princes is a smaller matter to them when the Pope dispenseth with it and when it tends to the advantage of their faction which they call the Church then to eat flesh on Friday or in Lent to neglect the Mass or Images or Crossing c. And it makes me remember Bishop Halls Description of An Hypocrite He turneth all gnats into Camells and cares not to undo the world for a circumstance Flesh on Friday is more abominable to him then his neighbours bed He abhors more not to uncover at the name of Jesus then to swear by name of God c. It seems that Prelats were guilty of this in Bernards dayes who saith Praelati nostri calicem linquunt Camelum deglutiunt dum majora permittentes minora discutiunt Optimi rerum aestimatores qui magnum in minimis parvam aut nullam in maximis adhibent diligentiam i. e. Our Prelats strain at a gnat and swallow a Camel while permitting greater matters they discuss or sift the less Excellent estimators of things indeed that in the smallest matters imploy great diligence but in the greatest little or none at all And the cause of all this partiality is that Men are unacquainted with themselves They love and cherish the same corruptions in themselves which they should hate and reprehend in others And saith Hierom Quomodo potest praeses Ecclesiae auferre malum de medio ejus qui in delictum simile corruerit aut qua libertate corripere peccantem potest cum tacitus ipse sibi respondeat eadem se admisisse quae corripit i. e. How can a Prelat of the Church reform the evil that is in it that rusheth into the like offence Or with what freedom can he rebuke a sinner when his conscience secretly tells him that he hath himself committed the same faults which he reproveth Would men but first be acquainted with themselves and pass an impartial judgement on the affections and actions that are nearest them and that most concern them they would be more competent and more compassionate Judges of their brethren that are now so hardly used by them It s excellent advice that Austin gives us Quum aliquem reprehendere nos necessitas coegerit cogitemus utrum tale sit vitium quod nunquam habuimus tunc cogitemus nos homines esse habere potuisse vel quod tale habuimus jam non habemus tunc memoria tangat communis fragilitatis ut illam correctionem non odium sed misericordia praecedat Sin autem invenerimus nos in eodem vitio esse non objurgemus sed ingemiscamus ad aequaliter deponendum invitemus i. e. When necessity constraineth us to reprove any one let us think whether it be such a vice as we never had our selves and then let us think that we are men and might have had it Or if we once had such but have not now then let the remembrance of common frailty touch us that compassion and not hatred may lead the way to our reproof But if we find that we have the same vice our selves let us not chide but groan and move or desire that we may both equally lay it by 5. It shews how little men know themselves when they must needs be the Rule to all other men as far as they are able to command it and that in the matters that mens salvation dependeth on and in the smallest tender disputable points and even in those things where themselves are most unfit to judge In every controverted point of doctrine though such as others have much better studied then themselves he that hath strength to suppress all those that differ from him must ordinarily be the umpire so is it even in the modes and circumstances of Worship Perhaps Christ may have the honour to be called the King of the Church and the Scripture have the honour to be called his Laws but indeed it is they â—hat would be the Lords themselves and 〈◊〉 is their Wills and Words that must be the â—aws and this under pretence of subâ—erving Christ and interpreting his Laws â—hen they have talkt the utmost for Counâ—ils Fathers Church Tradition it is â—hemselves that indeed must be all these â—or nothing but their own conceits and Wills must go for the sense of Decrees or Canons Fathers or Tradition Even they â—hat hate the power and serious practice of Religion would fain be the Rule of Reliâ—ion to all others And they that never â—new what it was to worship God in Spiâ—it and