us aside out of the way when we are off from our watch And presently we like David are surprized with sins and devilish lusts which do quickly rob us of our comforts making us to stand in need with David to cry Restore unto us the joy of thy Salvation and God seemes to take but little notice of us but when our spiritual enemies shall go about to take away our spiritual life for it is in the nature of predominating corruption that it would in time eat out the very life and power of Godliness and so to expose us to eternal death Then is the time for our Spiritual husband to shew his love to his poor spouse in destroying those enemies and thou that canst assure thy self of the love of God thou rejoycest more when God doth manifest his love in destroying thy corruptions than in all outward injoyments whatsoever But if on the contrary thy corruptions grow and thrive as much as ever thou hast no ground to assure thy self that God loves thee When Christ manifested his love to his spouse in incourageing of her to duty Cant. 2.14 15. Oh thou that art in the clifts of the rock in the secret places of the staires let me hear thy voice let me see thy countenance for sweet is thy voice and thy countenance is comely Pray mind what follows Take us those foxes those little foxes which corrupt the vines or spoyle the vines for our vines have tender grapes by those foxes we understand as well sin in the heart as heretick in the Church which sins the soul rejoyceth in the destructions of which have got an evidence of Gods Love 11. Another sign of our interest in the love of God is if we have received spiritual life from the God of life and love this we may see in the 16 of Ezekiel comparing the 6. verse with the 8. In the 8. verse we have the impulsive cause of our spiritual life that is the love of God thy time was the time of love In the 6. verse we have the effect of the Love of God towards us and this is spiritual life I say unto thee live So likewise in the 2 Gal. 20. see how the Apostle makes out his interest in the love of God saith he speaking of his spiritual life I live yet not I but Christ that liveth in me and the life that I now live is by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me Now my friends I beseech you draw out your hearts before the Lord and deal faithfully with your own souls and see whether you can say with Paul that the life that you now live is by the faith of the Son of God then indeed you may comfortably read on the verse and say who loved me and gave himself for me till we have received spiritual life from Christ we can never assure our selves of the love of Christ nor any benefit by the death of Christ And so in the 2 of the Ephes we may see that our spiritual life is an effect of the great love of God toward us in Jesus Christ Saith the Apostle in the 4. verse According to the great love wherewith he hath loved us In verse the 5. Even when we were dead in sins hath he quickned us together with Christ Now let us see whether the Spirit of life in Christ hath made us free from the law of sin and death Now we know that the difference between a dead man and a living man is this A dead man hath not his use of his senses as hearing seeing feeling tasting smelling but a living man hath the use of all or some of them Now soul wouldst thou read the love of God in thy spiritual life then see whether thou hast thy spiritual eye-sight hath God anointed thy eyes with spiritual eye-salve and made thee see in some measure the beauty of holiness and the excellency of Christ the worth of Gods favour the vanity of the world and the loathsomness of Sin so as to loath thy self for Sin now as dead men haveing no sight can see no more beauty or brightness in the Sun than in a dunghill so a Person dead in trespasses and sins can see nor Brightness or Splendor Beauty or Lustre in the Sun of Righteousness But if thou art one that canst experience the love of God in raising thee from the death of sin to the life of Righteousness thou canst no longer say with the daughters of Jerusalem What is thy beloved more than another beloved Cant. 5. but thou wilt be ready to say with the daughters of Sion my beloved is white and Ruddy the cheifest of ten thousand Cant. 5.10 And as this spiritual life doth convince a man of the Excellency of Christ so likewise of the ugliness of Sin Now soul see if thou hast this spiritual feeling we know that as a dead man cannot see so he cannot feel though you should â—ay a milstone upon him he is sensible of no more weight than if it were feather but a living man is quickly sensible of a little weight so is it with one spiritually dead in trespasses and sins he feels no weight in his Sins though they be heavier than the whole creation though sin be so heavy that it is a burden to God good angels good Men wicked Angels and the whole creation yet a wicked man that is spiritually dead feels no weight therein but if thou hast this spiritual life thou art made sensible of the burden of Sin whether in action in thought or in word and thou hast much trouble upon thy spirit for those sins which a wicked man would make nothing of and if it be so with thee then go home with comfort thou art one that mayst say that God hath loved thee with an everlasting love and that God hath manifested his love to thee in raising thee from the death of sin to the life of righteousness 12. And lastly wouldst thou know whether thou art an object of Gods love then see if God be the highest object of thy love for though Gods love to us do not flow from our love to God for saith John 1 John 1.9 we love him because he first loved us yet our love to God is an infallible symptome and glorious effect of Gods love to us for though God doth not love thee because thou lovest him yet till thou doest love him thou hast no ground to believe that he doth love thee now in regard that Gods beloved ones are so ready to question their love to God as well as Gods love to them I intend to insist upon this Particular by it self and all that I shall say to it at Present is this that if thou art one that lovest God thou doest love the People of God and the ordinances of God and wilt not sit down satisfied in an ordinance without communion with God in the ordinance and thou hast an implacable
that hath the Love of God shed abroad in it is insatiably desirous of more of it a David that hath tasted the sweetness of the Love of God he can in a sense thereof cry out Psal 4.6.4.51.8 Lord lift thou the light of thy countenance upon me and Lord restore unto me the Joy of thy Salvation It is reported of the Lyoness that when she hath once tasted of mans flesh she will never be satisfied without more of it when a Soul has once tasted of the sweetness of the Love of the lyon of the Tribe of Judah by feeding upon his flesh by Faith he will never be satisfied without more of it Now if God should put them to their choice as he did Solomon and ask such whether they would have the shinings in of Gods countenance or the pleasures of sin Oh say such Souls Give us the sweetness of thy love in Christ But suppose a Soul be asked whether it would have the Love of God or the pleasures and profits of the World oh saith the Soul the profits and pleasures of the world are but glistering vanities that are empty of what they promise and inticeing with what they have and God can quickly take the world from me or me from the world But if I have once the love of God I shall enjoy it for ever for neither death nor life Rom. 8 38 39 nor Angels nor Principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor highth nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now my friends I pray see whether you have these sharp appetites after more of the love of God then it is indeed sign that you are objects of the love of God a true Believer that has tasted the sweetness of the love of God is ready to say as Rachel did in another case Give me Children Gen. 30.1 or else I dye so saith the Soul give me more of the love of God or else my life will be a burden to me Oh saith the soul I am compassed about like Jehosaphat with Moab Ammon and mount Seir sin the world the Devil the father torments my Spirit and the children my flesh and being now in this deplorable state if God will not revive my soul with the sweet cordials of his Love what comfort can I have in my life Now if thou art thus breathing after more of the love of God it is a sign thou hast it already or else thou wouldst prefer any thing before it but if on the contrary thou canst with Herod prefer an Herodias sinful pleasure before the love of God and with Saul prefer the love of the people of the world before the love of God or with Demas prefer the profits of the world before the love of God Mat. 14.9 1 Sam. 15.30 2 Tim. 4.10 it is a sign thou never yet hast had it shed abroad in thy heart 6. Wouldst thou know whether thou canst assure thy self of the love of God then see whether God doth exercise thee with Afflictions and sanctify afflictions unto thee as unsanctified Prosperity is no certain sign of the love of God so neither are unsanctified Afflictions for Ahaz was under great afflictions and yet an object of Gods hatred and God is pleased to Stigmatize him to the world 2 Chron 28.22 to be that King Ahaz In which God does as it were point with the finger saying this is that incorrigible wretch that would not be wrought upon by Afflictions But if thou art exercised with Afflictions and those thou art exercised with draw thee nearer unto God and make thee mourn that thou shouldst provoke thy loving-tender-hearted father to lay such strokes upon thy back and that if thou wert put to thy choice thou hadst rather be rid of thy Sin than of thy afflictions and not be rid of thy sins also it is a sign that thou art an object of Gods love This is cleared up from the 3 of the Revelations compared with Psal 94. 〈◊〉 In the Revelations afflictions are made a sign of Gods love those whom I love I rebuke and chasten in that 94 Psal we may see when afflictions are signs of Gods love and that is when they are teaching Afflictions when in Afflictions God teacheth us to know the evil of sin in its cursed nature which is the meritorious cause of all Afflictions In a word when Afflictions are so sanctified as to make us love God more hate Sin more and contenm the world more and to desire to lye down patiently under the hand and will of God and say with Ely it is the Lord 1 Sam. 3.18 let him do what seemeth good in his sight and with Hezekiah Good is the word of the Lord good is this affliction from the hand of my good God and that it is the grief of thy soul when thou doest find a contumacious will thwarting the will of God and this reluctancy in thy will to submit to the will of God under afflicting providences is thy burden then I say it is a good sign nay an infallible sign that God doth exercise thee with those afflictions in love to thy precious Soul Indeed it is too ordinary for Gods people yea his beloved ones to look upon Afflictions as signs of Gods anger but though it be so with some yet it is not so with all I knew a gracious woman in Cambridge was wont to say that if God should not be pleased sometimes to afflict her she should fear he had forgot her and truly I think if there were more of this gracious submissive frame of Spirit amongst Christians in making a right construction of the dealings of God towards them it would put a period to those murmurings complaints and that uncomfortable deportment that doth so much predominate even in Gods beloved ones when they are under Afflictions 7. If thou wouldst know whether thou art an object of Gods love then see if God doth give thee Communion with himself in dutys an object of Gods hatred may injoy the ordinances of God but only true Believers can injoy Communion with the God of Ordinances Can. 2.4 The Spouse tells us that when her beloved brought her into the banquetting house his banner over her was love which in the original is the house of wines and is therefore very fitly translated banquetting because wine is frequently used at banquetting and that which is comprehended in the words is mainly this that when believers are found diligently attending on the means of grace God will at one time or other in one degree or other manifest himself and his love towards them The world is compared to a sea and Gods people in the world are like the disciples on the sea tossed with the waves of afflictions and temptations and Christ apppears to them spiritually as he did to the disciples corporally but they are ready to
cry out as the disciples did it is a Spirit oh saith a Soul I had a little comfort in such an ordinance but I am affraid it is but a Spirit delusion but at length Christ speaks so powerfully to the Soul by the operations of his holy Spirit that the Soul knows it to be the voice of Christ And then with the disciples it gladly receives Christ into its Soul and when Christ doeth thus communicate himself he doeth then manifest his endeared affection to it oh but methinks I hear some poor Soul ready to say truly here is but little comfort for me for if Gods communicating himself to a Soul in the manner you have been speaking be a sign of Gods love then God help me my case is bad enough for I do not find such communications of the graces and comforts of the Spirit to my Soul God knows I come time after time to hear the word and I go to prayer and I receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper but I come with a dead heart and a dull Spirit and so I go away again and have none of those quickning influences of the Spirit reviving and refreshing of my Soul God doth not make me joyful in his house of prayer which makes me fear that I am none of those whom God loves Poor Soul doest thou utter this mournful language in a formal complementing way or is it the language of a Nathaniel doth it proceed really from thy heart then take this for thy comfort and carry it home with thee and let it be as a cordial to revive thy pooâ— drooping Spirits That God hath already communicated himself to thy Soul or else thou wouldst neveâ— desire after communion with him in duty As a wicked earthly minded Ahab having never so much of the earth is sick with vexation of Spirit for want of Naboths vineyard so a Godly Heavenly Heaven born Saint though it doth injoy communion with God it is dissatisfied because it thinks it hath not so much as others a stone cast up into the air will never rest till it comes to the earth which is its center so God being the center of a gracious Soul it is restless without communion with him but on the contrary if thou canst go from one duty to another and sit down satisfied with the bare performance of the duty and yet art flattering thy self that thou art an object of Gods â—ove I tell thee thou art but feeding on the east wind and carrying lye in thy right hand for there are one that can assure themselves of he love of God but they have such Revelation of God to their Souls â—s doth fill them with Heavenly â—oys Or make them be dissatisfied without those comfortable discoveâ—…es of God to their Souls 8. Wouldst thou be assured of â—he love of God through a suffering Christ then see if God hath given â—hee an heart to desire to suffer for Christ when Christ hath helped the â—oul by an eye of saith to see what â—reat things he 'l suffer for his sake doth as the Apostle says constrein â—he soul to expose it self to the â—reatest sufferings for the cause of God when he shall be pleased to all him to it When the love of God â—omes to be shed abroad in the â—eart by the holy Ghost it will make a Soul say with Paul that it glorieth in tribulation when the Soul comes to be inflamed with the love of God many waters of affliction from God nor floods of persecutions from men cannot drown it oh saith the soul how can I shew my love enough to God that hath shewed so much love to me But on the contrary if thou art one that will suffer nothing for God thou canst not upon any sure grounds assure thy self that Christ hath suffered any thing for thee to purchase the love of God 9. Wouldst thou know thy interest in the love of God then see if thou doest hate sin For it is inconsistent for the Revelation of Gods love to the soul and the manifestation of the souls love to sin to be in the soul at one and the same time nothing gives such a mortal wound to sin nor makes it bleed to death sooner in the soul than the manifestation of the love of a wounded Saviour that did bleed for the soul My Friends you may take this for a certain truth that proportionably to the love of God that is manifested unto you such will be your hatred of sin that you commit against God as a woman that hath experienced much of her husbands love it makes her violent against her husbands enemies so a believer having experienced much of the love of God sets his soul the more against sin which he knows is Gods greatest enemy oh saith the Soul that hath the love of God shed abroad in it how can I hug this sin in my bosome that did pierce my dear and loving Lord Jesus to the heart how can I hide this sin as sugar under my tongue which did cause the tongue of my Lord Jesus to utter those bitter cryes and heart rending expressions with his eyes full of tears and his heart full of lamentations My God my God why hast thou forsaken me when God hath once discovered the freeness of his Love unto his people they quickly say with Ephraim what have I to do any more with Idols but if on the contrary thou lovest and delightest in sin and art ready to extenuate it it is a sign that the love of God is not shed abroad in thy Soul 10. If thou art one that canst really experience the love of God in and to thy Soul thou art not only brought to hate sin because it is such an enemy to that God who hath manifested so much love to thy Soul but God hath really destroyed Sin in thy Soul it being thine enemy as well as his I shall endeavour to set it forth by a similitude and how God doth manifest his love to his people by destroying their corruption suppose a man were walking on the way with his wife and she straying out of the way should be surprized by a company of bloody cut-throats and having took away or defaced her ornaments they should go about to murther her now though her husband could stand still awhile and see his wife somewhat roughly handled that she might take heed another time how she strayed so far from him yet when he sees them about to murther her then his bowells yern towards her and though she were in a fault yet still she was his wife whereupon he goes to her rescue destroyes those enemies of hers which otherwise would have destroyed her and thus he shews his love to his wife Truly my friends thus it is a true believer hath God for his husband while we are in this world we are walking on the way to heaven injoying the presence of our heavenly busband but the allurements of the flesh and the world are apt to draw
in his wayes in the 11. vers they were forgetful of his goodness and for many verses together we may see their infidelity with the highest aggravation imaginable and in the 29. vers we may see their great ingratitude in abuseing the mercys of God first to eat and drink for the gratifying their lusts and then to rise up to play in the 32. vers we may see their incorrigibleness and unbelief and yet notwithstanding all this God had such a general compassion of them and such love to them as did ingage him so to manifest his love towards them as to forgive their iniquitys so as not to cut them off suddenly and yet notwithstanding all this pitifull love of God extended to them in a general way they still remain objects of his wrath and abhorrency so that he would neither let their bodys come into Canaan nor their souls into heaven and this love mentioned in Hosea is only such a love as is mentioned in the 63. Isai and it is no more then if the Lord had said unto Ephraim I have exercised much patience towards thee ever since Jereboam did set up his abominable Idolatry I have waited to be gracious a long time but now I will drive them out of my house I will un-church them I will take away mine ordinances from them they shall no more injoy the ordinary Symptomes of my love to wit those spiritual priviledges and advantages by which I do in a general way manifest my love to a Nation in general and though I dare not be positive in my assertion I being but a man and therefore not infallible yet I cannot but judg this to be the meaning of the good spirit of our God because the Ordinances of Good vouchsafed to a Nation are in Scripture declared to be manifestations of his love Thus having endeavoured to shew the meaning of the Holy Ghost in this Scripture in answer to what might be objected from it against the Immutability of the Love of God to believers I shall draw up all to this conclusion that though 〈◊〉 may seem to be mutable in the external manifestations of his love to a Nation in general yet he is immutable in his eternal love to every true believer in particular And this is that which may be a ground of much consolation to those that can by what hath been said make it clear to their own souls that they are such that God hath such an everlasting love unto for if thou art an object of Gods everlasting love his Wisdom shall be engaged for thy Direction and his Power for thy Protection and his Holiness for thy Sanctification and his mercy for thy Salvation Oh my Friende I want words to set forth and express the thousand part of your happiness that are in the love and favour of God truly my friends I may say of the love of God as David did of the City of God glorious things are spoken of thee O thou love of God thou that artan object of Gods love thou hast all the Attributes of God and the offices of Christ and the influences of the Spirit all ingaged for thy Sanctification and Comfort and Consolation the evidence of this love of God is that which will be unto thee bread in famine drink in drought peace in war health in Sickness like in death the love of God in Christ manifested to thy soul is that tree which will sweeten the waters of Marah even the bitter waters of affliction The sense of this love of God is that which will lift thee up above the frowns flatteries of the world the clear discoveries of Gods love will make thee willing to suffer from God or for God and to conclude all in a world the sense of Gods love will make thee live holily and live humbly and live thankfully and live matchfully and live believeingly and live comfortably and live fruitfully and dye joyfully in full assurance of reigning gloriously with him who loved thee before all time and manifested his everlasting love to thee in time injoying the fuâ—… fruition of his love when time shalâ— be swallowed up to eternity and then there shall be no more sinfullâ— Comets to make an interposition the Sun of Righteousnes and thy poor soul but eagle-like thou shalt be continually above the clouds of Sin or Sufferings and injoy in a greater measure then now thou art capable of the love of God in as great brightness and serenity as thou wilt then be in a capacity to receive Now to the God of love by all the objects of his love be ascribed all Honour and Glory for ever and ever Amen FINIS