them and make them fitting to receive his Majesty and therefore sweep your hearts and clense those roomes clense every sinke brush downe every cobweb and make roome for Christ for if thy heart bee prepard and divorced from all corruptions then Christ will come into thy soule and take possession of it Remove therefore all corruptions out of thy heart And when thou hast swept every corner of thy house doe not leave the dust behind the doore for that is a fluts tricke doe not remove sinne out of thy tongue and out of thy eye and out of thy hand and leave it in thy heart No no out with all let every chamber be dressed up let every part and faculty be right disposed that the Lord may come and dwell in thy soule The second motive that may stirre us up to prepare for the Lord Iesus 2. Christ is most worthy for whom we should prepare is his transcendent worthinesse in regard of which all preparation may seeme too little You are not to entertaine an ordinary person it is not a man it is not a King it is not a Monarch but it is a King of Kings that will come into your soules to comfort them yea his holy and blessed Spirit will remaine with you for ever Therefore doe all that possibly may be done to prepare for his comming and for the entertainement and welcomming of him when he comes In Psal 24.7 David calleth upon his owne soule and other of Gods people for so the words are to be expounded there he saith Lift up your heads O yee Gates and be yee lift up yee everlasting doores and the King of glory shall come in As who should say Be enlarged love joy hope set open give way for the Lord is comming But who is the Lord It is the Lord of hostes the Lord strong and mighty the Lord mighty in battell ver 8. And with that he knockes againe Lift up your heads O yee Gates and be yee lift up yee everlasting doores for the King of glory shall come in ver 9. As if he should say What shall the Lord knocke shall the King of glory stand Open suddenly and make all preparation Did David doe thus Why doe you so then Christ knockes by promises hee knockes by judgements hee knockes by threats yea hee speakes this day unto your soules and labours this day to make way for himselfe make therefore all preparation let nothing be wanting that when he comes he may take possession of your soules Particulars and bee a God unto you for ever There will come a great deale of benefit by this meanes unto your soules And this also may encourage us The Lord commeth into our soules not to trouble and charge us no hee commeth to bring everlasting salvation and happinesse to our soules Looke what Christ said to Zacheus Luk. 19.5 8 9. when hee went up into a Sycamore tree to see him Make haste and come downe Zacheus saith he for I must abide with thee in thy house Zacheus made no cavilling but made haste and came downe and received him joyfully And marke what Christ saith unto him This day salvation is come into thine house So likewise it shall be with you when Christ commeth salvation commeth with him when he commeth everlasting happinesse and salvation commeth when Christ commeth goe home and witnesse against all your carnall neighbours that they that refuse Christ and doe not make preparation for him refuse salvation and everlasting happinesse that is offered unto them Amos 4.12 when the Lord had sent a great plague and a heavie judgement upon Ierusalem he saith Thus will I doe unto thee Oh Israel and because I will doe this unto thee prepare to meet thy God O Israel I will doe thus unto thee O Israel that is I will send mildewes plagues and pestilence and famine I will draw you out with hookes and your posteritie with fish-hookes And what followeth Prepare to meet thy God O Israel If God come against us to plague us we must prepare to meet him Reason now with your owne soules upon strong grounds to your everlasting comfort Should the Lord come in judgement to torment us should the Lord come to scourge and punish us if wee must then prepare to meet him then what preparation ought we to make for his comming when hee shall not come thus in judgement to condemne us but in his mercy to save us in his goodnesse to enrich us in his compassion to comfort us then now if ever prepare to meet thy God O Israel Let every heart perswade it selfe of this particular and reason and consider with your owne soules in this case Is Christ so gracious and so mercifull doth he send downe from heaven unto us and say he will come if any man keepe my Commandements I stand at the doore and knocke Rev. 3.20 if any man will open my Father and I will come in and sup and dwell with him Why where is the heart in the meane time And if ever now prepare to meete the Lord. But if neither the judgements of God will perswade us nor the mercies of God allure us yet let the complaints and moanes of Christ Iesus prevaile with you to prepare for him Consider our Saviour Christ hath taken a great journey from heaven to earth to save us miserable wretched and sinfull creatures conceive you saw those streames of bloud trickling downe his cheekes conceive you saw him upon the crosse with his hands thrust thorow with nailes and his side pierced with a speare enduring the wrath of God for our sinnes and behold now hee standeth at the doore and saith with the Church Lam. 1.12 It is nothing to you have you no regard O yee that passe by behold and see if there bee any sorrow like unto my sorrow c. Imagine you heard Christ say I have suffered these and these things for you these hands of mine were nailed this side of mine was pierced this heart of mine was melted with anguish of spirit Imagine you saw Christ standing and knocking at the doore of your hearts as indeed hee doth and say Hoe all you within there hoe all you proud hearts hoe all you covetous and malicious hearts have you no regard of a poore Saviour have you no regard of a crucified Saviour hee that died for you even the bitter death upon the crosse for you and now laboureth to doe good unto you Would not this move you to prepare your your hearts for him and to let him in Nay marke what Christ saith to the Church Cant. 5.2 Open to me my sister my love my dove my undefiled for my head is filled with dew and my lockes with the drops of the night As if hee should say I have had an ill journey a bad way and unkind entertainment and therefore come away my love my dove my undefiled and open unto me So hee saith to every one of our soules This day I have travelled
forget also thy owne people and thy fathers house So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty for hee is thy Lord and worship thou him Take notice there must be a forgetting of the fathers house that is of all lusts sinnes and corruptions profits and pleasures all must bee forgotten and forsaken Simile A woman when shee is married unto a husband must not thinke alwayes to bee at home and to live in her fathers house so we when we are married to the Lord Christ Iesus must leave all our darling sinnes and forsake all our beloved lusts and reserve our selves wholly for our husband So that then the heart is prepared for Christ when all is laid aside when all former wicked courses are forgotten so farre as to love them as to remember to hate them that so the soule may be ready and the heart fitted to receive and entertaine Christ Iesus when he commeth And this is the rule which Christ himselfe giveth to any which will be his Disciple Mat. 10.37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me that is he is not fitted and prepared to receive me He that is not content to part with all profits pleasures and delights for the Lords sake he is not fit to receive the Lord Iesus Christ that soule is not yet prepared to entertaine him and to give any welcome to him So that this is the first passage there must bee nothing betweene Christ and the soule hee must lie next the heart as there must none lie in the Privie Chamber but the King so there must nothing but Christ lie next the heart The second thing wherein this preparation discovers it selfe is this 2. In giving way to Jesus Christ As the soule must reserve itselfe onely for Christ so the soule in the second place must be willing to give way to Christ Iesus For howsoever the soule in the very point and instant of preparation hath no more power or grace or strength to get dominion over sin than it had before yet it is willingly content that Iesus Christ should come into it and overthrow all that opposeth him it is content to joyne sides with Christ it goeth along with him it is content that Christ should do what pleaseth him in the soule if there be any corruption that the soule cannot get mastery of it wisheth Oh that Christ would come and remoove this corruption Thus the soule is content to have Christ make havock of all and set up his kingdome in it and doe whatsoever pleaseth him The soule that is prepared for Christ how soever it hath not grace and power and strength in the particular moment of preparation though it hath not attained that power to kill and crucifie all corruptions yet it is willingly content that Christ should come and take all the keyes of the house it is willing to open the gates of the City unto him and let him doe what hee will therein it is content that the Lord Iesus should every way overthrow the power that comes against him and dispose of all things to his owne glory and honour In Esay 26.13 There is a pretty passage saith the Text Other Lords besides thee have had dominion over us but by thee onely will we make mention of thy Name The people of the Iewes here would not beare the Lords yoke and therefore they had hard taskmasters and when they saw enemies on the one side and enemies on the other then they complained Many vexations have we found at the hands of unreasonable tyrants but now we wil remember thy Name onely that is if our God will now come and rule over us wee would rebell against our other lords and let God be Lord onely over us and doe what he will unto us In 2 Kings 10.3.4 when Iehu had overcome two Kings he sendeth messengers to the people of Israel to choose a King and set him up over them But saith the Text behold two Kings stood not before him how then shall wee stand But in the fifth verse they sent word unto Iehu and sayd We are thy servants and will doe what thou wouldst have us to doe we wil not not make any King doe what is good in thine own eyes This is the frame of the heart prepared for the Lord Iesus When Christ cōmeth against a soule and saith You have set up your corruptions to be your gods you have cast away my Commandements defend therefore your selves and know that God is angry with you and I am comming against you to take vengeance if the soule now submits it selfe and saith Lord do what thou wilt and what is good in thine owne eyes our humors shall not be followed any more we will not follow our owne minds and affections but we will doe what thou commandest us doe Lord even what is good in thine eyes if a soule bee thus disposed then it is prepared for the Lord Iesus The prodigall son Luke 15. when hee saw that poverty pinched him and that he must come home by weeping crosse when by wofull experience hee saw that want befell him and that famine came close unto him then hee confessed What a wretch am I there are they in my fathers house yea the servants there have bread enough but I starve here for hunger upon this he resolves to goe to his father he doth not stand vpon termes with him and say I will be so and so advanced but he saith Luk. 15.18.19 Father I have sinned against heaven and against thee am no more worthy to be called thy son make me as one of thy hired servants Now if hee can come within his fathers doores he cares not hee will stoope and bee conformable in every case So it is with the soule prepared for Christ those that have stubborne hearts they will not obey the Lord but they will be gone as the prodigall sonne did yet they will one day bee found when misery hath seized upon their soules and then they will say Oh happy are those that live under the ministery of the Word If the Lord would but once receive mee to mercy againe then I would obey every command and stoope to every word of the Lord then I would willingly give place ever to the Lord. And this is the second thing wherein this preparation manifests it selfe when the soule of a poore sinner is willing thus to give way to Christ and to let him take possession of it to overthrow whatsoever hindereth and opposeth him and to dispose of all things to his owne good pleasure Thirdly 3. In giving up all the roome unto Christ when the soule doth rebell against her former sinnes and is reserved only for Christ and is content thus to receive God and is willing that Christ should overthrow whatsoever opposeth him and doe whatsoever pleaseth him then in the third place this is only observable the manner how the soule prepared giveth way unto God It gives the
to a poore cottage and enlighten a blind minde and a sottish spirit in this manner Oh this is love Oh love him againe for it he deserves it Thirdly Christ seeks thy love here is the admimiration of mercy that our Saviour that hath been rejected by a company of sinfull creatures should seeke their love for shame refuse him not but let him have love before he goe Had the Lord received us when we had come unto him and humbled our hearts before him with deepe importunity and had he heard us when we had cryed unto him nay when we had spent all our daies and all our strength in begging and craving one good looke from heaven and at the day of our departure taken compassion upon us it had beene an infinite mercy but when the Lord Jesus Christ shall seeke to us by his messengers as all the Ministers are his messengers to accept of his love this is beyond all expression I say if he had onely sent a love letter from heaven and said that he was willing to match with us and had left us to finde out the way and the means it had beene beyond all wonder but that the Lord Jesus Christ should come and wait upon us and seek our love it is the wonder of mercies When a company of base lusts and sinfull desires have found acceptance with us and the doore hath been open upon all occasions to talke with them though the Lord Jesus Christ hath often come and said Oh muse upon my name and not upon the world and these lusts and we would not heare him when I say you and your adulteresses have beene upon the bed of dalliance and Christ hath beene at the doore and could get no audience nor acceptance yet after all this he hath not onely call'd but seriously besought us to be reconciled to him that is to love him and to be beloved of him and blessed by him for ever these are the tearmes of his love What shall I answer the Lord will the Lord seek our love then returne him this answer and say Shall he seeke love and not have it shall he crave it and I not give it Oh God forbid Can the Lord Jesus Christ be in love with me In truth Lord I am out of love with my selfe by reason of my base heart and filthy thoughts I have abused thy Majesty from time to time by following my base lusts adulteries and abominations I have not only loved the world but filled my selfe therewith and thus my adulterous heart hath gone away from thee to them But will the Lord Jesus love such a wretch as I am Yes he will for the Lord saith Hosea 14.5 I will heale their backe-sliding I will love them freely He lookes for no portion no he will take thee with all thy wants Is not the Lord worthy of thy love he desires no more and sure hee deserves no lesse Deut. 10.12 when the Lord had recorded all his kindnesse towards the children of Israel mark how he inferres this saying And now Israel what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to feare the Lord thy God to walk in all his wayes and to love him and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soule So I say to thee after all the sinfull abominations of thy heart and all thy sinfull practices committed what is it that the Lord doth require of thee when all thy sinnes are pardoned onely that thou love the Lord thy God with all thy heart Let me therefore tell you what to doe get you home and every one in secret labour to deale honestly and truely with your owne hearts and make up a match in this manner and say Is it possible that the Lord should looke so low that the great Prince should send for the poore peasant that Majesty should stoope to meannesse and heaven to earth and God to man Hath the Lord offered mercy to me and doth he require nothing of me but to love him again call upon your owne hearts I charge you and say thus Lord if all the sight of mine eyes were love and all the speeches of my tongue were love it were all too little to love thee Oh let me love thee dearely O Lord my strength Say you had a faire offer and that a poore Minister of God did wish you well bee not coy and squeamish the Lord may have better than you every day lye downe therefore and admire at the mercy of the Lord that should take a company of poore dead dogges I say be sure that you bee not coy and squeamish say as the Prophet did Lift up your heads yee gates and bee yee lift up yee everlasting doores and the King of glory shall come in Psal 24. Now the hindrances are removed and the promises are brought home wee will come to see if the match bee liked of Meanes 3. Lastly it is our skill and cunning to draw these two together Yee see what wee have said the hindrances are removed and the promises are brought home now if wee can but affect a Saviour hee is our owne hee that will not now be beloved of the Lord JESUS CHRIST let him bee ever accursed There are two particulars considerable to fasten these two together First Two meanes to bring our hearts and the promises together labour to give attendance daily to the promise of grace and Christ drive all other suiters away from the soule let nothing come betweene the promise and it and forbid all other banes that is let the promise conferre daily with thy heart and bee expressing and telling of that good that is in Christ daily to thy heart Simile You know if all things bee done and agreed upon betweene the parents of two parties to be marrried and there wants nothing but the fixing of their affections one upon another the onely way to draw their affections to one another is to keepe company together and daily to meete and see one another so let thy soule daily keepe company with the promise and let not thy heart onely see the promise once in a weeke but daily shut out all others besides and keepe company onely with that and see what beauty and strength and grace there is in the same and say Oh wretch that I am if I had had either wit or grace I might have been made happy long agoe Thus keepe company with the promise that thy soule and it may dwell together Secondly labour by undeniable reason as to discover so to conclude the unconceivable good that will come to thy soule by this many men will promise that such and such things shall be done if the match may but go forward and doe not onely talke of it but make it good too so doe thou by undeniable arguments make good to thy owne soule the unconceivable good that will come to thy soule nay God hath pawned his truth to thee for it As it was