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
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
Sam. 23.17 When Saul had made a cunning search for David and he was fled Jonathan comes to him and chears him saying I know that my father shall not prevaile against thee but that thou shalt be King over Israel and I shall be next thee Jonathan was Sauls Sonne and he might have said I am my fathers heire and why may not I bee his successor in the kingdome but he loved David and rejoiced in his good and therefore he said Thou shalt be King over Israel and I shall bee next unto thee As if hee should say I am more glad that the Crowne shall be set upon thy head than if it were set upon mine owne for my soule is thereby comforted and refreshed So it is with a good heart that loves Jesus Christ and his grace and his Gospel in truth the happinesse glory and the honour of the Lord Jesus is the greatest good that can befall him wherefore he saith If the Lord may be honoured though I am disgraced I care not it is enough to me if may stand to behold and see it Ioh. 3.26.29 When the Lord Christ began to set forth the frame and glory of the Gospel and to baptize the Disciples of John came to their Master and said Rabbi he that was with thee beyond Jordan to whom thou barest witnesse behold the same baptizeth and all men come to him they began to be troubled because the Lord Jesus baptized and the praise went from them as if they had said There is one come that carrieth the hearts of all men after him Now mark what John answered He that hath the Bride is the Bride-groome as if he should say The Lord Christ is the Bride-groome and I am onely the friend of the Bride-groome all my care was to prepare hearts for him and hath he now gotten those hearts and hath he prosperitie then have I enough if I heare that the case goes well with him I have enough let the Lord have the praise that is due to him and let me have whatsoever is due to me 2 Sam. 19.30 when Mephibosheth had been wrongfully accused to David and David had taken away the inheritance from him and was returned in safety so that he saw the Kings face againe David began to comfort him saying Thou and Siba divide the land but marke how he replies Yea saith he let him take all for as much as my Lord the King is come againe in peace It matters not for the inheritance and for my selfe and my life I passe not fith the King is returned in peace it is enough that I enjoy thy presence which is better to me than goods life and liberty So it is with a kinde-loving heart when hee is not able to indure to see Christs honour and glory lye in the dust but if his praise be advanced then he is glad this is a good and loving heart indeed which saith Lord I have enough that Christ is mine and that his honour and glory is magnified Let the world take all if I may have Christ and see him praised and magnified Labour to bring thy soule to this pitch a minister in his place and the master in his place and every Christian in his place let it be all our care not onely to honour God our selves but let it be our comfort if God may be better honoured by others than by our selves This is our basenesse of spirit we can bee content to lift up Christ upon our shoulders that we may lift up our selves by it this too much prevailes amongst all men But be content to lye in the dust that the Lord may be praised though thou be disgraced And though every mans heart goe opposite against thee yet let this content thee if the Lord Jesus may thrive and prosper yea if any of Gods people thrive and prosper more than thou let that be thy onely joy 5. Triall More more it desires union with Christ Lastly it is the nature of sound love to covet a neere union with the thing that is loved and to have a kinde of impatiency and to be restlesse till it doe attaine the greatest measure thereof This flowes directly from the nature of love especially of this love to Christ who is the greatest good love is of a linking and glewing nature will carry the soule with some kind of strength earnestness to injoy full possession and fellowship of the thing that is loved it cannot have enough of it and it is not satisfied with it upon any occasion As it is in reason with a childe Simile happely when the father entertaines him at the table hee gives him a little sweet-meat as some Conserve or the like which is so sweet that he can tast nothing but that and his minde is still upon it that he may receive more of it the father commends this and that and praiseth a third and extols a fourth dish but yet the childe cryes More of this because hee felt the sweetenesse of it So it is with a soule that truly loves Christ when it hath tasted how good the Lord is and hath had a good looke from heaven it covets union not so much with any thing as with that riches honours profits seeme as irksome as may be in regard of that the soul desires nothing so much as this and craves more of Christ more of that mercy and holinesse and grace and love that is in him let the wicked talke what they will of the world if he have that he hath enough Psal 73.25 when David had been doating upon the world and the vanities of it see what he sayth Whom have I in heaven but thee and whom on earth in comparison of thee and then see what followes hee bids adieu to the world and sayth in the last verse It is good for me to draw neere unto God as if he had said Let the ambitious belly-gods have their pleasure drinke and swill and goe downe to hell But oh let mee have that mercy and that good which God hath provided for and will bestow upon those that love him You shall observe it Joh. 20.15 16 17. Mary was a marvellous loving woman and therefore when Christ said to her Woman why weepest thou whom seekest thou she supposing him to be the Gardiner saith unto him Sir if thou hast borne him hence tell me where thou hast laid him I will take him away She would be content to have the dead body of her Saviour rather than none at all But when the Lord Jesus had revealed himselfe to her in the 16 verse shee said Rabboni and when she saw it was he she flies upon him and with marvellous violence embraceth him for so the text is to be conceived though hee forbad her to touch him because hee was not yet ascended saying Doe I once possesse thee againe I will never part with thee any more thus she held him by the feet till he checked her because shee