the contrary as wicked Ioabs affections were so bowed to God-wards and for the good of his Church that he was willing to die in his defence Be of good courage saies he let us play the men for our people and the cities of our God and the Lord doe what seemeth him good 2 Sam. 10. 12. See how he rowzes up his valour and his generous affections to fight for his God his affections were somewhat bowed unto God and yet he was a wicked man The fourth is The affections may be wrought on so far that the heart may be stolen away with them this you may finde in the story of Absolom who with his beauty and the propernesse of his person and the flattery of his lips and his courteous complement with the people of the land he did so winne their affections that the Text saies He stole the hearts of the men of Israel 2 Sam. 15. 6. So grace is so beautiful and the Word of God hath such kinde promises and kinde speeches with it not complemental as Absalâ—ms but real and truly amiable that it may steal the affections of a carnal man as the Israelites stole from the Aegyptians and they knew not how so grace may steal thine affections and take them with its beauty and yet thou be a wicked man for all that As Paul with his preaching did so steal away the affections and the hearts of the Galathians that for a need they would have pluckt out their eyes and given them to Paul they were so strongly affected with him and the Gospel he taught them Gal. 4 15. Neverthelesse Saint Paul sayes they were foolish and carnal The fifth is The affections may be wrought on so farre that the heart may be hot and inflamed by them That this is another degree of the affections you may gather from the avenger of bloud when any had unwittingly and unwillingly killed his brother the Lord commands him to fly quickly to a City of refuge lest the avenger of bloud should kill him in fury and anger The words go thus lest the avenger of bloud pursue the slayer while his heart is hot Deu. 16 6. While his heart is hot that is while he is in the heat of his passion while his anger and the affections of revenge are hot the affections may be raised so high that they may set the heart in a heat upon a thing which it affects So a carnal man may have his affections heated and inflamed towards God and towards grace Saul had a great zeal to Gods Church 2 Sam. 21. 2. Iehu was zealous for God Come with me saies he and see my zeal for the Lord 2 Kin 10. 16. Zeal is the heat of all the affections and therefore Iehu was heated in all his affections for God his affections were hot to root out Idolaters his affections were hot to cut off Gods enemies and to reform abundance of sinful abuses in the Kingdom he was zealous his affections were heated towards God and yet Iehu was no better then a carnal man for all that Thus farre may a carnal mans affections be wrought on for grace and this is no argument that he hath set his affections upon God as shall afterwards appear Therefore there be four further degrees which are only to be found in the godly The sixth then is The affections may be wrought on so far that the heart is quite overturned from that it was before I say the affections may be wrought on so far that the heart may be turned upside down by them So it was with the godly they were even overwhelmed in affections for God with the fear of the Lord and their hearts turned upside down with grief for their sinnes Behold O Lord for I am in distresse my bowels are troubled my heart is turned within me for I have grievously rebelled Lam. 1. 20. Her soul was even battered with affections of repentance and humiliation her soul was distressed with terrours her bowels were troubled and contracted with fears and her heart was turned upside down with sorrows and all for her sins for I have grievously rebelled saies she No wicked man under Heaven had his affections ever so wrought on that was not converted upon it As Iob saies of his birth He was curdled like Cheese so here in the second birth her heart was curdled like Cheese c. My heart is turned in me saies she This is a higher working on the affections then any carnal man hath The seventh is The affections may be wrought on so far that the heart be engaged for God As a womans affections towards a man may be so deep as that she engageth her heart unto that man and resolves to have none other husband but him So when the affections are so deep in love with grace and with Christ that the heart is once engaged for Christ to be a widow for ever unlesse he will be pleased to count her his Spouse the world shall never have her heart more the flesh shall never have her heart more nor devil nor lust nor any other sin shall ever have her heart more she is so farre in love and affection with Christ as her heart is engaged for Christ this is a godly soul Who is this that engageth his heart to approach unto me saith the Lord Jer. 30. 21. If pleasure come saying set thine affections on me no saies the heart mine affections are engaged already if her old lusts and her old lovers and her old acquaintance come saying set your affections on us no saies the heart I am engaged for another even for Christ and his graces this is a deep working on the affections indeed when they are engaged for Christ The eighth is The affections may be wrought on so far that the heart may be glued to a thing by them Iamblychus the heathen hath a pretty phrase to this purpose a wicked man he cals him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bound in and nayled in his affections he is even nayled and glued to the things of the world his heart does even stick to them like pitch and Tarr to the Ship So it is with a godly soul his heart sticks fast unto Christ and the commandments of Christ I have stuck unto thy Testimonies saies David to Christ Psa 119. 31. How came his heart to stick to Christs testimonies His holy affections were the glue his affections clave to Gods Law The ninth is The affections may be wrought on so far that the heart may be quite given up to the thing which it affects Solomon had such affections to wisedom that he gave his heart to seek it Eccl. 1. 13. As we use to say he hath my heart what can he have more all mine affections are set on him if he have my heart and all So a godly heart is so deeply affected with Christ and his righteousnesse as that Christ hath his very heart and all He gives up all
wrath the covetous person to scrape himself maintenance it's endlesse to recount what innumerable devices men have to compasse what their heart does affect Phalaris deviseth new torments Nero deviseth new cruelties Sardanapalus propounds a reward by a cryer to him that could devise out new pleasure the wicked Lawyer and troublesome Parishioner deviseth new quillets and put-cases to fetch over his poor neighbour the proud minion deviseth new paintings of the face new washings of the body new curlings of the hair new deckings of their neck new-fangled attires and the like the covetous deceiver deviseth new cousenages new conny-catchings pollings rackings gullings c. The Usurer new usuries new covenants and reaches It were long to rehearse what devices are in men to fulfill their unruly affections These wretches are abhorred of the Lord. Solomon sayes there be six yea seven things which the Lord hates and abhors Pro. 6. 16. And in the next verse save one he sayes that a heart that deviseth wicked imaginations is one of them The Lord numbers these men among the damned crew of the Heathen inventers of evil things Rom. 1. 30. Wo unto them that devise iniquity sayes the Prophet Mic. 2. 1. Now see thy wofull condition whoever thou art whose affections are carnal thy devices are all carnal thou dost not devise how thou mayst best serve Almighty God how thou mayst best overcome sinne how thou mayst best glorifie Christ Which of us does set his head a work every day how he may best pray and best repent and best hear and best do every good duty alas there is little such devising among us because our affections stand not this way If our affections were set upon God we would be studying and contriving how to purge all our families how to propagate the glory of God in the Parish how to exhort and reprove and provoke one another to godlinesse A liberall man deviseth liberall things Isa 32. 8. he devises how he may releeve Gods poor Saints how he may set the poor on work how he may help forward the Gospel with his purse if he can finde how An humble man deviseth humble things a peaceable man deviseth peaceable things a holy man deviseth holy things if our affections were set right we would all lay our heads together how the Parish may best be reformed how our scandalous houses may best be removed how the Word that we hear from Sabbath to Sabbath may best be put in practise among us thus it would be if our affections were set upon God but because our affections are not set so hence it comes to passe our devices are carnal The IX Sermon â—ol 3. 2. Set your affections on things that are above c. THere remains the fourth head which is the extremity of the affections and that is zeal Zeal is due only to God and the things of his worship and therefore hence we may see how infinitely they sin that set their affections on things here on earth because they rob God of his due zeal which is the extremity of the affections is due only to God and the things of his worship Phinehas was zealous for his God Num. 25. 13. he gave the zeal of his affections to no other but God Now what is zeal Zeal is a high strain of all the affections whereby the heart puts forth all its affections with might upon that which it absolutely affects five things therefore there are which concurre to the making up of zeal First A high measure of the affections Every measure of the affections is not zeal a man may affect a thing coldly and lukewarmly that is not zeal As a covetous man may have lukewarm good affections to the word But this is not zeal I say zeal is a high measure of the affections Zeal is a metaphoricall word in the Original it 's taken from the seething of water over the fire Every measure of heat in the water is not seething No seething hot is a high measure of heating The Apostle confesses how the false Apostles affected the Galatians They zealously affect you sayes he Gal. 4. 17. he confesses they did affect the Galatians and he confesses they did highly affect them in a very high measure if it had been as well as it was high they zealously affect you that is they highly affect you Clavasius a Casuist for the Pope having run through all the Alphabet of questions in the end of his Book concludeth with zeal Zeal sayes he is a high measure of heat of affection such an one sayes he as I have shewn unto Christ in writing this Book It 's a most devillish saying for his Book is little else then a hellish rhapsody of blasphemies to Christ and magnifyings of his holy father the Pope But therein he sayes right that zeal is a high measure of the affection Secondly As zeal is a high measure of the affections so it is of all the affections I do not say any one of the affections alone or of sundry together But it is a high measure of all the affections Bonaventura and other of the School make it only of love Ludovicus Vives makes it to be compounded of two affections indignation and pity Others to be mixed of anger and love this is not so for zeal is a high strain of all the affections And therefore the Apostle sets it as a generall height of the affections in generall It 's good sayes he to be zealously affected in a good thing Gal. 4. 18. he does not only say it 's good to be zealous in love or zealously angry but generally it 's good to be zealously affected in a good thing Sorrow for sin is good and therefore it 's good to be zealously affected with it Desire of grace is good and therefore it 's good to be zealously affected with it So that then we may be said to be zealous for God when our love to him is earnest our desire of him is earnest our joy in him is earnest our indignation against whatever may dishonour him or dislike him is earnest when we think nothing too good nothing too dear nothing too much to bestow upon him A man may love God in a lukewarm measure hate sin in a lukewarm measure grieve for his corruptions desire faith and repentance delight in good duties pity the miseries of others fear to transgresse Gods Commandment a man may have all these affections thus in a lukewarm measure as this is displeasing to God so it is not zeal Zeal is a high measure the highest strain of all the affections Thirdly As zeal is the highest measure of all the affections so it is with all the might of the soul For when a man does zealously affect any thing his affection is mighty upon it Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with â—ll thy soul and with all thy might Deut. 6. 5. that is thou shalt love him zealously Nimrod was a mighty hunter Gen. 10 9. that is he was zealous at
if thine affections be lukewarm to God thou mayst wish that God might be glorified but if he be not thou canst endure it Thou mayst pray to God for grace to heal thee of thy deadnesse but though he do not thou canst bear it But if thine affections were so farre hereto as to be zealous they would be impatient thou couldest never endure it Zeal is the impatient degree of the affections whereby when the soul does affect a thing it is impatient without it And therefore zeal is due only to God Thus ye discern the evidence of this truth that the zeal of our affection is due properly to God The X. Sermon Colos 3. 2. Set your affections on things that are above c. THE Uses of this are these First Hence we may learn that God demandeth the zeal of our affections If the zeal of our affections be due unto God I beseech you take notice that God demandeth his due Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his Name and so God demandeth his due in our affections If I be a Father where is my honour if a Master where is my fear Mal. 1. 6. he does not only call for some honour and some love and some fear but he cals for his part where is my part sayes he Where is my fear Gods part of thy fear as I have shewed is the zeal of thy fear Gods part of thy love and thy joy and thy hope and the rest is the zeal of the same This now God demands of thy soul Where is my fear may be thou lovest him a little and his Commandments a little may be thou fearest him a little to offend him and disobey him thou fearest a little this is not Gods part the zeal of thine affection is Gods part and he cals for his part Where is my fear Secondly Hence we may learn that we must upon pain of Gods infinite displeasure give him the zeal of our affections whensoever we pray to pray to him zealously bleeding for our sinnes and melting under our wants and yearning for his graces Whensoever we praise him to praise him thus zealously rejoycing in his mercies and admiring his goodnesse Whensoever we enter his Courts to enter with zeal reverencing his footstool trembling at his Word in all our waies seeking how we may be most zealous of his glory for if God demand the zeal of our affections there is no keeping back Ananias was smitten dead for keeping back a little piece of money when God did demand it Cursed is he that keeps back a blow when God doth call for it God demandeth our zeal and wo is us if we keep back Thirdly Hence we may gather that we are in the state of damnation if we do not give God the zeal of our affections if God require it upon pain of damnation and we are bid to give it him upon pain of his everlasting displeasure then certainly we must needs be in a state of damnation if we do not give it Now this is proved by four Arguments First That man is in the state of damnation that never repents I need not prove that ye know it well enough he is sure to perish that never repents Though thou hast taken up all the outward duties of religion thou never repentest unlesse thou be zealous if thou be zealous then thou hast drawn out of Christ wine-seller as Bernard observes on the Canticles Introduxit me rex in cellam vinariam the King hath brought me into his wine-seller he expounds it of the souls drawing of zeal from Christ but if thou beest not zealous in repentance thou never repentest Be zealous and repent Rev. 3. 19. First he sayes be zealous and then he sayes repent First thou must resolve to be zealous or else thou dost not repent If a man have wronged a neighbour though never so mean he must be sorry for it or else he doth not repent of it if a man have wronged a Noble-man he must be more sorry for as the wrong is the greater the greater the party wronged is so the greater is the sorrow that is required to repentance If a man have wronged the King it must be greater sorrow yet till the sorrow be somewhat answerable to the greatness of the King who is wronged But if a man have wronged a God this must be the greatest sorrow of all sorrows otherwise thou dost not repent Repentance is the rending or breaking of the heart so sayes the Prophet Ioel it is not a lukewarm or a little grief that will break the heart Repentance is the humbling of the soul sayes David it is not a little bowing and a little bending will humble it before God Repentance is the mortifying or the killing of sin as Paul cals it alas sinne is like the heart of Oke that will be a hundred years a dying so sin will be long a dying it is not a little pricking and a little compunction will kill it Repentance is called repentance unto life in the Scripture it is not a little chafing and a little rubbing and a little Aqua-vitae will fetch a man from death untâ— life No no beloved thou never repentest unlesse thou be zealous And therefore the Apostle makes zeal a part of repentance 2 Cor. 7. 11. No zeal no repentance no repentance no salvation 2. That man is in the state of damnation that is not a beleever in Christ If a man be not in Christ by a lively faith he cannot be saved The Prophet prophesying of Christ saith thus Vnto us a childe is born and he shall be called wonderful the Prince of peace and the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall perform this Isa 9 6 7. Never is Christ conceived in any man under heaven but the zeal of the Lord of Hosts doth perform it Doth he enlighten the minde or purge the heart or cleanse the conscience zeal does perform it Can I be so in love with Christ as to deny my self for him and not be zealous to him Can I count all my parts and all my gifts and all that I have as Paul did to be drosse â—nd dung for the worth I finde in Christ and not be zealous of him Can I hunger after him and pant for him and be sick of love till I have him and not be zealous towards him Thus we must doe otherwise we are not in Christ And therefore Moses confounds faith and zeal as if they were all one and both in one Phinehas was zealous for Gods sake Numb 25. 11. That is he was zealous and faithful both for so the Psalmist expounds it that was counted to him for righteousnesse sayes he that was speaking of his zeal in executing of judgement that was counted to him for righteousnesse Now ye know nothing can be counted to a man for righteousnesse but only faith and therefore by zeal there is meant faith This is an undeniable argument If a man have faith he is
zealous otherwise he hath no faith If he have no faith he cannot be saved 3. That man is in the state of damnation that loves not God He that loves not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha that is let him be accursed and accursed for it is the greatest curse in the world it is the curse of the Gospel Let him be accursed and double accursed that loves not Christ Now a man never loves God if he be not zealous qui non zelat non amat He that is not zealous in love does not love love is termed zeal in the Scripture Iehu indeed the truth was he had no love to God he thought he had though and therefore when he would tell Iehonadab he had love to God he tels it in these words Come and see my zeal I have to the Lord of Hosts 2 King 10 16. That is see the love that I bear to the Lord of Hosts Zelus debet esse non modò in affectu verumetiam in intellectu is a saying zeal must be in the minde and zeal must be in the affections both are required to this zeal that I speak of If thou beest not zealous it is most certain thou hast not a jot of true love Zeal is more seen in that affection then any if there be any and therefore if there be no zeal in thee to God and his wayes there is no love thou art yet under wrath 4. That man is in the state of damation that was never taught of God Christ promises that all that are his shall be taught of God taught of God to be holy as he is holy taught of God to love one another taught of God to walk in all newnesse of life Every man look what he is taught in therein he is zealous Paul before he was converted he was taught in the ceremonies and his Fathers and therefore therein was he zealous I was traditions of taught sayes he according to the perfect manner of the Law of the Fathers and was zealous Act. 22. 3. Alas poor soul had he been better taught he had been better zealous I doe not speak of the outward teaching of the ear only but also of the inward teaching of the heart his very heart such was the policy of Satan his very heart was taught in those things and therefore he was zealous of them The covetous mans heart is taught to be earthly therefore he is zealous for the world The proud mans heart is taught to be proud therefore he is zealous for his credit and esteem The voluptuous mans heart is taught to be vain therefore he is zealous of his pleasures Alas such were never taught of God The devil teaches them and their lusts teach them and the examples of others teach them Alas if thou beest not taught of God how to walk in newnesse of life thou canst not be saved it is better to be unborn then untaught and this as you see cannot be without zeal unto God 5. That man is in the state of damnation that cannot yet be pitied If thou beest zealous for the things of this life and not zealous for heaven zealous for thy pleasure and not for Gods glory thou art not to be pitied and thou wilt have pleasures take them and thou wilt to hell goe who will pity thee Deformitas sceleris aufert misericordiam It is true it would pity a mans heart to see a poor soul weeping and howling for his sinnes and yet go to hell It would pity a man to see a blinde Papist whipping himself praying on his Beads giving all his goods to the poor confessing his sins to his Confessor fasting and afflicting his body zealous in his blinde superstition and all to save his poor soul and yet go to hell it would pity a mans heart I say to see such a man goe to hell as how can he otherwise yet it would pity a man because he is zealous for God in the blindenesse of his zeal As it pitied the Apostle to see his brethren go to hell that were blindely zealous for God Brethren my hearts desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved for I bear them record they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge Rom. 10. 1 2. It pitied him that such as were blindely zealous for God should perish But whom will it pity to see thee go to hell thou hast no zeal at all that way No no thou art zealous after the things of this life and after thy lusts as God told Ierusalem Who shall have pity upon thee O Ierusalem Thou hast forsaken me sayes he Ier. 15 5. Who will pity our drunkards and our whoremongers who will pity you that are zealous in your sins and abominations ye are not so much as the objects of pity Is it so that the zeal of our affections is due only to God Is it so that God does demand it and that we are bound upon pain of death and damnation to give it to God Is it so that we never repented we never beleeved never were in Christ never loved God never were taught of God never can be pitied unlesse we give the zeal of our affections unto God Then O then let us consider the lamentable condition we are in as long as the zeal of our affection runs otherwise I beseech you consider these eight things which may convince you what a woful condition ye are in First Zeal is the fire of the soul Look what thou art most zealous upon that sets thy soul in a fire Every man and woman in the world is set on fire of hell or of heaven Now if heaven have not set thee on fire hell hath set thee on fire thou art set on fire of one of these two As it is the blessedest thing that can be to be set on fire of heaven to be zealous for the glory of God and the saving ones soul zealous for the getting of grace and zealous in the duties of religion so on the contrary it is the cursedst thing that can possibly be to be set on fire of hell Thou which art a swearer a lyar a filthy speaker whose mouth talketh of vanity thy tongue is set on fire of hell the tongue is set on fire of hâ—ll sayes the Apostle Iam. 3. 6. Thou which art a voluptuous man that lovest thy pleasures and delightest in vanity more then in better things thy heart is set on fire of hell thou which yeeldest to the temptations of Satan the devil tempts thee to go proudly in thine apparrel and thou yeeldest the devil tempts thee to smother thy conscience and thou consentest The devil tempts thee to put off thy better obedience till another time and the temptation takes hold there is never a temptation of Satan but it is a fiery dart the fiery darts of the devil Eph. 6. 16. Well does the Apostle call them fiery darts of the devil sayes Saint Chrysostome
thou art the cruellest man to thine own soul in very deed and in truth as possibly can be Thou squandrest away Gods mercies thou treasurest up Gods wrath thou livest in those sins which thine own conscience can tell thee are sins thou bestowest thine affections upon the things of this life which should be given to God thou damnest thine own soul That time which God vouchsafes thee to get grace in thou wastest it away upon vanity thou art more earnest for the good of thy carkasse then for the everlasting weal or thy soul thou partest with Christ rather then with thy lusts O thou art durus ut inferi thou art as cruell as hell to thine own soul Thou knowest that whosoever comes to the Sacrament unworthily or unpreparedly or not a new creature he eats and drinks his own damnation thou knowest this well enough thou knowest that the Lord sayes so in his Word Yet thou art so cruell to thy own soul that for all this thou wilt venture thou knowest that he that comes to this supper without a wedding-garment shall be cast into utter darknesse where is weeping and gnashing of teeth thou knowest this full well and thou canst not deny it Yet thou art so cruell to thy own soul as to come hither without it thine affections are so eager after the things of this life the very zeal of them all that thou art even cruell to thine own soul Durus ut inferi as cruell as hell it self to thy self O the cruelty of thine earthly zeal it makes thee fearlesse and witlesse to sinne against God which the Angels of heaven durst not doe for a thousand worlds It makes thee sinne against Christ and cast off his yoke without which thou canst be never saved it makes thee choak the motions of Gods Spirit and strangle thine own conscience Durus ut inferi zelus may we well say this zeal is as cruell as hell and yet it is in every one of us all that is not zealous for God Fifthly Zeal is the brand of the soul When a man is zealous in any passion whatever it be we see it sets a brand upon a man we call him a cholerick man that is zealous with anger he is very touchy say we We call him a fretful envious man that is zealously given thereunto We call him a melancholy man that is much in his sadnesse Zeal which is the Much of every affection it sets a brand upon a man So when a man is zealous for good it sets a good brand upon a man as Aemilius for his goodnesse was called Aemilius the good Antoninus for his piety was called Antoninus the pious so in Scripture one Barsabas was called Iustus the just So it should seem too that Simon was a noted man for some passionate and affectionate forwardnesse and therefore he was called Simon Zelotes that is Simon the zealous Luk 6. 15. And so we see though it be counted a mockage by the ignorant world it is observed by them which are without that Gods people are zealous Look whatever a man is zealous in that is able to brand him Now if thou beest zealous for the world or zealous after thy pleasures or any thing else in the world it brands thee in the forehead for a carnal wretch as Elymas the sorcerer Iudas the traytor It stigmatizes thee for a worldling or a drunkard or a company-keeper or voluptuous or whatever it be thy zeal is most in Every man is more zealous for one thing then he is for another either for God or something else in the world the. Question is whether art thou most zealous for if thou beest more zealous for any thing else then thou art for God it brands thee for a wretch Such an one a very worldling such an one a very muck-worm such an one a very spend-thrift such an one a very gamester and a royster such an one a very tatler such an one an Orlando Furioso such an one a hard man Look where thy most is that does truly brand thee before God and good men that are able to discern thee The XI Sermon Col. 3. 2. Set your affections on things that are above c. THe sixth is Zeal is the transportation of the soul out of it self When a man is zealous in a passion he is transported out of himself the passion hath command of him and not he of his passion As a man that is all on fire with anger or with choler it transports him out of himself and he is under the command of his anger his anger rules him it is well for him now if his anger be good but if it be carnal what a woful condition is he in If a mans zeal be good and for God he is happy As David was zealous for God he was transported out of himself he was not his own man No sayes he I am thine Lord save me for I have sought thy precepts Psal 119. 94. he sought Gods precepts with such zeal that he was not his own man he was under the command of his zeal his zeal was to God and it did captivate him to God I am thine sayes he He was at Gods dispose not at his own for his zeal transported him out of himself Himself would transgresse but his zeal would not let him Himself would be carelesse but his zeal would not suffer him He must do as his zeal would have it He had not the command of himself No he was at the command of his gracious zeal It was well for him it was good for now on the contrary if a mans affections be set upon the things of this life he must have pleasures and he must have his living and his maintenance and he must have this his affections are set on it he is zealous after them this man is not his own man he is a servant of his lusts As David said I am thine Lord so he may say on the contrary I am thine World I am thine Pleasure I am thine Satan I am at thy command and thy service As the Text sayes Paul a servant of Jesus Christ Iude a servant of Jesus Christ for they were zealous for Christ and their zeal made them not their own men so I may say of a wicked man Esau a servant of sinful pleasure and delights Demas a servant of this present world Diotrephes a servant of his own ambition for they were zealous of these things and their zeal made them slaves thereto Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin Ioh. 8. 34. sayes Christ to the Jews servant say they we were never servants we are free servants sayes he yea ye are the servants of sinne ye go about to kill me sayes he Are not ye the slaves of sinne when ye will be obedient to your lusts to doe such an ill office as to murther me I know there be two kindes of slaves and servants some that are in arctâ custodiâ close prisoners Such
sin Secondly It may so draw up ones affections to God as to make one vomit up a dear sinne ones self and be sorry that others too should commit it he may be vext to see other men drunk vext to see them break the Sabbath vext to see how slack they come to Gods house vext to hear any body swear or curse or take on he may be driven to make restitution himself Thus it was with Micah he had stolen a 11. hundred Shekels of silver from his Mother well this man as it appears hears his Mother curse and swear and take on she had lost so much silver some body had stolen it from her when he heard his Mother curse and ban on this fashion he was so deeply moved to hear it that he could not abide it nay it made him be willing to confesse he had stolen it from her and to make restitution of all yea so far as his mother did think O what a blessed convert was her son he was now converted to be of so honest a minde Blessed be thou of the Lord my son saies his Mother He said unto his Mother The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from thee about which thou cursedst and spakest of also in mine ears behold the silver is with me I took it and his Mother said Blessed be thou of the Lord my son Jud. 17. 2. He had stolen the silver from his Mother and yet when he heard his Mother curse and swear and take on in that wise it should seem his affections did burn him What shall I hear my Mother curse in this sort and rather then he would let her stand swearing and cursing he would vomit up his sweet gettings Nay she thought him so religious as passes because he did so Blessed be thou of the Lord my son but she was deceived for he was a wretched Idolater the Lord cals him an Idolater vers 5. Beloved this is a strange thing indeed yet thus far may a Carnalist go he may be zealous against other mens sins and grieved to hear others transgress and vext to see others offend When David would sin and number the people it vexed the soul of Ioab to see it O my Lord the King why wilt thou be a cause of trespasse to Israel 1 Chron. 21. 3. So thou mayst be vexed to see others offended and yet notwithstanding no better then a Carnalist Thirdly It may so raise up his affections to God and to be so set against sin as to be willing to lose hopes of getting housefuls of silver and gold to lose the favour of Kings and of Princes to lose preferment and all then venture on a sinne This was Balaams case If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold I cannot go beyond the commandment of God to doe lesse or more Numb 24. 13. He durst not go beyond the commandment of God a jot no not for a house full of money which is more then a thousand can say that will go beyond it and beside it and against the commandment of God for a handful of Barley yet he though a Reprobate durst not go beyond the commandment of God to doe good or bad of his own minde not for a house full of coyn Knowest thou not saies King Balak unto him knowest thou not that I can promote thee to honour yea he knew it well enough and yet for all that Balaam would not yeeld to him Balaam if he would have hearkned to carnal arguments he might have found many The Israelites are a people of another Nation I am a Moabite and they are of another generation and what though they be better people then they yet I am a Subject to the King of Moab and I must be true to my Soveraign and count them mine enemies which are the enemies of my Countrey and are come to lick up the land If I do obey my King I may have money by housefuls I may have preferment as much and more then I can wish Thus flesh and bloud might have reasoned but see how his affections were better rectifyed then thus he durst not doe it upon any terms because it was against the commandment of God Thou thinkest thy cause to be happy O thou caust be willing to passe by the wages of sin though thou couldest get by a sin yet thou darest not commit it thou thinkest certainly mine affections are to God and to grace I might get this and I might get that if I would but goe against my conscience a little but I will not for money nor favour nor any thing Well said yet better then millions can say but this thou mayst doe and yet be a Carnalist Fourthly It may elevate his affections so high as to be so forward in religion and godlinesse so strict in his waies as to be persecuted too for the truths sake and for Christs sake he may endure persecution a good while indeed if it go too far he will warp but persecuted he may be and suffer a good while he may and yet be a carnal man This you may see in the stony-ground hearer He heareth the Word and receives it with joy Mat. 13. 20. Mark his affections are raised he receives the Word and the Gospel with joy he is affected with the Word nay saies our Saviour he endureth a while and persecution arises against him then he is offended ver 21. It s true he is offended at this that he should suffer persecution he would be glad to be a professour of the Word so he might professe it in a whole skin as we say he does and he will warp then that 's certain that 's all one neverthelesse ye may observe in the mean time what a great way he goes in religion he trades so farre in it that others will persecute him for it and yet but a carnal man for all that Now of the good ground Fifthly It may lift up his affections so high as to ravish him and enamour him with joys of the Spirit He may be in some extasies of spiritual joy as many examples might be named Were not the Galathians enamoured with the Gospel that would have pluckt out their eyes and given them to Paul were not the people over-joyed when they cryed out in the open Congregation Lord evermore give us this bread O then set your affections c. The III. Sermon Colos 3. 2. Set your affections on things that are above c. THe last thing that I told you was what a great way a carnal man may goe in this point His affections may be wrought on exceedingly I promised to shew you that this was no argument that his affections are set upon God The Apostle does not say let the things that are above work on your affections for so they may do and ye be carnal for all that but he saies Set your affections on things which are above There be four reasons to prove though a
his hunting Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine Isa 5. 22. that is that are greedy and zealous in the pursuit of their appetite in that kinde David danced before the Lord with all his might 2 Sam. 6. 14. that is he did it zealously Zeal is when the heart raiseth up its affections with all its might on a thing And therefore lukewarmnesse is called negligence in the Scripture Cursed is he that doth the work of the Lord negligently As he that fights negligently shews not all his might in his fighting so he that goes about any duty of the Lords service negligently his heart does not shew all his might in it It puts not forth all the might of its affections upon it Lukewarmnesse then is the negligence of the affection and cursed is the man that does the work of the Lord negligently sayes the Text. But zeal is the might of the affection Fourthly As zeal is with all the might so it is the putting forth of all the affections When the heart affects a thing and puts forth all its affections upon it reserving no part of its affections for any thing else this we call zeal Herod affected the preaching of Iohn but he did not affect it zealously he did not put forth all his affection upon it he reserved a main part of his affection for his pleasure And therefore he was not zealous in hearing Hence it is that the Scripture cals lukewarmnesse deceit fulnesse as Divines do observe Cursed is the deceiver Mal. 1. 14. that is cursed is the lukewarm person that offers God lesse then he hath offers somewhat and reserves back somewhat that puts not forth all his affection upon God and his Service Zeal is the putting forth of all the affection As when the heart affects God and affects nothing in competition with him this is to be zealously affected towards God When the Jews had crucified Christ and persecuted Paul and forbidden him to preach the Text sayes the wrath of God was come upon them to the utmost 1 Thes 2. 16. That is the zeal of Gods fury and anger and vengeance was on them He kept nothing back he was not angry a little nor wroth a little but he put forth the affection of his wrath to the utmost upon them So when the heart puts forth the utmost of its love upon God and the utmost of its delights upon his Word and the utmost of its fear on his Name and the utmost of its affection on his Commandments then it is zealous But if he keeps back ought to bestow it elsewhere it 's a deceiver and a lukewarm heart Fifthly As zeal is the putting forth of all the affection so it is upon a thing which the heart does absolutely affect A man may affect a thing when he does not affect it absolutely He affects such or such a thing but he affects it not absolutely He affects it perhaps with a degree of affection as far as twelvepence will go he places may be a groats worth of affection upon a quire of paper If he be askt five pounds of silver for a quire of paper he does not affect it at that rate and therefore he does not affect it absolutely But if a man have a true zeal of affection to a thing he affecteth that thing with absolute affection let it cost what it can he affects it let it cost him all charges and all pains and all difficulties yea though it cost him his life he will have it then he does absolutely affect it So that then is a man zealous for God and for grace when his affections stand absolutely that way May be he will be glad so he may get it at an easie rate but if he cannot alas he must have it he concludes upon that though it cost him sighs groans every daies strivings every daies labour praying meditating repenting parting with all his lusts although never so dear O his soul does affect it on that manner he must and he will have it rather then life This man is zealously affected towards grace and towards God because he affects it absolutely Thus Iob was zealous in affecting Gods Word he esteemed it above his necessary food Iob. 23. 12. He does not say above his daily food for so he might do and not be zealously affected therewith but he affected Gods Word above his necessary food above all food absolutely without which his life could not confist without which a man dies such food as this comes nearest of all outward things to be absolutely affected A man affects it above lands and above livings above his silver and his gold above all his pleasures and his gaming 's a man will part with them all rather then part with his necessary food Yet Iob affected Gods Word above it And therefore he affected it zealously This is the last thing in zeal It is upon that which does absolutely affect Albeit now it may partly appear by the very definition of zeal that it is due only to God a man must not be zealous about any thing nor zealously affected with any thing but only with God and his worship Neverthelesse we may yet further prove it First Because Zeal is the religious part of the affections of the soul Now the religious part of them are due only to God I profited in the Jews Religion being zealous of the traditions of my Fathers sayes Paul Gal. 1. 14. he makes zeal the character of his Religion Seest thou a man zealous then after profits and most earnest to get means and maintenance and the things of this life that man makes gain his Religion Seest thou a man zealous after any thing that 's his Religion Zeal is the religious part of the affections and therefore it 's due only unto God Secondly As zeal is the religious part of our affections so also it is the most of every affection and therefore only due unto God Zeal is the most of every act that a man does That which the minde mindes most and studies most that it mindes zealously that which the memory remembers most which the heart wils most it wils zealously That which a man fears most and loves most and desires most that it does zealously Now if zeal be the most of every act of the soul it must needs be idolatry to place it any where else but in the service of God Dost thou meditate most and think most of the world thy thoughts are idolatrous Dost thou talk most and confer most of the things of the world thy words are idolatrous Dost thou cark most and care most dost thou love most and rejoyce most in any thing of this life thine affections are idolatrous Dost thou sorrow most for crosses and losses and disgraces and the like more then thou grievest for thy sins thy grief is idolatry That 's the hearts Idol which it
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for such sayes he are the sinfull lusts and affections they are all fiery set on fire of hell this is one misery and this not a small one zeal is the fire of the soul and if it be not set upon God it is set on fire of hell Secondly Zeal is the running of the soul If thou beest not zealous for God thou runnest away after the things of this world thou dost not only go after vanities but thou runnest not only go after thy pleasures and thy profits but thou runnest As the affections are the feet of the soul so zeal is the swift running pace of these feet I will run the way of thy Commandments sayes David that is I will be zealous in it It is a long way to heaven especially now since the fall it is a very long way to heaven and death will overtake us before ever we can get there unlesse we run and therefore Saint Paul commands us to run fast enough lest we never get there So run that ye may obtain 1 Cor 9. 24. Now had we not need to set our zeal right for that way we run that way our zeal stands If the zeal of our affection stand to Godwards we run onwards to heaven but if it stand to the things here below we run onwards to hell I reade of Tiberius Nero who when his brother Drusus lay sick in Germany he ran two hundred miles in twenty four hours to visit him But we may finde tanker runners then so in sinne some in drunkennesse and good fellowship as they call it others in security and hardnesse of heart others in one sin and others in another and as they run themselves so if there be any that are stricter then themselves they wonder that they run not with them to the same excesse of ryot 1 Pet. 4. 4. Mark run not with them where note themselves run into ryot May be sometimes they have sudden and violent affections to good as if they were all on a fire for the present like the young man in the Gospel he came running to Christ and kneeled down to him sayes the Text Mar. 10 17. O he was all upon the haste he does not goe to him but he runs as many men and women have very good moods and violent pangs of goodnesse now and then but alas it was nothing but a flash for by and by he was as ready to be gone as ever he was hasty to come and then he ran on in his security and coveteousnesse of minde Do ye not see how fast many of you run on in arerages with God If we could see Gods debt-book might we not there reade Item ten thousand oaths thou hast sworn Item millions of millions of filthy words thou hast spoken Item a hundred millions of millions of wicked thoughts thou hast thought Item a thousand lazie prayers thou hast made Item 20. hundred Sabbaths thou hast prophaned Item fourty Sacraments thou hast unworthily received Thus ye have run on as if ye thought every day seven years till ye are in hell Thus it is with you when your zeal is set any where else then on God Thirdly Zeal is the predominant element in the soul Look what the soul is zealous unto that is the predominant temper of the soul if thou beest zealous for God Christ is predominant in thee if thou beest zealous for the things of this world the world is predominant in thee Non datur temperamentum ad pondus sayes the Philosopher there is no temper but something is predominant You never heard of a soul that had as much of the world in him as of Christ and of Christ as of the world No as he is zealous to one thing so one thing or other is predominant in him Men-pleasing is predominant in one pride predominant in another and pleasure predominant in a third Whatsoever a man is zealous unto that is his predominant element Now if thine affections if the zeal of them be not set upon God then something or other in the world is predominant in thee O what a misery then is it to be lesse zealous for God then for the world the world is predominant in thee this is the character of one that yet is no better then a reprobate Lovers of pleasure more then lovers of God 2 Tim. 3. 4. when pleasure is predominant and not God He that loveth father or mother more then me is not worthy of me c. sayes Christ Mat. 10. 37. when carnal relations are predominant and not spiritual this I say is an evident character of a wicked man for what difference is there between a godly man and wicked man both have sinne in them this is the difference a godly man hath sin in him but grace is predominant and therefore he is called a godly man A wicked man hath many good graces in him but sinne and wickednesse is predominant and therefore he is called a wicked man the denomination is from the part that is predominant The beasts of the earth because the earth is predominant the fishes of the Sea because the water is predominant a brick-house not as though there were no wood in it but because brick is predominant Mark all thy thoughts which is predominant in thee the world or Christ mark all thy speeches which is predominant earth or heaven mark all thy cares which is predominant to busie thee most O what a wofull estate art thou in when sin and corruption is predominant in thee If thou be more zealous after the things of this life then after grace and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord Thou canst never enter into Gods kingdom because sin is predominant in thee Fourthly Zeal is the self-cruelty of the soul If thou beest most zealous to God thy zeal is a holy cruelty to thy self Master spare thy self sayes Peter to Christ Get thee behinde me Saran sayes Christ he was zealous for the redemption of the world and he would not spare his own life Zeal is a holy cruelty of the soul it will spare nothing nor life nor credit nor living nor any thing M. Fox that was zealous in his love to the poor he was in a holy manner cruell to himself to give the very clothes off his back rather then the naked should not be covered Love is as strong as death and as cruell as the grave Cant. 8. 6. Durus sicut inferi zelus as Ambrose expounds it zeal is as hard as the grave A man that is zealous is a hard man to himself that he may be free unto God not as though true zeal were hard and cruell indeed unto his own soul but I mean to his own fleshly desires and respects he is the mercifullest man to his own soul under heaven Now then see what a woful estate thou art in if thou beest not zealous for God for if the zeal of thine affections gad any where else
servants of sinne are they that are kept so close that they cannot go one step beyond prophanesse Some in libera custodia are false prisoners When a mans lusts hold him in a longer chain like birds in a larger Cage which may be is free to be a professour and come to Church and hear and pray and be civill and when he is once at the length of his chain his lusts pull him back the former are affections Gallislaves chained to their seats and their oars the latter are their sluggish messengers to go up and down of their errand And therefore the devil which takes all advantages of a mans affections is said to hold him captive at his pleasure 2 Tim. 2. 26. O sayst thou I am not the devils captive at his pleasure I will not swear nor swagger nor be drunken as some will alas alas it is not the devils pleasure to have thee a drunkard or a swearer it is his pleasure to use his servants some for one service some for another it is not his pleasure to employ thy tongue in swearing No he 'l employ thy tongue only in talking civilly of the things of the world It is not his pleasure to use thee for drunkennesse and whoredom but to go on in security and formality and presumption O what a hideous case art thou in the zeal of whose affections is not set upon God! What will not thine affections command and then if they command thou art not thine own man thou must obey Let coveteousnesse command how wilt thou curtail thy prayers to God in the morn how seldom wilt thou be thinking of God all the day how wilt thou cark and pinch and spare Let mirth and jollity command thee how wilt thou jest and fool and hoit and play and giggle and mock any thing for pastime Let revenge command thee how angerly wilt thou look how snappishly wilt thou speak how churlishly wilt thou bend thy fist or how basely wilt thou study to do a displeasure how apt to misconstrue what thy neighbour doth how ready to entertain any flying rumour of him thus thou art not thine own man but harased and hurried up and down by thine unruly affections till they have undone thy soul for ever O consider then the wofulnesse of this thy slavery when the zeal of thine affections is thus disjoyned from God Consider quickly if thine affections keep thee in service long they 'l keep thee ever the longer a man stays in service the more fool he is Alterius ne sit qui suus esse potest In the Law of God it is written that if a servant after seven years bondage did still love his Master the Law sayes thus let his Master boar his ears and make him serve for ever Exod. 21. 5. well take heed thou lovest to live on as thou dost and thou likest thy slavish courses too too well take heed I say lest thine ears be nayled to thine affections and thou be made a slave for ever I fear me we have many of such slaves their ears boar'd with an awl and their souls then bound prenâ—ice for ever to the waies of Death Seventhly Zeal is the strength of the soul zeal carries all the strength of the soul with it leaves none behinde And therefore the Scripture puts these two things together ones zeal and his strength Lord where is thy zeal and thy strength sayes the Prophet Isa 63. 15. If he ask where his zeal is he asks where his strengh is for zeal is the strength of the soul Ye know Iacob wrestled with God for a blessing and his effectuall fervent prayer prevailed but how does God expresse it he expresses his zeal thus By his strength he had power with God Hos 12. 3. his prayer was a zealous prayer and therefore it was a prayer with strength by his strength he had power with God He prayed and he prayed with strength he laid all his strength that he could on the duty and by his strength he had power with God Look what a man is zealous unto all his strength goes to it he leaves none behinde O the misery of a carnal heart that is not zealous for God he hath no strength at all left for God or the saving of his soul Would he pray alas he hath no strength to pray with His prayers are as weak as bul-rushes Would he resist sin he hath no strength to resist it with His striving to resist it is nothing able O how hardy is be to commit sin the charges and the cost that is in drinking does not terrifie the drunkard from his drunkennesse the cost that is in garish apparrell does not terrifie the proud from their vanity in cloaths The disgrace that is in sinne does not terrifie the Adulterer from his lust The fear of fathers and mothers displeasure does not terrifie the spend-thrift from his ryot No wicked men are hardy that way because their zeal goes that way But to that which is good how weak is thy heart Ezek. 16. 30. nihil metuendum vidit metuit tamen the least crosse look of a father or a mother or a great man scares him One twelve-penny charges affrights him One petty difficulty damps him because his zeal stands towards another point take him at the plough there he can be strong to labour he 'l toyl he 'l sweat he 'l hold out Take him at prayer he is as weak as water take him at a Tale or a Story he 'l remember it well and repeat it after you his memory is strong take him at a Sermon his memory fails him take him in a businesse to manage his wit is strong his parts strong he hath an excellent reach but take him in mortification he is as weak as a man without understanding This is the misery of thy soul when thy zeal is not set upon God The devil is the strong man Mat. 12. 29. and thou hast no strength to encounter him thy lusts are strong to inthrall thee and thou hast no strength to be free and yet thou pishest at these things Men think nothing of the devil as though he were nothing but a scare-crow they defie him every hour in the day they jest at him saying the devil is a fool they 'l paint him on their wals and call for him as though they would give him a challenge I remember a pretty Proverb that I reade the Germans have Non pingendus est Diabolus in pariete quia sponte sua venit Paint not the devil on the wall he 'l come soon enough of his own accord I am sure he comes too soon to beguile men too soon to bewitch and befool men too soon to disarm men from all strength to that which is good If he can once set thine affections on the things of this life he hath gotten the victory and thou art not able to recover Eighthly Zeal is the full confidence of the soul that does a man chieflyest trust to
lesse notable to others it is to be feared ye are not zealous for God The second sign of zeal towards God is to be impatient of sinne Zeal as aforesaid is the impatient part of the affections if a man do affect a thing but a little he can be patient without it but if he affect it very deep and with zeal O his affections are set on it and he is impatient if he speed not So that if thou beest zealous against sin thou art impatient of sin thou canst not suffer it Zeal is impatient of whatever is contrary to it That this is the nature of zeal you may see by the poor blinde zeal that was in Paul before his conversion he was zealous to God as he thought and thinking that the Church of Christ were contrary to all men enemies to God and man therefore now in the blindenesse of his zeal he persecutes that way unto death Concerning zeal I persecuted the Church Phil. 3. 6. It was a woful kinde of zeal to persecute the Church but yet there you may gather the nature of zeal it cannot abide that which is contrary and therefore if thou beest zealous against sin thou canst not abide sinne better journey riding studies prayers exhortations any course thou wilt use rather then abide it thou canst never abide any thing that is displeasing to God but resist it to the utmost and this resisting will be First Universal If thou beest zealous there is no sinne thou canst possibly abide Nothing is cold but the fire does resist it so nothing is sin but zeal does resist it to the utmost I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right I hate every false way Psa 119. 128. This is zeal indeed there is never a false way that a man can abide that is zealous To be zealous against one sinne and lukewarm against another this is not zeal Secondly General in all manner of persons First In a friend as well as in an enemy If thou beest zealous thou wilt finde fault with thy friends when they sin as well as observe a fault when thine enemy offendeth Men are apt to observe when their enemy sinneth O how unconscionable is he thus he hath done and so he hath done but if thou beest zealous when thy friend does transgresse thou wilt not abide it Fire will not only labour to consume the water that comes to put it out but also the wood that comes to maintain it So it is with zeal Do not I hate them that hate thee sayes David to God Psal 139 21. He could not abide to count them his friends that were not friends unto God though otherwise they were very friends unto him and may be saved his life and were patrons and benefactors unto him he could not wink at their sins because they were his friends though thy friend be a swearer or a carnal wretch yet if he be thy friend and thou dependest upon him thou canst see it and not see it but if thou beest zealous all his sins thou wilt count discourtesies to thee Secondly In ones childe as well as a servant you shall have many they are angry at every sin a servant commits but if their children do sin they connive it was no such great fault alas he did it unwittingly and what would ye have a childe do say they they can excuse it in their children and lessen it but if thou beest zealous thou canst not abide sinne in thy son any more then a servant thou wilt correct him and curb him and threaten him and counsell him and never endure he should sin if thou canst possibly help it What my son and be wicked what doe I love God and shall I suffer my loins to dishonour him Son know thou the God of thy father otherwise I count thee a bastard and no son This brake old Elies neck because he suffered his sons to be wicked when he by godly severity might have remedied it A zealous man when his son hath committed things worthy of death will not spare him Zech. 13. 3. Thirdly In ones own wife or husband or father or mother as well as in a neighbour zeal cannot abide it husband thou dost not love me as long as thou livest thus wife thy heart is not with me as long as thou dost thus how canst thou love me when thou dost not love God nor thine own soul this is the meaning of our Saviour If any come to me and hate not father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters yea and his own life he cannot be my Disciple Luk. 14. 26. A zealous man cannot abide to yield to sin for the best of them all Fourthly In a rich man as well as in a poor man if thou beest zealous thou canst not abide sin neither in the rich nor in the poor if poor men offend and if beggars be idle and ungodly then thou wilt complain Oh the poor are so wicked they break down our hedges who would releeve them they will not be orderly they lie drinking in Ale-houses and spend it away on the pot therefore who would releeve them But if the rich be keepers of company and vain in their pleasures thou art not so zealous against their sins alas this is no zeal but let a wicked man be as great as King Ahab Micaiah will deal roundly with him Nehemiah will not spare Lords nor Nobles when they sin Neh. 13. 17. For a Magistrate to punish poor Malefactors and not the Gentry when they do transgresse is this zeal no it is cursed partiality Fifthly In ones self rather then in any body else true zeal is more zealous against sinne in ones self then in all the world besides otherwise sayes our Saviour it is hypocrisie and not zeal Thou hypocrite first cast out the beam out of thine own eye and thou shalt see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brothers eye Mat. 5. 7. Zeal I say is like unto fire it is hot it self first before it heat others may be the fire meets with many other things that it is not able to heat it as the bottom of a kettle of water the fire cannot heat it neverthelesse the fire will be sure to be hot of it self So it is with thee if thou beest zealous against sinne thou wilt be like unto fire rather suffer cold to be in any other then suffer it to be in it self so thou wilt rather suffer sin in any body else then suffer it in thy self thou wilt not suffer sin any where else by thy good will but above all things thou wilt not suffer it in thy self This is the second sign of zeal towards God it is impatient of sin The third sign of zeal towards God is it cannot be quiet till it be assured of Gods favour and of Christ Thou art never earnest for God if thou canst possibly be quiet without assurance of Christ
thou must never do good to others ibid. Nor encourage the Ministers of God ibid. Nor can you be excellent ibid. Zeal makes us like Angels ibid. Zeal as fire against coldnesse and lukewarmnesse ibid. Seven motives to set your affections on God 175 A TREATISE OF THE AFFECTIONS The I. Sermon COLOS. 3. 2. Set your affections on things that are above and not on things which are on the earth THe subject of the Text and this Treatise is the affections shewing the right use and ordering of them which is a thing of continual and great concernment for they will never be idle but still running out and bringing into the soul either healing or hurtful objects and so authours either of our woe or welfare and certain signs either of our happinesse that we are risen with Christ or misery that we are still dead And concerning these the Apostle First Implies a disease and distemper that they are disjoyned from God and that desperately Secondly Applies a medicine a way to cure them to bring them back and place them upon their first and right object God and things above The first he intimates to us in three things First By calling them inordinate affections and such as can never be set right without they be mortifyed Mortifie your earthly members Fornication Vncleannesse Inordinate affection c. ver 5. He terms them inordinate and masterlesse affections and he commands us to mortifie them Secondly By shewing they are buried in the things of the world and never can be raised up again but only by the power of the resurrection of Christ If ye be risen with Christ seek those things that are above ver 1. Ye can never be able to make your affections seek upwards unlesse ye be risen with Christ Thirdly By supposing they are naturally as Solomon saies of a fools wrath as heavy as a stone the affections are so naturally as heavy as a stone which fals down to the earth and cannot ascend except it be heaved up Set your affections on things above and not on things on the earth They naturally sagge downwards on things that are earthly but let them not doe so no heave them up and set them upon things that are heavenly If you be risen with Christ These words are to be construed with all the exhortations Saint Paul doth here give If ye be risen with Christ seek those things that are above If ye be risen with Christ set your affections on things that are above If ye be risen with Christ mortifie your earthly members and your inordinate affections c. If ye be not risen with Christ it is but a folly for me to bid you do this ye cannot mortifie your affections nor raise up your affections to God ye cannot possibly do this except ye be risen with Christ The point then is this which I will handle by way of coherence A natural man cannot set his affections upon God or upon things above For our more intelligible proceeding in this Doctrine as likewise in the whole treatise of the affections which I desire to goe through let me tell you First What the affections be The affections are the forcible and sensible motions of the heart or the will to a thing or from a thing according as it is apprehended to be good or to be evill There be four things to be considered herein First The affections are motions They are the motions of the heart The motions of sinne saies Saint Paul Rom. 7. 5. that is the affections of sin for so it is in the original so that then are a mans affections set upon God when the heart hath its out-goings to God and therefore the Scriptures call the affections the feet of the soul for as the body goes with its feet to that which it loves so the soul goes out with its affections to that which it loves I thought upon my waies and turned my feet unto thy testimonies Psal 119. 59. that is I turned mine affections to thy Testimonies Look to thy feet when thou comest into the house of the Lord. I have refrained my foot from every evil way Psal 119. 101. Their feet are swift to shed bloud Rom. 3. 15. The Soul hath no other way to come at that which it loves but only by its affections can the muck-worm bring his bags and his coffers to his Soul can the voluptuous man bring his dogges and his hounds and his bowls to his Soul No though his Soul loves such vanities as these it cannot move to them but only by its affections Currui similes sunt equis pernicibus affectus saies Lactantius The affections are the Souls horses that draw her as it were in a Coach to the thing that she affects a man is moved by his affections By Anger he moves out to revenge by Desire he moves out to obtain by Love he moves out to enjoy by Pity he moves out to relieve the affections are the motions of the Soul When the unbeleeving Jews had an affection of envy at Saint Paul the Text saies They were moved with Envy Act. 17. 5. so the Soul of the godly is moved with affection to God This is the first thing the affections are motions Secondly As the affections are motions so they are the motions of the will I know Aristotle and most of our Divines too doe place the affections in the sensitive part of the Soul and not in the will because they are to be seen in the beasts But this cannot be so for a mans affections do most stirre at a shame or disgrace which could not be if the affections were in the unreasonable sensitive part the unreasonable sensitive part of a man is not sensible of credit or esteem call the desires of the appetite greedy and gluttonish the appetite is senselesse of any disgrace and therefore the affections must needs be in the heart the Scripture places the affections in the heart or the will Being affectionately desirous of you we were willing 1 Thes 2 8. Saint Paul couples his affections and his will together in one and his affection that he had to the Thessalonians he seats in his will How could the Apostle command us to set our affections on God and the things that are above if the affections were in the sensitive and unreasonable part can a man make his material stomack to hunger after God or the thirst of his sentitive appetite to thirst after Christ alas the sentitive part is not capable of a command or precept No if the affections were only in the sensitive and material part of the soul then how could they be in the Angels the good Angels have affections all the essential parts of the affections and so have the bad The good Angels Which things the Angels desire to look into 1 Pe. 1. 12. The evil Angels or Devils The Devils beleeve and tremble Jam. 2. 19. I confesse there be certain animal and analogical affections that are
in the sense there 's grief for torment and fear to touch a serpent or a toad delight in meats that are pleasant and hatred of them that are noysome But the Lord doth not call for these sensitive passions to be seated upon him and on heaven they are seated aright as they stand so a moderation be kept they have no need to change objects The affections of the heart these are the affections the Lord doth call for the out-goings of the heart as the sense is afraid of a Lyon so is a godly heart afraid to sin against God as the sense is joyful to have ease after trouble so a godly heart is joyful with a good conscience in Christ as the sense loves that which doth feed it so a godly heart loves God that doth nourish it and therefore Austin and Galen and Scotus and why say I them the Scriptures say the affections are motions in the heart Mine Eye affecteth my heart saith the poor Church Lam. 3. 51. that is when she beheld the lamentable distresses of the daughters of Sion this stirred up the affection of pity in her heart Thirdly As the affections are the motions of the heart so they are the forcible motions of the heart every little motion in the heart is not an affection but only the forcible motions of the heart a man is then said to set his affections upon God when his heart goes with force unto God for as God appoints every creature his task and to seek out its own good so he gives it a force for to do it the stone its nature is to fall downwards and God gives it a weightinesse that it may fall downwards with force the stomack its nature is to take food when it is empty and God gives it a hunger that it may take it with force every creature hath not only its motion to move it to its own good but it goes to it with force so God hath given affections to the heart as weight to the stone and hunger to the stomack so God I say hath given affections to the heart that it may seek out its good with a force so that then does a man set his affections upon God when he sets all his forces to God-ward When David had given 847 millions 382 thousand 500 pound in silver and gold of his own charges to the building of Gods house for so the learned may gather out of two Chapters in the Chronicles you may well think he employed all his forces thereto but what saies the Text I have set mine affection to the house of God 1 Chron. 29. 3. Thus ye see when â—ht sets his affections to Gods house he put to his forces the affections are the forcible motions of the heart when a childe of God praies with affection he prayeth with force when he stands for God with affection he stands for him with force Fourthly As the affections are the motions and the forcible motions of the will so they are the sensible motions too For the will stirs up the inferiour faculties of the Soul and they stirre up the humours and parts of the body to make the greater resistance to that which it disaffects or the greater embracement of that which it affects This is one reason why the affections are called passions for they make the soul to suffer and the body to suffer The affection of Joy makes the spleen for to suffer and anger makes the gall for to suffer and fear makes the heart for to suffer yea the affections make humours bloud spirits members even bones and all the body for to suffer Hence it is when a man sets his affections upon God his fear the fear of God makes him tremble his Love the love of God makes him to weep for his sins the shame of it that he should dishonour his God makes him to blush before Christ Grief for his sins many times dries up his moisture and Zeal for his glory consumeth his flesh so was it with the Psalmist when he was full of affections towards God and saw how men did disobey his Commandments see what sensible motions were in him Mine eyes gush out with rivers of waters because men keep not thy Law Psalm 119. 139. Ezra was so affectionate for God that knowing how the people transgressed it made the colour to come in his face and to blush before heaven Ezr. 9. 6. as Demetrius blusht for his father Philips offences the Orator that pleaded King Philips defence did not doe him so much service as the blushing of Demetrius his sonne This was the effect of his affection to his Father it shewed it self in his blushing for the offences of his Father Thus the affections are the sensible motions of the Will Fifthly and lastly They are such sensible motions as are according to the apprehension of good or evil For when there is but small apprehension of good or evil the affections are weak and may hardly work on the body at all but when there is a great apprehension of either not only the soul is deeply affected but also the body is mightily compatible Nay if the apprehension be deep indeed the affections break out into raptures as dancings and leapings of the heart which are the raptures of joy ravishments and enamorings which are the raptures of love meltings and bleedings and breakings of spirit which are the raptures of grief astonishments amazements which are the raptures of fear confusion and the like which are the raptures of shame the affections burst forth into such raptures as these when the apprehension is deep Olofernes his eyes were ravisht with the slippers of Judith because he was deeply in love with her Iacob shooken almost dead at the sight of his sons bloudy coat because he was deeply affected thereat The Roman Senate were affrighted with the sight of the Carthaginian green figges that Cato did shew them such raptures have the Saints very often in their prayers to God being helpt with sighs and groans that cannot be uttered Rom. 8. 26. because they have a deep apprehension of the corruption that is in them Thus ye see what the affections be they are forcible and sensible motions of the will to a thing or from a thing according as it is apprehended to be evil or to be good In the next place let me shew that a carnal man cannot set these his affections upon God or upon Grace which may appear by Reasons First Affectus sunt alae animae as the Proverb goes The Affections are the wings of the soul If the birds wings be lime-twig'd and glued to the ground she cannot fly up now a carnal man his affections are glued and lime-twig'd to the things of the world or the things of this life and therefore it is impossible he should flie up unto God I reade in the life of good Anselm walking in the fields he saw a shepherds boy that had taken a bird and tyed a
soul they make a man walk as they list and therefore the Apostle cals them the lusts of concupiscence wherein a man walks 1 Thes 4. 5. in the original it is the affections of concupiscence they are cruel and masterlesse misleaders of a man now a carnal man his affections are such they are disturbances and perturbations unto him they will so trouble him and tosse him up and down from lust unto lust from sin unto sinne that he shall never be able that is carnal to set them upon God Iambiychus cals them the nayls of the soul whereby it 's nayled to the things of the body would a carnal man repent alas his affections disturb him would he pray and hold out in that duty his affections are importunate to be otherwise occupyed would he exhort and reprove and be rebuking his neighbour for sinning against God his affections they are against it he is ashamed for to doe it he is afraid he shall have a flout for his labour would he forsake his coveteousnesse and drunkennesse and company O his affections are so strong to them that he is not able to draw his heart from them The very Heathen brings in all the world thus speaking of themselves nitimur in vetitum semper cupimusquè negata so headstrong are the affections when they are wrong as Medea in the Poet video meliora proboque she saw the good and she liked the good but her affections transported her quite to the contrary thus it was with Herod the king when he heard there was another king of the Jews born in the world and that Wise men from the East were come for to doe homage to that new King the Text sayes he was troubled Matth. 2. ◠fear and shame and grief and vexation and all his affections they were all up in arms and would not let him be quiet they troubled him saies St Matthew Yea they made such a disturbance in Herod they did so baffle his judgement and busie his thoughts and torture his minde that they drove him to murther God knows how many scores of poor Infants before they would be quiet they made him a mad man Thus the affections are grievous perturbations when they are once come to be mis-placed and if they be such perturbations as they are alas how can a carnal man set his affections upon God they are masterlesse wilde horses and he cannot subdue them they are bedlams and frantick misleaders and he cannot overcome them they are desperate things his affections are so giddy and unruly that he can never be Christs as long as his affections are alive unlesse they be set upon the tenters and put upon the wreck and tamed perforce they will never be right and therefore saies the Apostle Those that are Christs have crucifyed the flesh with the affections and lusts Gal. 5. 24. Those that are Christs have done so or else they could never be Christs because the affections are perturbations and disturbances most woful perturbations they are And this is a fourth reason why a carnal man cannot set his affections upon God because his affections are perturbations and like a company of wilde horses that will not be ruled The II. Sermon Colos 3. 2. Set your affections on things that are above c. THus I have shewn you First what the affections be Secondly how a carnal man cannot set his affections upon God But here it may be objected Cannot a carnal man have good affections to God and to grace The people were so affected with Iohns preaching and with his baptism that they would have been angry and zealously affected against that man whoever he was that should have said it was not of God they would have stoned such an one to death Luk. 20. 6. the people most of them were carnal yet they were thus affected with his preaching Certainly a carnal mans affections may be marvellously wrought on For the clearing of this doubt Let me shew you nine degrees wherein the affections may be wrought on in five of them a carnal man may have his affections to be wrought on and in the last four of them he cannot First I will name you these nine degrees of the affections of the heart The first is when they are so farre wrought on that the heart is enticed and allured much by them Thus the eloquent Ministers in Corinth it seems they wrought upon the peoples affections exceedingly their words were so drawing and their speech was so inticing that they came flocking to them Saint Paul confesseth he would not preach so with the enticing words of mens wisedom 1 Cor. 2. 4. what good should I do if my preaching were such it's true I might allure you and move you and entice you and stirre your affections but alas this would never bring you to faith and repentance with power this might tickle your hearts peradventure a little but not soundly comfort you The second is when the affections are wrought on so far that the heart is somewhat touched therewith As a man when his affections are moved with any at a disgraceful word he saith this toucheth me indeed When God turned the affections of Israel unto Saul indeed some of them had no affection to Saul How shall this man save us say they they despised him in their hearts but God turned the affections of the rest upon Saul for to follow him The Text saies of them The Lord hath touched their hearts 1 Sam. 10. 26. That is he set their affections upon Saul that they might follow Saul up and down As when the Needle is touched with the Loadstone then it will turn it self presently to the North their affections were touched and therefore they followed after Saul So many men their affections are touched at a Sermon their affections are not only allured but receive a touch from the Word there is some vertue goes out of the Word as some went from Christ to the Woman that had but a touch of his garment so their affections have but a touch from the Word and some vertue goes to them for the affections are termed the touch of the heart It 's good for a man not to touch a woman 1 Cor. 7. 1. That is not to set an amorous affection of the heart upon a woman Thus farre a wicked mans affections may be to the Word they may be touched by the Word The third is When the affections are wrought on so far That the heart is somewhat bowed thereby this is another degree of working on the affections to bow the affections as ye may reade David bowed the heart of all the men of Iudah even as the heart of one man 2 Sam. 19. 14. that is by his kinde speeches and friendly message he sent he inclined and bowed their affections unto him So a wicked man may have his affections bowed unto good whereas his affections stood sturdy before or may be they were bowed another way before now they be bowed
affections may be so quickned as to go sadly all along as thou goest so that all that knew thee before may wonder good Lord what ails yonder man how is he changed he was a Ruffian a Royster and who but he the other day what 's the matter with him he goes so sadly up and down and so pensively along But why do I speak against thee when there be few that are a quarter so well affected as thou but alas I tell thee thou mayst go thus far and be thus deeply affected and yet be a Carnalist Fourthly a deep apprehension and sense of the horror of thine estate this may winde up thine affections many steps higher thou mayst be afraid to be damned and afraid of the judgements of God and this may fetch tears from thine eyes sighs and groans from thy heart This may even melt thy affections into weepings and abundance of weepings for the sinnes thou hast done and yet be a Carnalist The Prophet brings in the carnal Iews so doing This have you done again covering the Altar of God with tears with weeping and crying out insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more Mark they offered their prayers unto God and cryed and cryed out-right yea they powred out many tears they covered Gods Altar with tears and yet saies he God regarded not their praiers and their offerings for all that should we see a man come to Gods house and hear him at the hearing of the Word or calling upon God make an out-cry of his sins yea weep and weep abundantly cover his Pew with his tears we would wonder at the repentance and the good affections of that man yet so far thou mayst go such good affections thou mayst have as to cover thy Table with tears yea and Gods Altar with thy weepings and yet be a Carnalist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Good men saies Homer are weeping men Nay I say a man may be a lesse weeping man and yet be a good man O how mightily may a mans affections be wrought on and yet be a stranger from grace Fifthly Self-love look how high self-love may winde up thine affections for thy sinnes so high may thine affections be wound up Self-love may make thee wondrous affectionate No natural affection can possibly be raised uphigher then self-love may S. Paul being to reckon up all the sinne-ful affections of men in these last daies he names self-love for the foremost In the last daies perillous times shall come why for men shall be lovers of themselves then he names eighteen more but this he places in the front of the Catalogue for self-love is strongest of all 2 Tim. 3. 2. I cite this text only to shew how our affections may be raised to God namely as high as ever self-love can clamber Self-love will make a man be very affectionate When a man knows he cannot be saved unlesse he doe thus and thus O how affectionate may he be for to do it when he knows he shall perish for ever if he be not religious and godly if he do not bewail his iniquities and strive against sin and labour to do good unto others how marvellous full of affections may this make him to be to doe abundance of things First It may scrue up his affections so high that he may be loth to commit sinne peradventure he does often commit it but fain would he leave it O he is unwilling to do it he wishes affectionately O Lord how shall I leave it O that I might leave it yea he seeks some means for to leave it he does it I confesse but fain would he not doe it his affections may be wrought upon thus far and yet be a Carnalist Such an one was Darius he had made a Decree and writ it and signed it and sealed it Well Daniel would not doe according to the tenor of the Decree and therefore the Decree was he should be cast into the Lyons Den. The King did cast him in indeed but lo how unwilling he was to commit this sinne He fasted he waked he could not sleep a winks sleep He wisht O that I might safely deliver him O that thy God O Daniel would deliver thee True he thought I must needs now do this sin alas my Decree and what may the Lords think of me If I should not doe it all the Countrey would think me too blame nay they would rebel against me out right for breaking the Laws of the Medes and the Persians Alas I must do it but it appears though how unwilling he was for to do it he could neither eat nor sleep nor be merry nor quiet till he might hear Daniel was safe Many a King but a quarter as great as he would have scorned to have troubled his thoughts about such a Puritane as Daniel was esteemed to be nay he rises early in the morning before the time was expired he runs in all post to the denne of Lyons and there he cries lamentably O Daniel thou servant of the living God O Daniel he screecht it out dolefully and when he heard that Daniel was alive he rejoyced exceedingly Dan. 6. 23. These subsequent circumstances shew how unwilling he was in the punishment of committing the sin if he could have helpt it and saved his honour with his Lords and his Nobles Thus he was unwilling to commit the sin yet a wretched man for all that Men imagine they have a good Christian plea when they can say this for themselves it 's true I doe rap out an oath in my choler I doe pray coldly and with many by-thoughts but God knows I am unwilling to doe so I would very fain have it otherwise I am sorry I am drawn so away Alas so thou mayst be and yet be a Carnalist thou mayst pray and be unwilling to pray carelesly thou mayst repent in some manner and be sorry thou repentest no more thou mayst be loth to commit an offence and yet be a meer natural man no jot of saying grace in thee Was not Pilate sensibly unwilling to condemn Iesus Christ Was not Herod unwilling to behead Iohn the Baptist it spoiled all his mirth at his feast that he was compelled for to do it for so he counted it a compulsion otherwise he would not have done it was not Saul unwilling to transgresse the commandment of the Lord He forced himself he had abundance of gain-sayings in his heart abundance of wishes in his breast O I would not doe it I would to God I were not put upon such importunate circumstances as I am fain would I not do it he forced him self there was a kinde of pitcht field in his bosome a battel in his soul fain would he doe it that way went his lusts fain would he not do it that way went his conscience So he forced himself 1 Sam. 13. 13. and yet God did reject him Thus felf-love may winde up a mans affections exceedingly to be loth to commit a
carnal mans affections be so wrought on as ye have heard that they are not rightly wrought on First Because they are not kindely wrought on They are chafed and heated very much but they are not kindely wrought on The affections must be kindely wrought on otherwise they are not wrought on aright they may be violently and passionately wrought on there may be a great deal of pudder wrought in the affections but never are they rightly wrought on unlesse they be wrought upon kindely Be kindely affectioned one to another with brotherly love saies St Paul Rom. 12. 10. The Galatians that would have pluckt out their eyes for Saint Paul they were strongly affected with Saint Paul but they were not kindely affected If they had been kindely affected with him or his Doctrine they would not have hearkned to false Apostles as they did A carnal man natural reason and knowledge out of the Word may work on his affections his conscience and self-love whereby he is loth to be damned and glad to be saved when he dies these may work on his affections and cause him to weep for his sins and give over many corruptions and to be strongly affected but alas he is not kindely affected It 's only the love of God shed abroad in the heart that kindely affects one But it 's self-love and not love of the Lord Jesus that affects him he is not kindely affected Secondly A carnal mans affections are not judiciously wrought on They are wrought on in a fit at it but they are not wrought on with judgement they have not the true beginning of working which is sound judgement S. Hierom saies of the affections of Christ respectu Christi semper sequuntur rationem Christs affections had alwaies the right beginning which was true reason and judgement And therefore S. Matthew notes especially the beginning of his sorrow He began to be sorrowful and very heavy Mat. 26. 37. He had a right beginning of it The natural beginning of the affections is this when the judgement is first poysed and the heart is first fired this is the natural beginning of the affections So that the heart must first be wrought on and the spirit moved before the affections can be judiciously wronght on And therefore saies S. Iohn Christ troubled himself He groaned in spirit and he troubled himself Joh. 11. 33. He was exceedingly affected with sorrow for Lazarus his death and his kinsfolks sorrows and distrusts they were in and he troubled himself we translate it he was troubled but in the original it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he troubled himself his own judgement and his spirit and his heart stirred up his affections to be troubled His affections were wrought on judiciously A carnal mans affections though they be much wrought on yet they are not wrought on judiciously Now he is in the minde to be strict and to be godly now he weeps and takes on can ye wonder his conscience now jerks him and is quick but when a few tears and a few labours and endeavours that way have contented his conscience as his conscience is apt to be satisfied the man is of another judgement then quickly He is of the judgement then tush what need I be so strict and precise Thus he is affected not upon sound judgement Affected he is and strongly affected too for the while but he is not affected judiciously Thirdly A carnal mans affections are not wrought upon regularly His affections may be are wrought upon by Gods justice and judgements because God is a consuming fire against sin because God is severe against the works of iniquity because he hath made heaven-gate to be straight These are the grounds of his work His affections are wrought upon this way therefore he weeps and therefore he praies and therefore he reforms and therefore he is affected But this is not regular affection he is affected with fear but it is not the fear of Gods goodnesse not Gods mercy and goodnesse were there no other attribute in God he might look long enough before he would fear his mercy that 's a ground of presumption to him but he fears Gods judgements and his justice he doth not tremble and quake to consider that God is a merciful God and a good God whom he hath sinned against The true Israel of God They fear the Lord and his goodnesse Hos 3. 5. their affections are regular they are affected with fear of Gods goodnesse But a carnall man is not affected with the fear of Gods goodnesse He is affected with the fear of Gods justice his affections are wrought on irregularly Fourthly A carnal mans affections are not wrought upon universally Some affections are wrought on and others are not No he hath a contradiction of affections He hath some good affections to God and to grace and he hath some affections that are contradictory to these Some sinnes he grieves under some he is glad under some commandments he delights to be doing and some he delights to be breaking I do not mean part flesh and part spirit for so the best godly souls under Heaven have a contradiction of affections they have some affections of the spirit and some affections of the flesh contradicting and opposing one another I do not mean this But a carnal man hath such a contradiction of affections as that his carnal affections give the other the lye He is affected with sorrow for his sinnes but he is not troubled for his usury He is affected with desires to leave his sins but not to leave his sinful dependances As Esau he was affected with weeping for his missing of grace and the blessing but not for his pleasures and sensual delight Is not this a contradiction of affections He found no place of repentance though he sought it carefully with tears Heb. 12. 17. He was affected with weeping after repentance but he could finde no place to bestow it in There was not elbow-room enough for repentance in his heart He made some room in some part of his heart for repentance but not in all He found place for it in some of his affections but not in all He is affected but he is not affected universally He hath a contradiction of affections in his soul so that a carnal mans affections though they be wrought on they are not wrought upon universally It is true a carnal mans affections may be exceedingly wrought on then I pray examine your selves Two persons I would have to examine themselves First Them that think their affections are set upon God For as for them that are absolutely carnal whose affections are buried in the things of the World and have no affection at all unto grace or unto holinesse speak not to them their own consciences condemn them to be rotten and are as good as a thousand examiners I doe not speak to them If they will not hear their own conscienceâ—s much lesse will they hear me I speak
why thou art wedded to the world and wedded to thy lusts that thine affections cannot be unto Christ When Hadad had great favour with Pharoah Pharaoh even married his own wives sister unto Hadad 1 Kin. 11. 19. He made him his brother he brought him into the nearest relation he could whenas his favour was set towards him So if thou favourest the things of this life thou weddest thy soul to them What an infinite indignity is this unto Christ that such base and sordid things should be in favour and Christ not be thy souls favourite Thirdly Hereby the soul is convertible and reconcilable to God Be a man never so crosse and crooked never so cruelly and implacably bent to transgresse yet as long as there be affections in him to be wrought his heart may be won Though a Kings wrath be as the roaring of a Lyon though he be never so fallen out with a man yet as long as there be affections in the King patience wisedom and humbling ones self and the like these things may perswade him by long forbearing is a Prince perswaded Pro. 15. 15. Without a man have any affections in him he is not capable of perswasion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saies Aristotle The affections are they whereby a man is mutable For though it be a weaknesse to be mutable yet when a man is evil and wicked it 's a blessed weakness that he is mutable from that wickednesse Now if a man be grievously set upon mischief though he be an enemy of all grace and of goodnesse yet as long as there be any affections left in him he is not an implacable enemy no his affections are a possible subject to be wrought on the Word and the Spirit may perswade him and therefore what a care should we have of our affections because thereby we are placable and reconcilable to God The Apostle yokes these two together without natural affection implacable Rom. 1. 31. for a man as long as he hath any natural affection left he is never implacable still he may be perswaded unlesse he degenerate in his affections and prove to be unnatural if the affections depend on this fashion he is not only wicked and an enemy to grace but he is an implacable enemy think then what wrong ye do to your own souls so unnaturally to set your affections to let them degenerate as you do and wander after vanity Beware how ye doe so ye goe about to divert all possibility of conversion and provoke the Lord to count you implacable enemies to grace and to the scepter of his dear Sonne Fourthly It may appear how infinitely it stands you in hand to set your affections aright because the affections are the hands of your souls Ye cannot take hold of any thing in the world to doe you any good but by your affections For as hands are to the body so the affections are to the soul Will a man be so mad as to put his hand and his fingers out of joynt alas he cannot take hold of so much as his meat for to eat it So the affections are the hands of the soul He that hath clean hands a pure heart Ps 24. 4 that is he whose affections are clean and heart pure I will wash my hands in innocency and so will I compasse thine Altar Psal 26. 6. that is I will purge mine affections and so I will pray I will that men pray every where lifting up holy hands without wrath 1 Tim. 2. 8. that is lifting up holy affections without the distempered affections of wrath or anger or the like the affections are the hands of the heart whereby it takes the word or the Commandment or any thing to it Now what a horrible thing is it that these hands of thine should be put out of joynt as long as thine affections are to the things here on earth they are all out of joynt thou canst never take grace Ye cannot take hold of a promise nor of the word unlesse your affections be right I know that Faith is the right hand of the soul whereby it takes hold of that which is good But alas the hand of Faith is clumbsie without the affections Such a one had a crosse how did he take it say we that is how is he affected under it ye take it ill to be reproved of your sins ye take it ill to be warned and admonished either in publike or private Ye take it ill to be told of the judgements of God against your lusts Alas how can ye do otherwise ye cannot take it well when your affections that should take it well are set upon vanity wilt thou binde up and hamper thine affections in the things of the Earth alas thy hands are quite bound thou canst not take hold of Christ or of Heaven Thou dost even pinion thine own soul and shackle it for Hell What does the Devil when he shackles a man like a prisoner for hell and damnation he bindes him hand and foot and so casts him into utter darknesse he bindes up his heart and affections that he cannot weep nor he cannot repent of his sins he cannot rejoyce in grace nor in goodnesse he cannot delight in the word he bindes up his affections which are the hands and feet of the soul and so fits him for hell and destruction above all things then be sure that thy hands be loose and thine affections at liberty to set them upon Heaven Fifthly It may appear how infinitely it stands you in hand to set your affections aright because they are not only the hands but the handles of your hearts as your hearts can catch hold of nothing that is good unlesse your affections take hold so nothing can take hold of your hearts but by your affections If ever the word do convert you it must catch hold of you Jesus said unto Simon henceforth thou shalt catch men Luk. 5. 10. that is the preaching of the Word it shall catch men when thou preachest Now one of the first holds that it catcheth is by the affections Men are affected with the Word and so it comes to convert men now beloved had you not need to have a care of affections seeing they are the handles of your hearts were it not for them the word could never catch hold on you There is no hold to be had of such a man as we say that is his affections are slippery Beloved here you come to Gods house miserable wretched souls in your sinnes alas how is it possible that ever Gods Ministers should catch hold of your hearts your affections are the main hold that we can catch of you If your affections be not here but run after the things of this life we can have no hold of you you have nothing that we should take hold by Indeed we may catch hold of your understandings that 's nothing unlesse we take hold of your affections they are as slippery Eels we can scarce
ever hold them O could we take hold of them it were well they are fair handles for us to take hold by O if we could but truly affect your hearts with the truth then we might have some hope to convert you As Epictetus saies of wrongs and of injuries and all things in the world every thing hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every thing hath two handles O saies he if a man could take hold of every wrong at the right handle then he would bear it patiently so I may say of your haarts Your hearts have two handles I pray God the Word may take hold at the right handle of your hearts The true affections of the heart if ever the Word take hold of them it hath taken hold of the right handle Is it not then a lamentable thing that mens affections are misplaced alas they are the hold of the heart and the heart can never be taken unlesse they be set right Sirthly It may appear how infinitely it stands you in hand to set your affections aright because they are the souls stomack that which the soul doth affect that reedeth and filleth the soul as meat doth the stomack Is it not necessary to be careful what meat we doe eat if we eat trash it will kill us if we feed upon poyson it will poyson and infect us Now that is the food of thy soul which thy soul does affect and thine affection is thy souls stomack to hunger after it thine affections are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saies Aspasius they are the appetite of the soul Such then as your affections are such is your food Should you see a man feed upon dirt and upon Bricks and upon carrion certainly you would say unlesse he be broken therefrom it will kill him No remedy but it will kill him without doubt And wilt thou feed thy soul with vanities and with trash and with poyson Every thing is trash besides Christ every thing is poyson besides Christ and his graces if thou feedest upon any thing besides Christ and his spirit thou feedest upon trash and upon poyson Now if thou set thine affections here below thou feedest upon trash Thou murderest thy soul with such food its rank poyson and yet thou feedest upon it That which thou affectest that 's thy souls food As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby 1 Pet. 2. 2. milk you know is the babes food if it have not its food it cannot possible live But the word is the milk and the food of the soul and that the Apostle would have you to set your affections upon Desire it or affect it saies he where note your affections are the stomack of your soul The Word is your food All other food is but trash and it feeds you accordingly O ye poor souls that feed upon poyson all the day long that diet your souls with nothing but trash and filth and froth how long will you do thus O set your affections on things that are above these are the wholsome food of your souls c. Seventhly it may appear how infinitely it stands you in hand to set your affections aright because they are the main matter of grace They are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They are the materials of grace as Aristotle saies of the vertues they are nothing but the right ruling of the affections so may I say of grace with a little alteration the main work of grace is the ruling of the affections aright it takes them off from the things here on earth and lifts them up to the things that are in Heaven When grace dâ—th convert a man it doth not take away the affections but it ruleth them Thou wert angry before grace doth not take away thine anger No oportet virum bonum esse iracundum saies Cicero A good man must be angry I say grace does not take away thine anger but it ruleth thine anger and teacheth thee to turn it against sinne and against the dishonour of God Thou wert merrily disposed before of a cheerful constitution grace doth not come to take away thy mirth but to rule it Whereas thou wert merry with vanity and ever laughing at jests and at fooleries now grace makes thee merry in Gods service and to rejoyce in the Lord. Thou wert of a sad spirit before but perhaps it was for crosses and losses and discontents and the like grace comes not to take away thy sorrows but to rule them to make thee weep and mourn at thy deadnesse and unthankfulness toward the Lord Jesus Christ Gratia non tollit sed attollit naturam Grace does not take away nature but it taketh it up The affections are natural grace turns them into spiritual this I say brethren that ye may see how that grace runs along in the affections as water in the pipe The affections are the matter of grace As the soul is in the body the body is the matter and the soul is in it and so makes up a living creature A man had need look to his body for it is the due matter of his soul so it is with the affections thou hast need to be careful of them for they are the matter of grace and therefore the Apostle cals the affections the members yeeld your members servants unto righteousnesse Rom. 6. 19. that is as expositors expound it yeeld your affections thereto For they are your souls members and the materials of grace is not fear the matter of the fear of the Lord and love the matter of the love of the Lord and sorrow the matter of repentance from sin now if the affections be the materials of grace what a desperate condition are ye in that set your affections upon the things here below you throw down all the matter of grace How can ye have any grace when ye cast away in the kennel all the matter for grace Grace requires the affections for its matter and thou hast no matter for this grace Thou hurlest away all thine affections upon thy pleasures and thy profits and thy vanities thou art so far from all grace as that thou hast no matter for grace Eighthly It may appear how infinitely it stands you in hand to set your affections aright because they are arguments what ye be According as your affections are so are your souls if I could see what your affections run on I could see what ye all be whether Saints or wicked whether of God or the Devil The affections are the arguments that a man is a man When the people of Lystra took Paul and Barnabas for gods and would have sacrificed to them Sirs saies Paul Why do ye thus whereas we are men of like passions with you Act. 14. 15. that is affections we have fear and joy and grief and love and the like passions with you Now if the bare having of affections be the arguments that a man is a man then surely the goodnesse or
vainesse of these affections are the arguments that a man is a Christian man or an ungodly man I beseech you consider what a woful distressed condition ye are in if your affections be vain and earthly ye carry a brand in your hearts that ye are not of God that ye are yet the slaves of Satan and the servants of unrighteousness and your end is no better then eternal death and destruction Affectus virum indicat Your affections shew you what men and women ye be c. The IV. Sermon Colos 3. 2. Set your affections on things that are above c. HItherto it sufficeth to have spoken of the coherence of the words wherein ye â—ave heard First What these affections be Secondly That a wicked man cannot set his affectious on God Thirdly How far forth a wicked man may have good affections and how they differ from the godlies Fourthly How they may examine themselves and finde that their affections are not set right Fifthly Eight several arguments to convince them what a woful condition they are in till their affections are set upon God Now for the words they contain a special duty that a Christian is bound to namely to set his affections upon God The Apostle presses it strongly First Because it is an infallible mark of our being or not being in Christ If ye be risen with Christ c. set your affections on things above As if he should say Ye say ye are risen with Christ come then and demonstrate it now that ye are risen with Christ If ye be risen with Christ this will infallibly follow Ye will set your affections above it cannot be otherwise If your affections be not set above doubtlesse you are not risen with Christ Those that are Christs saies St Paul have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts Galat. 5. 24. He takes it for granted that if they be Christs they have crucified the flesh and the affections to the World-ward and set them upon God Secondly He presseth it as a matter of reasonable equity the competition stands but between two Either things in heaven or things on earth One of them ye must set your affections upon ye cannot set your affections upon both if ye set your affections any where ye must needs set them upon one of these two Mark the competition Set your affections on things that are above not on the things on the Earth now there is a necessity of reason that election should be made of the best that we should set our affections on the better of the twain to wit the things that are in Heaven which are infinitely better then the things here on Earth Set your affections on things that are above and not on the things on Earth So that hence ye may see the necessity of this duty We must set our affections above or which is all one upon God The strength of this necessity will the better appear if we consider these four things First That God is the principal object of our affections as the eye is made to be set upon colours and the ear is made to be set upon sounds and the smell is made to be set upon odours so the affections are made to be principally set upon God The affections are so naturally due unto God that if it be not God the souls affections are set on it makes it a God or an Idol And therefore the Apostle bids us mortifie our inordinate affections evil concupiscence and coveteousness which is Idolatry Col. 3. 5. when our affections are set upon gains and upon profits and the things of this life the Apostle cals this coveteousnesse and this coveteousnesse he saies it is Idolatry because the soul makes Gold a god and silver a god and profit a god by setting its affections thereupon As the eye doth either see colours or else it sees a thing under the likenesse of a colour colour is the principal object of the sight and therefore if it be not a colour which it sees as the eye may see light as the light of the fire the light of the Sun but it sees it under the likenesse of rednesse or whitenesse or some other colour It appears by a colour or else it cannot see it So beloved it is either God our affections are on or we idolize it as a God Indeed we may affect other things as mediums and in reference to God but look where we set our affections that is our God Only fear the Lord and serve him with all your heart 1 Sam. 12. 24. We must set our affection of fear only upon God The affections are the souls attendants Doth not a servant wait only upon his own Master whom he gives his attendance unto him he maketh his Master and whom should the soul wait on but only upon God the affections are the souls attendances upon whomsoever she bestows them she waits upon it as true God My soul saies David my soul wait thou only upon God Psa 62. 5. Give thine attendance to none but to him Thine affections of love and of joy and of hope and desire these must wait upon God for to worship him Thine affections of fear and of care these must wait upon God to provide what ever may please him Thine affections of hatred and of grief and sorrow and the like these must wait as a guard to keep off what ever may offend him thine affections are principally for God this is the first ground the affections were made for God Secondly As the affections were principally made for this purpose to be set upon God so nothing but God hath that which the affections look for It is God which the affections look for and where can the affections finde it but only in God there is none good but one that is God Mat. 19. 17. The young man would have thought he sought for good in a right place when he sought for it in Christ But as Chrysostome observes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he lookt upon Christ as a meer man Christ tels him he was mistaken in calling him good there is none good but one that is God Christ himself as near as he was unto good as he came nearer to it then any creature in heaven or in earth yet if he had been a creature and men had set their affections on him as their good being a creature they had set their affections amisse why callest thou me good saies he so much more doth every creature answer Thou thinkest riches honors and pleasures are good Why call ye me good may they all say there 's none good but one that is God Will a man seek for the Sun in a pale of water Indeed if the Sunne shine on the water there may you see it But if the Sun do not look on it you may look over all the waters in the world and never finde the Sunne in them all So will you set your affections on
hated of all men for thy Name sake and I am in Christ c. If thou canst say thus this would be thy good indeed but if thou canst not say thus though thou beest Gallinae filius albae thou mayst perish with the devils and cursed fiends for evermore for all the blessings of this life Set thine affections then upon God truly God is good to Israel saies the Psalmist Psal 73. 1. He is good and he truly is good thou canst not say so of all the things under Heaven thou canst not say truly riches are good to me Pleasure truly is good to me peace and plenty and liberty truly is good to thee they are good but they will never be good to thee when thou hast most need of good then they will leave thee in the lurch these do thee no good then This is the third as nothing but God is good so nothing is thy good but God Fourthly As nothing is thy good but God so nothing can rest thine affections but God When thou affectest any thing wherefore dost thou affect it but only to rest contented therewith when thou hast it and therefore thou must set thine affections upon God because nothing can rest thy soul but only thy God Rest in the Lord. Psal 37. 7. Return unto thy rest O my soul Psa 116. 7. God is the rest of the soul if the soul ever get him it resteth content the affections are in a maze if they be not set upon God like a man in a quagmire he sinks deeper and deeper so a man sinks deeper and deeper in desires and in wishes that hath not his affections upon God there is nothing can give the soul rest if the soul rest not in God Will meat in a dream and drink in a dream give satisfaction to our hunger our thirst So are all the good things in this world Is 29 8. Go to all the wicked men in the earth let them desire and have their desires still they desire and further their desire and yet they desire after millions of desires their affections are as far for to seek for rest as if never they had sought All the things in the world are like some Ale-house-beer which will never quench the poor Travellers thirst like the eating of salt neats-tongues the more they do eat the more they are athirst hungry meat He that desireth silver shall never be satisfied with silver he that affects pleasure and vanity shall never be contented nor satisfied therewith give him ones he affects tens give him tens he affecteth hundreds give him hundreds he affects thousands give him them he affecteth millions thou canst never get rest till thine affections are pitcht upon God Quo plus sunt potae plus sitiuntur aquae It 's God only that resteth the affections Now if these be so is it not our best way to set our affections on God where we may have rest for our souls nothing besides can give us any rest First because nothing but God is all good Every good besides God hath but one or two goodnesses in it None but God hath all goodnesses in him what is meat good for but only to feed one when thou hast it thou must desire again to have rayment for meat will not cloth thee what is rayment good for but only to cover one when thou hast it thou must desire again to be fed for rayment will not feed thee what is money good for but only to buy with when thou hast it thou must desire again to be recovered of thy sicknesse for money will not cure thee of the Feaver thus no good thing in the world can give thine affections a rest because they have but one or two goodnesses a piece in them but the Lords goodnesse is infinite he is all good if thou hast him thou wantest no manner of thing that is good They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing Psa 34. 10. for every good thing is in him He is bread to the hungry and drink to the thirsty and health to the sick and liberty to the captive all in all to them that set their affections on him Frustra fit per plura quod fieri potest per pauciora If thine affections go to any creature thou fetchest but a little good at once thine affections will be fain to go a thousand and a thousand times over and over thou gettest so little at once that thou shalt be tempted to be affecting the oftner but if thine affections go to God thou goest to the fountain there thou hast it by drops never enough here thou mayst have it at once Who would be so mad to fetch water at a Cock that runneth by drops when the Fountain is by Secondly because nothing but God is the ultimate good Thou affectest the things of this life alas they will never giverest for still there is something beyond them but God is the utmost of all goods when the soul is once setled on him it hath no further to go like a stone when it 's come to the centre it hath no further to go I am Alpha and Omega the beginning and the end the first and the last saies Christ if the soul be in Christ Christ is his last the soul is at rest why it hath no where to goe whether should we goe saies Peter to Christ thou hast the words of eternal life Joh. 6. Christ first and Christ next and Christ last Christ is the utmost and ultimate good of the soul the soul hath no further to go and therefore here thou must fix thine affections fix them upon Christ Thirdly because nothing is it self without God the things of this life they are good I confess but they are not themselves without God if God be not in them the very good that they have is not in them When thou affectest pleasure and delight answer me why dost thou affect it is it not for the good that is in it when thou affectest profit or health or peace or friends or credit or whatever thou affectest tell me in thy conscience why dost thou affect them is it not for the good that is in them they are good therefore thou affectest them but if thou hast not Christ and God and his Spirit and his grace if thou hast not the Lord in these things they are not themselves neither have they the good that is in them Riches is no riches without grace but a snare health is no health without Christ but a curse peace and pleasure are not themselves without God but poyson thy good parts are thy bane thy money is thy vengeance thy goods are a witnesse against thee without Christ If thou beest not in Christ if not a new creature one day thou shalt curse that ever thou wert born and therefore much more shalt thou curse that ever thou hadst means or maintenance or life or health or any thing the more thou hadst of
these blessings if Christ be not with them as he is not if thou beest not a new creature I say if Christ be not in them the blessings are not themselves they have not the good that is in them without Christ David had a Castle and a Buckler and a Horn but they were not themselves without God Lord thou art my Castle and my Buckler and the Horn of my salvation David had a servant to make his bed in his sicknesse but to let us know that this blessing was not it self without God he puts the phrase upon God who made his bed in his sicknesse no blessing is it self without Christ or without God He hath all the goodnesse that is in it The Heathens have a pretty phrase whereby they set out a happy man Vndecunque Deus When God is every where about him about him in his means and his riches about him in his house and in his goods about him in his friends and acquaintance about him in his pleasure and mirth he is not happy unlesse God be in every thing that is about him they are but the carcasses of good if God be not in them Thus you see we must set our affections on God Here then we are taught That it is the blessing of God that we have affections implanted in our hearts For how could they be set upon God if it were not a blessing that we have them There is a main controversie between the Philosophers the Stoicks and the Peripatetiques concerning the affections the Stoicks do stifly maintain that it is an evil to have any affections at all and therefore Zeno defines the affections to be unnatural stirrings of the heart averse from right reason which is false for this is the definition of affections as they are corrupt and not as they are affections the affections in themselves are not sinful First Because Adam and Eve had affections in innocency If the affections were all sinful in themselves Adam and Eve in their innocency could not have had them for they were created without sin but they were created with affections as love and joy and delight and hope and fear and the like Before Eve ever sinned we see plainly she was afraid to eat of the forbidden fruit indeed when the devil had-ripened his temptation then she went fearlesly on for to eat it but when the devil assaulted her at the first O saies she We may not eat of it lest we die Gen. 3. 3. Lo she was afraid for to eat it at first I confesse before the fall may be they had not all the affections in act because there were no objects for all the affections to work on they had nothing to grieve for nothing to be angry at nothing to despair of but for my part I think they had distinct objects to work on though not in themselves for they had not sinned as yet yet they had distinct objects in the world for all their affections to work on for should they not grieve to see God dishonoured by the fall of the Angels should they not hate and abhor backsliding from God though there were none in themselves neverthelesse the affections of fear and hatred were given them to keep away sin and apostasie from God Now if the affections were in Adam in innocency they could not be sinful in themselves Secondly Because Christ took our affections upon him If the affections were sinful in themselves he could not take our affections upon him for he was made like unto us sin only excepted and therefore if the affections were sins he could not have taken our affections but he did take them as the Gospel doth abundantly shew He had our affection of joy Iesus reioyced in Spirit and said I thank thee O Father c. Luk. 10. 23. He had our affection of sorrow My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death Mat. 26. 38. He had our affection of anger He looked round about on them with anger being grieved at their hardnesse of heart Mar. 3. 5. He had our affection of desire with desire I have desired to eat this Passeover with you before I suffer Luk. 22. 15. And so of the rest If Christ took our affections upon him our affections are not sinful in themselves Nay he did not only as the Son of man take our primitive affections as we are men but he was Ben Enâ—sh he was the son of frail man Psa 8. 5. And he took out miserabiles affectiones our affections of infirmity upon him I do not mean the affections of sinful infirmity for he knew no sin but I mean the affections of our frailty and infirmity as fear and fellow-feeling and the like We have not a High-Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin Heb. 4. 15. This then is an undeniable argument that the affections are not sinful in themselves because Christ did assume them Thirdly Because the Lord doth command us to be angry Be angry and sin not saies he he commands us to grieve and be sorry for our sins Therefore also now saith the Lord turn ye even to me with all your heart and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning Joel 2. 12. He commands us to fear Work out your salvation with fear and trembling passe the time of your sojourning here in fear Be not high-minded but fear I will forewarn you saies Christ whom ye shall fear fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell yea I say unto you fear him Luk. 13. 5. He commands us to be ashamed of our evil doings and is offended if we be not thou hast a whores forehead and refusest to be ashamed Jer. 3. 3. If the affections were sinful in themselves the Lord would not command us to shew our affections on this wise it 's true they are sinfully used and corruptly perverted among men the more is the pity but they are not so in themselves Neither do I deny but there be some natural affections that are naturally now as corrupt nature does stand that be sinful in themselves as envy and malice and the like which never can be regulated nor guided by any moderation but are quite to be rooted out but these affections are not properly natural they are no otherwise natural then lice and vermin are natural to Carrion then filthy and noysome weeds are natural to a cursed ground these must be utterly rooted up and stubb'd out of our hearts because to speak properly they are unnatural affections and sinful in themselves but our natural affections are not sinful in themselves Nay more let me tell you the affections are not only not sinful but it is an infinite blessing of God that God hath given us affections First Because if we had no affections at all we should be like stocks and like senselesse stones The Philosopher was in a doubt
whether Brutus were not a block or a brute because he had no affection at all to his own children whom he could see murthered before him with dry eyes The Lord himself counts that man a very block that hath no affection in his heart Have ye no regard all ye that passe by behold and see if there were any sorrow like my sorrow Lam. 1. 12. q. d. What are ye such blocks and stupid stocks that ye can shew no affections at my sorrow And therefore it 's reckoned among the symptomes of a heart that is desperately hardned not to be affected with any thing to hear the Word and not to be affected therewith to pray unto God and not to be affected with Gods presence to be in affliction and not to be affected with remorse I say this is a symptome of a hard heart And therefore it is a blessing of God that a man hath affections within him Secondly because as Plutarch the very Heathen observes were it not for our affections our nature would be lazy and idle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Like a Pilot at sea without winde alas the ship would goe slowly were there no windes stirring to drive it So the affections saies he are to the soul as the winde to the sails of the ship as the ship could not sail apace without windes so the soul would go slowly about any thing if the affections did not carry it When Davids affections were hampered about with worldly fears fears of his enemies and griefs at his persecutions which he suffered he went slowly on in obedience but as soon as his sails were up then he ran like a ship in the sea with a great winde I will run the way of thy Commandments when thou shalt inlarge my heart Psa 119. 32. As soon as God would help him to spread the sails of his heart and enlarge his affections then he would run like a Fleet pinnace in the Seas I will then run the way of thy Commandments saies he this is an infinite mercy of God who seeing how dull we are unto good how slack to good duties how slow to holy performances vouchsafes us these windes and these sails for to carry us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saies the same Philosopher The affections are like wheels and like Chariots unto reason If a mans reason be never so good he knows he is bound to repent and be godly and obey yet if he have no affections thereto he goes like a chariot without wheels he goes without force he cannot go at all but if he have affections thereto the affections are like wheels and like horses to carry him amain Draw me saies the Christian soul unto Christ draw me and I will run after thee Can. 1. 4. She praies that Christ would draw her by the affections of love for she speaks of love the virgins love thee saies she ver 3. Draw me with thy love too and then I shall run after thee like the Chariots of Aminadab that is drawn by quick Horses she would run as with wheels unto Christ if her affections did once carry her As Cicero saies of the affections of anger it is cos fortitudinis it is the whetstone to valour so I may say of all the affections they are all whetstones to good if a man have any grace Hast thou love It is a whetstone to obedience hast thou grief It is a whetstone to repentance hast thou anger it is a whetstone to zeal c. What is the reason men come so slowly on unto good the reason is this because their affections stand another way Men repent but slowly and amend their lives but slowly encrease in grace but slowly why this is the cause their affections are to the world they run on in their pleasures and their vanities they run on in their earthly employments and businesses why their affections are thereto O beloved it is an infinite mercy of God that we have affections given us of God for these may quicken our dulnesse unto grace Thirdly Because the affections are good channels for grace to run downin Be there never so full a fountain of good water yet if it have not a channel to run all along in the fountain may be ever a bubling but it choaketh it self for want of a channel So though God should put never so much grace into thy heart yet if it should have no channel to run down in it would smother it self Now God hath given thee affections like channels for grace to run down in Art thou covetous and full of desires what a fine channel is that for grace to run down in it is the easier for thee to covet the best things art thou of a cholerick and angry constitution what a fine channel is that for zeal to Gods glory to run down in it is the easier for thee to be zealous in Gods worship art thou melancholy and of a sad disposition what a fine channel is that for repentance to run down in it is the easier for thee to despise the vain pleasures of the world and to sorrow for sin art thou merry and of a cheerful nature what a fine channel is this for delight in the Lord to runne down in it is the easier for thee to joy in the holy Ghost art thou fearful and of a timorous spirit what a fine channel is that for fear of Gods judgements and truth to runne down in it is the easier for thee to tremble before God and fear to offend him Solomon was full of the affections of love it is true he let lust after women and uncleannesse a while run down in that channel but when grace and repentance recovered his soul what an excellent channel was it for love unto Christ to run down in Never was there such a lovesong to Christ as the Canticles since the creation of the world to this day and therefore it is called Canticum Canticorum The Song of Songs Cant. 1. 1. Certainly Ieremy was a man of a sad constitution but see what an advantage this bent of affection was to him it was a channel for spiritual sadnesse to run down in Oh that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears to weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people Jer. 9. 1. The woman in the Gospel which was a sinner a whore in plain terms one bewitched with the affections of love to her lovers as soon as ever any grace did look into her heart see how these affections of love did advantage her She loved our Saviour more affectionately then Saint Peter himself She loved much saies the Text Luk. 7. 47. Before no question but she was full of her whorish and strumpet-like tears now the channel was turned she washt Christs feet with her tears and wipt them with the hair of her head and she loved much saies the Text. It is such an admirable advantage to be full of affections that the
Lacedemonian Schoolmaster thought that if he had a young scholar full of affections full of shamefastness and full of fear and full of cheerfullnesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. He thought it was easie for him to make him ashamed of all filthinesse and delighted in goodnesse and fearful to do evil I am not of his minde but this I am though he hath an exceeding good advantage to do it If a man have spent his affections upon sin and eaten out the heart of his affections upon vanity or if a man have no affections at all as some have but few a man shall as soon work on a beast as such a man Nay if grace should come in into such a man alas he shall never be able to come to much good if best come to the best he shall have infinite adoe to doe any duty without wofull dulnesse and senselessenesse it is an admirable blessing that God gives unto men to give them affections and therefore the Stoicks are infinitely too blame to cry out of the affections as if they were evil in themselves To speak truly and rightly of the Stoicks I do not think the Stoicks were ever so sottish as to mean so but their intent as Austin saies of them was to pare off the affections that are evil and to rule the affections that are natural and therefore it was that they declaim'd so bitterly against the affections You see now by this Text I have chosen that the affections are great gifts of the Lord for how could the Apostle command us to set our affections upon God if the affections were evil in themselves Nay it follows from hence that it is a great blessing of God that we have any affections at all that we may set them upon God The V. Sermon Colos 3. 2. Set your affections on things that are above c. THe Christians of the Primitive Church had learnt this lesson very well to set their affections on Gods Kingdom they were often thinking of it often speaking of it in the companies they came in they would be discoursing of it insomuch that the foolish Heathen hearing them talking so often of a Kingdom took them for affecters of Kingdoms and accused them of aspiring to be Kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saies Iustin Martyr Ye hear saies he that we expect for a Kingdom Ye imagine we look after humane Kingdoms No No saies he we mean the Kingdom with God and with Christ in Heaven above Their affectious were much there Ye have heard beloved the necessity of this duty that we must set our affections upon God and his Kingdom and grace Ye have heard the reasons why we must do so for the use of the point ye have heard a confutation of the Stoicks that teach a vacuity of affections and say the affections are all evil in themselves They cannot be evil in themselves because we must set them upon God were they evil in themselves it were unlawful to set them upon God But it is not only not unlawful but also it is very necessary to set our affections upon God O this is a hard duty to our corrupt flesh and so ye shall finde it to set your affections on God There be many lets that hinder us from so doing First Because it is a very hard thing to turn an antipathy or a sympathy our hearts are so deeply affected with the things of the world as that they have a sympathy with them and an antipathy against a removal therefrom When the affections are deep set with or against they prove to be sympathies and antipathies which are infinitely hard to be changed The Philosophers call them occultae qualitates hidden qualities no reason can be given of them No man can give a reason why the load-stone should be so deeply affected with iron as to draw it unto it It hath a sympathy with it the wilde Bull hath a sympathy with a figge-tree nothing can tame him but it the Elm hath a sympathy with the Vine the Vine hath a sympathy with the Olive No man can give a reason why it should be so So beloved our deep affections are the sympathies of our hearts and therefore seeing they are set to the things of the world they are hardly removed No reason scarce any reason can sever them Demas when he set his love upon the world the text saies he forsook Paul and he embraced this present word Demas hath forsaken me and embraced this present world 2 Tim. 4. 10. We translate it he loved this present world but the word signifies and so other translations render it he embraced this present world that is the affections of his heart had a sympathy with it as the Ivie with the Elm he embraced it S. Paul could not hold him no reason could withhold him he had a sympathy with it Now when the heart hath a sympathy with the things of the world it must needs have an antipathy at grace the proud man hath an antipathy at the parting with that which he prides in the revengeful man hath an antipathy at the putting up of an injury The stubborn man hath an antipathy at a sound reproof he cannot endure to be sharply rebuk't for his sinnes As some men suffer a homely similitude I say have an antipathy with Cheese they will goe out of the room where it is As the mullet hath an antipathy with the Pike the Coleworts have an antipathy with the Vine they will die rather then grow together So men are vext to be curbed of their lusts The affections are the sympathies and the antipathies of the heart and therefore it 's very hard to remove them it will cost thee a mighty deal of labour to pull off thine affections from all the things in the world and to set them upon God Secondly it is a hard thing to work on the heart when the heart is bewitcht The affections are the bewitchings of the heart when the heart hath once set its affections on the things of the World it is even quite bewitched therewith Foolish people talk much of bewitchings Brethren let me tell you here 's a bewitching ye little consider Your affections bewitch you O foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth Gal. 3. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saies S. Chrysostome this is the bewitching of the devil the false Apostles had wrought upon the Galatians affections and drawn them from the truth and now when their affections were set on it the Apostle saies they were bewitcht The affections when once they are up about a thing that is earthly or carnal they are like a company of devils in hell to bewitch one there be abundance of bewitchings in nature The bird Galgalus if she see a man that is sick of the Jaundies the man recovers and she is so bewitched therewith that she dieth If a Toad be seen by the Wesil to gape
the Wesil is so bewitched that she gives up her self to be devoured but of all the bewitchings in the world the bewitching of the affections are the most dangerous Eucilides was in so deep an affection to his own beauty that he was bewitcht with it were not Sampsons affections bewitched with Delilah were not Herods affections bewitcht with Herodias were not Judas his affections bewitcht with the gain of thirty pence that for it he should deny his own Master S. Paul tels the Galatians their affections were bewitcht S. Hierom thinks verily the devil was in them The Drunkard is bewitcht with his cups the Adulterer with his whore the angry man with his choler the vain man with his vanities the carnal man with his flesh that they will damn their own souls rather then be new creatures Beloved are not ye bewitched in your sins when all the preaching and teaching and warning ye have had cannot yet turn you from your sins unto God to set your affections above this is a grievous let that sends millions to hell their affections bewitch them Ye need no Devils to tempt you to sinne if your affections be once set on it they will bewitch you as bad as any devil can bewitch you Nay the devil cannot bewitch you to sin but only by your affections If ever thou save thy soul thou shalt finde it a great task to unbewitch thine affections to set them upon grace Thirdly Another let is that as the affections are the bewitchings of the heart so they are the estimations of the heart If the thing be not good enough to be affected which the affections are set on they esteem it worthy to be affected Quisquis amat ranam ranam putat esse Dianam Many of you know the old Proverb If a man should set his affections on a frog there 's little goodnesse in a Frog why it should be affected but if a man should set his affections on a Frog he would esteem it as comely as another would Diana The affections if they be set upon vanity they do utterly besot one Look upon the Drunkard he thinks it 's a fine life to be potting and piping in the Ale-house which a man in his wits knows to be base and brutish and hellish Look upon the vain Gentleman he thinks it a fine life to be hunting and gamballing and bragging and flanting and challenging and to be sird and to be worshipt at every word Which a wise man knows to be foppish and foolish and devillish The affections blinde the judgement and befool the understanding and make a man to defend himself in a course which in very deed will leade him to hell When the children of Israel had set their affections on their lusts Moses thus speaks to them Do ye thus requite the Lord ye foolish people and unwise Is not he thy Father c. Deut. 32 6. Natural affection would leade a childe to be obedient to his father and seeing their affections were crosse set the Lord cals them a foolish people Their sinful affections did besot them and befool them Samosatenus was so besotted with the love of a certain woman that he forsook his faith and religion for her I reade of a pretty parable to this purpose When Vlysses had left his men with Circe the witch she changed them all into diverse sorts of beasts Dogs Swine Lyons Tygers Vlysses complained she had done him great wrong for changing his men into beasts on that fashion wrong saies she I have not done thee nor them any wrong Doe but ask them now whether they doe not like the condition they are in So Vlysses demanded first of the Hogge whether he would be a man again or not He answered no by no means For now he could fill his belly and lie down on the dunghil and sleep And so he demanded of the rest and they all save only the Elephant they all replyed they had rather be beasts as now they were This parable is made to shew how the carnal affections besot one to esteem the pleasures of sin the gains and profits and beggerly things of the World and prefer them before holinesse and righteousnesse and purenesse and strictnesse of living One his affections besot him in a love-lock or long hair that he cannot be perswaded to shave it off another his affections besot him in a Tobacco-pipe another in a filthy gotten custome another in some other base haunt of the heart all the preaching under Heaven cannot disswade them therefore they do so esteem them and prize them and think they are so pleasing a noble minded Christian would wonder how it is possible they can so Fourthly Another let is that as the affections are the estimations of the heart so they are the most natural temperaments of the heart Spiritual and heavenly affections are the good temper of the heart and carnal or earthly affections are the evil temper of the heart and therefore it 's hard to change ones affections because the heart it self must be taken a peeces as it were if one would alter his affections An earthly heart is not a right soyl for the spiritual plants to grow in Gardners have daily experience what a coil they have to keep an herb from dying in their gardens when the garden is not a right soyl for it they are fain for to dig it and dresse it and water it and tend it yet scarce will it grow there when it is not a right soyl for it Men must get themselves new hearts and new mindes if ever they would have their affections renewed Fashion not your selves to the world saies the Apostle but be ye transformed by the renewing of your minde Rom. 12. 2. Unlesse your minde be renewed ye can never spy a pleasing fashion of the world but O your affections will be to it When David had misplaced his affections on Bathsheba another mans wife and his affections had been mad upon adultery and on murther what does he doe He goes to God in praier for a new heart he could never have new affections else Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me Psa 51. 10. He could not get new affections till he had gotten a new heart This is a miserable impediment that lets multitudes of men and women from setting their affections upon God because their hearts are not a right for such affections as these May be they trim their affections as the very heathens have done with morality as a Barbor trims and shaves a mans head but the hair grows again because the head is the hairs soyl So the carnal affections will grow again spiritual and heavenly affections will not grow there for the heart is not a right soyl and this is a shrewdlet and you must labour continually to remove it And therefore before I help you with means how to set your affections on God let me give you these two grounds First
You must have this same new heart otherwise ye cannot set your affections on God For there is a heart that will set its affections on God and there is a heart that will not The Lord wishes his people to have the former kinde of heart the heart that will set its affections on God O that there were such a heart in them that they would fear me and keep my Commandments alwaies Deut. 5. 29. There is such a heart beloved O that we had it I say there is such a heart that will fear God and set all its affections on God and such a heart ye must get or else it is in vain to command you this duty all the Sermons ye see are in vain that ye have heard to this day all the exhortations and admonitions ye have had since ye were ye see plainly they are in vain to many of you as your affections were earthly twenty years ago so they are still as they were carnal and worldly heretofore so they are still your hearts are the same hearts your hearts are stark naught and therefore your affections cannot sore up unto God Ye can have no quick affections in praier no melting affections at the word The Sabbath comes but your affections are not on it a Sacrament comes but what poor affections you have to it your consciences may witnesse Ye sit in your shops or ye follow your callings or ye go about your earthly employments and your affections are below 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saies Maximus the Sparrows foot is bound with a cord she cannot fly up unto God Your hearts are not spiritual and this is the cause your affections are so carnal Peradventure ye lop off now and then some part of your carnal affections as Tarquinius lopt off the heads of his poppies but ye do not cut up the roots It may be ye go about to heave up your affections in good duties sometimes as the key lifts up the spring in the lock but the key is no sooner turned but down goes the spring so down go your affections presently again And therefore I premise this as a first ground ye can never set your affections on God till ye have gotten new hearts The second ground is this Ye can never set your affections upon God unlesse you feed upon Christ by faith If ever the soul feed upon Christ by faith it cannot but set its affections upon God I remember an invention of Queen Artemesia who when her husband Mausolus was dead not knowing how to keep him fresh in her affections as long as she lived she caused her husband Mausolus his body to be turned into ashes and mingled them in her drink so she buried her husband in her bowels and this way she took to keep her affections fresh unto him This indeed was unnatural in her to eat and drink her own husband but faith teacheth us to feed upon the Lord Iesus Christ this will take off our affections from the world we shall never hunger after the world more nor thirst after the things of this life more if ever we feed upon him I am the bread of life saies Christ he that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that beleeveth on me shall never thirst Joh. 6. 35. If ever we beleeve the sweetnesse of the promises of Christ the pleasantnesse of the commandments of Christ the preciousnesse of the graces of Christ and the love of Christ and the benefit of Christ our affections will be to him Nothing can take off thy affections from the world but faith in Christ He that beleeveth in Christ cannot set his affections upon the world Can a man set his affections upon the world when he verily beleeves it to be drosse and dung in comparison of Christ Can he set his affections upon earthly pleasure that beleeves it is madnesse It is certain men never beleeved in Christ since they were born that set their affections upon the things of the world they have not one dram of Christ Christ is altogether lovely Cant. 5. 16. He is all love one that commands the affections Thou beleevest in the world and not in Christ if thou set thine affections upon any other but Christ Thou beleevest thou canst have pleasure and delight in something beside Christ profits and gains in something beside Christ ease and content and comfort in something beside Christ if thou set thine affections upon any thing beside Christ Alas thou canst never set thine affections upon Christ as long as thou beleevest not only in Christ If thine earthly affections transport thee to be earthly fly under the wing of Christ as Chickens under the wing of the Hen lest the Kite devour them These are the two Grounds that I give you First ye must have new hearts and secondly ye must be beleevers in Christ or else ye cannot set your affections upon God The foundation being layd let me now help you with some means to set your affections on God I could help you to abundance of means but I desire to help you to such means as are easier to use then to set your affections on God For if they be not easier then this duty they cannot properly be said to be helps to this duty The first then is this Often pray to God that he would gather up our affections from the things of the world and unite them unto him Our hearts are divided and scattered up and down among the things of the world Carnal friends have some of your affections our gains and our livings and our maintenance have other-some our pleasures and delights and fleshly refreshments have other-some our earthly businesses and cares and employments our credit and the like these have abundance of our affections Thus our hearts and affections are scattered up and down among the things of the world if ever we would have them set upon God we must be frequent in praier that God would unite together our scattered hearts to set our affections upon God This was the practice of David O Lord saies he unite my heart to fear thy name Psa 86. 11. His heart was scattered up and down in a thousand peeces Some peeces of his affections run after one thing some after another And therefore he praies God to unite his heart together to fear his Name If God would once gather up his heart from all its vain haunts and unite it together then he could set his affections his fear and his love and his delight and the rest upon Gods Name Iejunio passiones corporis oratione pestes sanandae sunt mentis saies Hierom as the affections of the body are to be healed by fasting so the affections of the soul are to be healed by praier as long as they are carnal they are the plague and pestilence of the soul and praier must heal them As Father Latimer said to good Ridley pray pray O pray pray so may I say Pray pray I beseech you
pray unto God evermore again I say pray I have not time to pray so often I do pray in the morning and evening but my businesses are so many c. This may be thou objectest Not time enough sayst thou Finde out some odde times besides morning and evening steal into some corner or other belabour thy heart before God O sayst thou I finde it a hard thing to stir up mine affections I am a very Stoick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have no affection I cannot compel mine affections to God Canst thou not but thou canst compel thy heart for to pray thou canst tug and pull at thy heart in thy praiers and this will fetch up thine affections Praier is not only a mouth to beg Physick but also it is Physick it self whereby Christ cures the affections of the heart The poor beggar the more he is driven to beg the more affectionate he is in describing his miseries you shall see some beggars to set forth their misery and cry so lamentably as it would burst a mans heart with pity and compassion ones bowels would even yearn but to hear them I doe not mean your lazie canting beggars but distressed Lazars indeed So beloved pray if ever thou be used to it it will scrue up thy heart and raise up thine affections exceedingly I doe not mean that lazie-hearted and canting kinde of praying of most wretches that hath no more affection in it then there is savour in the white of an Egge But set thy self to prayer indeed and by it Christ will quicken thine affections Alas thy heart is divided and scattered up and down among the things of the world and therefore strive with God that he would gather up all the peeces into one thou must have all thine affections and all the peeces of thy heart gathered up into one if thou wouldst set them upon God I will give them one heart that they may fear me for ever saies God Ier. 32. 39 your heart and the affections of your heart are divided and scattered up and down into a thousand peeces one upon one thing another upon another and God hath promised that he will gather up your hearts into one and give you this same one heart that ye may fear him and set all your affections upon him will ye misse such a gracious promise as this for want of asking it and begging it and praying for it this is the reason why men have such earthly affections as they have because they are not frequent in praier to God to be helped Prayer is an excellent help to winde up your affections to God This is the first Often prayer to God The second is this Light up a candle in thy heart that it may see what to set thine affections on in God Get knowledge of God Ignoti nulla cupido unknown unaffected thine affections are unruly and thou canst not rule them to Godward yea but thou canst get knowledge Knowledge will help thee exceedingly The affections we see plainly that come nearest to reason are soonest of all ruled And the affections that are remotest from reason are more hard to be ruled A man commonly will sooner rule his affections aright then a woman or a childe because a man hath more reason The Philosophers shew this by the example of a Horse or a Bul. A Horse is sooner tamed then a Fish because a Horse is more capable of knowledge and of reason as natural reason and knowledge can naturally rule the affections so spiritual reason and knowledge can spiritually rule the affections And therefore if thou wouldest rule thine affections aright to set them on God labour to know God every one that loveth God knoweth God 1 Joh. 47. He must must needs know God that loveth God for how can he set his affections of love upon God if he doe not know God knowing therefore the terrour of the Lord we perswade men 2 Cor. 5. 11. S. Paul perswades the affections of the people why because he knew the terrour of the Lord and he was able to make them to know it too and therefore hereby he endeavoured to perswade their affections to fear God and to serve him They that know thy Name will put their trust in thee for thou never forsakest them that seek thee Psal 9. 10. David speaks peremptorily they that know thy Name they will place their hope and their trust and their confidence and all their affections on thee They will so certainly if they know thee if once they know what a good God thou art how true of thy promise how gracious to thy children how sure a friend thou art never forsaking them that seek thee He concludes it positively they that know God will set their affections on God Can a coverous man know a rich purchase and not have an affection to it can a beggar know his alms is a hundred pounds and have no affection to take it as long as the woman of Samaria did not know Christ she stood pratling and wrangling and jeering at Christ she had no affection neither to him nor the water of life that he could give her she had more minde of her well and her water-pot though she were in Christs company yet because she did not know she never askt him a drop of grace nor would she give so much as a draught of her water to Christ But what answer did he make to her If thouknewest saies he who it is that saith to thee give me to drink thou wouldest have asked of him and he would have given thee living water Joh. 4. 10. If thou hadst known who I am thine affections would have been eagerer then they be Beloved ye hear the word and have no affection to tremble at it Ye hear Gods Commandments and have no affection to do them ye live in your sins many of you poor damned souls to this day and ye have no affection to be humbled Alas alas ye are blinde and ye know not But if ye had known what a damnable case ye are in what a word it is ye reject whose Commandments they are which ye break whose bloud it is ye contemn if ye had known God and the truth that is of God ye would have been otherwise affected then ye are Occultae musices nullus respectus saies Suetonius Be the musick never so pleasing yet if it be not known none is affected therewith You 'l say ye do know God what doe and have no more affections to obey the Commandments of God ye lie in fiat terms saies S. Iohn He that saith I know him and keeps not his Commandments is a lyar and there is no truth in him 1 Joh. 2. 4. I confesse thou mayst know many things about God and never have thine affections set upon God to obey him but this knowledge is in a reprobate there 's no truth in this knowledge The truth is not in him saies the Text. Knowledge may be in him but the truth
are offended in Christ their affections are quite against these things They are unwilling to be alwaies a talking of Sermons and of Heaven to be alwaies a wracking their thoughts about their sins and about repentance and faith to be hated of all men to goe through tribulations and persecutions for the Gospels sake to part with their customes and their own natural inclinations and their lusts their affections are against these conditions O it 's wondrous hard to wooe the affections of the heart unto Christ And dost thou think that Christ will marry thee till thine affections come down to his conditions will a man marry a woman whom he sees is contrary-hearted unto him Mulier inquieta tempestas in domo A crosse wife is a tempest and a storm in a house Come then continual to the preaching of the word if ever thou desire to have thine affections wrought on Gods Ministers are Christs paranymphs they preach for this purpose to wooe thine affections to Christ If there be any one Sermon that thou refusest to be at when thou mayst thy conscience tels thee thou mayst be at it and wilt not if there be any one Sermon I say that thou wilt not be at thou rejectest Christs paranymphs Like a crosse mayd that when her suiter comes to her he shall have no speech with her She will not be spoken with O what a provoking is this unto Christ if thou wilt not be spoken with take heed least the Lord Jesus abhorre for to own thee Nay if she be so strange forsooth let her keep her affections for who 's will I scorn to wooe her any more How long hath Christ wooed your affections beloved and yet he 's pleased to wooe you Bring hither your affections that here they may be wrought Frequent the Lords house for here be Christs paranymphs if ever your affections can be gotten here they may be won some time or other Many other means may be used to help you in this task namely to set your affections on God But these may suffice for the present Set your affections on things that are above and not on things that are on the earth The VI. Sermon Colos 3. 2. Set your affections on things that are above c. THe fifth means to set our affections on God is to be sober and temperate in all things For if we be not our affections cannot stedfastly settle upon God And this is the reason why the Apostle joyns sobriety with praier Prayer is a duty that requires most freedom of affections for God and if it be not backt with sobriety will soon be affectionless and deadish Be ye sober and watch unto prayer 1 Pet. 4. 7. Titus must exhort young men to be sober minded Tit. 2. 6. Young mens affections ye know are more unruly then others and therefore they had need of sobriety otherwise their affections will be grievously exorbitant If thou take any recreation take it very soberly one little game at bowls one hours play at a shovel-board or at Chesse or the like if thou dost not take heed it is strange how it will dull thine affections to good duties if thou follow thy businesse in the world follow it soberly be not over-eager upon it lest it blunt thine affections to Godward If thou eat and if thou drink if thou sleep or if thou talk whatever thou dost be sure to do it soberly Beware of the least excesse lest thine affections be suddenly tickled therewith If thou let thine affections ramble upon too much in this kinde they will quickly be mad Either to make thee drunken with the cares of this life Luk. 21. 34. Or to be quite drunken with pride Isa 28. 1. Drunken with pleasure drunken with fury and so forth All drunkennesse is not drunkennesse with drink saith S. Hierom. Amore odio mens inebriatur saith he A mans soul may be drunken with a passion drunken with love and drunken with hatred and drunken with any other affection Thus civil men and sober men as we call them though they will never be drunk with wine or with beer yet they are drunkards in this sense they are drunk with affections to other things in this life A man may be drunken with sorrow saies the Prophet Thou shalt be filled with drunkennesse and with sorrow Ezek. 23. 33. That is thou shalt be filled with sorrow till thou art drunk with it again So a man may be drunken with fear drink and be drunken spue and fall and rise no more because of the sword which I will send among you Jer. 25. 27. That is ye shall be drunken and reel too and fro with fear A man may be drunken with delights and with pleasures and drunken with security they are drunken but not with wine for the Lord hath powred out upon them the spirit of a deep sleep Isa 29. 9 10. That is ye are so secure and so fast asleep in your lusts as if ye were dead drunk with security Thus all the affections may be drunk with the things of this life And therefore if ever we would have our affections to be right let us be sober in all the things of the world Ye desire food and rayment there bound thine affections with sobriety and be content Ye love the world for the use that ye have of it there limit your affections with sobriety and use it as if ye used it not Buy as if ye bought not go to the Markets and your Fairs as if ye went not Sow and reap and gather in as if ye did it not And ye will needs be merry and harmlesly jest now and then O be marvellously sparing and sober Eating must be and drinking must be and sleeping must be and providing for your selves and your family must be if ever ye love your own souls and salvation be sparing and sober in these things lest supersfluity of affections step in in a moment the devil is alwaies a catching for his opportunities to deceive you he is ever as a roaring Lion seeking by all means to devour you Be sober then and vigilant for your adversary the devil walketh about seeking whom he may devour 1 Pet. 5. 8. When a man is to fight with a stout enemy will he go and make himself drunk that his enemy may set upon him drunk Ye had need to be sober if it be to fight with the devil if ever ye be never so little overtaken never so little giddy then is the devil most busie Temperance and sobriety hath a very good name in the Greek tongue the Spirit of God cals it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the keeper of the minde safe or the keeper of a man in his wits Do so otherwise thou shalt never be able to set thine affections on God This is an admirable means to keep our affections in tune to be sober in all things to be sober-thoughted and sober-hearted and sober-minded and sober-mouthed and sober-meated
bottom God will shame thee Though the Apple look never so well yet if it be not sound at the core at last it will be manifest Though the Egge look never so lovely yet if it be addle within at last it shall appear God will unmask thee one day and make it appear thine affections were never right at the bottom This David used as a means to provoke him to get a sound heart at the bottom Let my heart be sound in thy statutes that I be not ashamed Psal 119 80. The affection of shame a man would be loth to be put to and he knew he should be put to it one time or other if he were not sound at the bottom And therefore he labours with God that his heart might be sound in his statutes he was not content to have good affections that way but he labours to have sound and solid affections that might be sound at the bottom That I be not ashamed sayes he What a shame will it be to see thee a damned Goat at Christs left hand that now art esteemed a good Christian If thou beest not right at the bottom so it will be Give me leave to tell you one thing that occurred in an experience of mine own I was once a saying to a Gentleman who was exceedingly affected at the Word and professed great love to my Ministry and that he would defend it and make much of the Word O said I there be many that yet seem very forward to approve of the Word and to defend it c. that when the Word comes to meet with their bosome sins and gives them no rest in their consciences I fear me will set against Minister and Word and all ere it be long O no God forbid sayes he I were unworthy to live if I should do so Well well said I I pray God it may not be so as I say but mark it and peradventure you shall see it with your eyes Within one fortnight this Gentleman that seemed to be such a friend at my first coming to the Parish being met with in a Sermon and feeling his sin a sin I little imagined he was guilty of to be reproved and condemned in the Pulpit he never would be known to me more but opposed me as long as I stayed there he was affected but his affections were not sound at the bottom and therefore he came to this shame God grant it have humbled him by this time if now he be alive It is a good rule in morality Affectus mendaciter se subjiciunt rationi The affections will fain a submission to right reason It is true in Divinity the affections will seem to submit unto grace when they do not For as long as the bottom is not sound they cannot be set truly upon God they are nothing but flashes like plushes of water after a showr that are dried up quickly This is the eighth means to set our affections on God to get up the bottom of our affections and set them on God Beloved these are the means whereby ye may set your affections on God now see how nearly it concerns you to use all these means and to make conscience of this duty and this will appear if ye consider these two things First The affections are the bonds of the soul that is wicked whereby it is fast bound unto sin thou canst never repent nor be saved as long as thine affections are not turned Can a prisoner go that is fast bound in the stocks Thine earthly and carnal affections fast binde thee in sinne if these bonds be not broken thou canst never go to God When Peter saw a carnal affection in Simon Magus the Sorcerer presently he tels him I perceive thou art in the gall of bitternesse and in the bond of iniquity Act. 8. 23. He does not say only in iniquity but also in the bond of iniquity for his carnal affection was a bond and he was fast bound in his sins The Prophet preaches hell and damnation against such men and such women for alas how can they get out when they are bound and corded to their pleasures and the things of the world Wo unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity and sin as it were with a cart-rope Isa 2. 18. Great carts are drawn by the cart-ropes so all a mans sins are drawn to him by these cords Chrysostome expounds these words both of their sinnes and their woes they draw both them The cords of our affections are the hearts tyers to sin they do even tye the soul unto sin that it cannot get loose Wo is to them sayes the Lord. Be the affections all like unto bonds and cords and cart-ropes to tye the heart to sin What a woful case are ye in till your affections are set right look what ye tie them unto that do ye draw after you if you fasten them on the things of this life them ye draw after you if ye fasten them on Grace and on Christ and his Word them ye pull after you Never was Sampson so fast bound with Delilahs wit hs as he was with his affections to Delilah sayes Gregory Ah poor slavish soul thou art in the Devils stocks as long as thine affections are not fastened aright thou art heart-bound and soul-bound and conscience-bound thou art fast bound in his cage How neerly then concerneth it you all to get your affections to be set upon Ye are even the slaves and bond-slaves of hell and therefore as ever ye desire to flie from the vengeance to come use all these means with all conscience that ye may set your affections on God Secondly Earthly affections are the fore-stallings of the heart the heart is prepossest already with the things of this life and is prejudicate against the things that are above and therefore there is no hope to perswade you as long as your affections are set upon the things of this life When our Saviour Christ perceived how the Pharisees affections hawkt after credit and honour from men being prepossest with desire of humane applause he tels them plainly they could never beleeve nor seek the honour of God Ye cannot beleeve sayes he how can ye beleeve which receive honour one of another and seek not the honour that cometh from God only Ioh. 5. 44. It is a grievous thing to be prejudicate and prepossest with another good beside God It is a miserable task to be to reason with a prejudicate man he will not yield no by no means will he yield when once he is prejudicate As long as our affections are set on the world our hearts are prejudicate and therefore go we about the means prescribed whereby our affections may be set at rights never till then can we hope to convert you or to work any good on your souls The VII Sermon Colos 3. 2. Set your affections on things that are above c. ARe the affections the motions of the heart
and must we set them on God this may teach us one lesson by the way we that are Gods Ministers must take notice from hence how to qualifie our preaching namely to stir up the affections of mens hearts Every man sayes Rodolphus Agricola that hath any learning at all is able to teach but concutere affectibus audientem to shake mens affections and turn mens hearts he is an extraordinary man that can doe this after this manner was the preaching of our Saviour he did so move the affections of his hearers that the Text sayes they were astonished at his doctrine Mat. 7. 28. Why so the Exangelist makes answer in the next verse for he taught them as one having authority and not as the Scribes that is non ita frigidus ut Pharisaei he was not such a frigid and cold Teacher as the Pharisees and Scribes were the people sate like immoveable stocks in their seats when the Scribes were a teaching they were not moved a jot but our Saviour was a powerful Teacher he taught them as one having authority and not as the Scribes his Sermons were moving and forceable Iohn the Baptist wrought strongly on the affections of his Auditors they could not possibly hold but cryed outrâ—ght as they heard him The people askt him What shall we do the Publicans cryed out Master what shall we do the Souldiers also whose affections are as hard to be moved as any yet they cried out too and what shall we do Luk. 3. 14. This use is plainly grounded on my Text. Gods Ministers ye know are Gods Instruments to bring men to faith and repentance and reconcile them to God and therefore if this be your duty to set your affections on God we must labour to work on your affections to provoke you to doe it The reasons of it are these First Because the Word is full of affections full of affections of love to wooe a man to God full of affections of pity to yern upon men in their misery full of affections of terrour to terrifie the wicked and therefore that Minister that preaches not affectionately preaches but one half of the Word he preaches but the dead corps of the Truth as I may call it he does not preach the life and the soul of the truth The affections of a speech are the soul of a speech both make up the whole of the Word Is not my Word like unto fire and like a hammer that breaketh the rocks in peeces Ier. 23. 29. If the Word be a fire he that delivers it coldly delivers the Word otherwise then it is Would you not say that a man were ridiculous who when his neighbours house is on fire should go and coldly advise the Parish in this manner O my dear neighbours you should do well to look to your houses lest fire fall upon them as now of late I understood it hath done I pray let me perswade you to provide water otherwise all your goods and mine too will be consumed to ashes it is true that this man sayes but would not men deem him a fool the truth is the truth of affection and he leaves out the affection of the truth Nature hath taught us another course in such a case He would run crying into the street fire fire help help for the Lords sake water water in all haste alas alas we are undone quickly speedily run for ladders pull down this rafter here cut down that beam there untile the house what mean you stir hands arms legs hie thee for water run thee for iron crooks crows hooks buckets haste haste we are all undone Here now is the affection of the truth the like must a Minister do who knowing his people wallow in sin in the state of hell and damnation as many as go on in their courses he ought not with filed phrases and mellow-mouthed words nor with cold exhortations admonish his hearers but he must put in the affection of the Word in his Sermons he must cry fire fire the fire of hell is among you the fire is kindled sin is entred into the soul O the water of tears tears repentance repentance help your selves for Gods sake the devil stands ready to devour you death watches unawares to strike you hell-mouth gapeth to swallow you look about you stirre your selves and consider or ye perish in a moment Leave off your ryots down with your pleasures away with your vanities put on Christ quickly work out your salvation with fear and trembling See ye not men die daily before you on a sudden falling to hell haste haste flatter not your souls time is uncertain the danger is too certain the punishment eternal damnation is intolerable Thus must a Minister preach this truth It is a truth full of affection the affection must be delivered as well as the body of the truth All the imaginations of the thoughts of mans heart are only evil c. Gen 6. 5. As this is a truth so there is a great deal of affection in this truth the affection of loathing Do we think when the Lord said it he said it coldly and nakedly all the imaginations c. No he said it with a great deal of affection of loathing c. O Jerusalem Jerusalem c. O that thou hadst known c. As this is a truth so there is a great deal of affection in this truth affection of pity There is a great deal of affection in every threatning a great deal of affection in every command a great deal of affection in every promise in every truth Christ does not bid us preach the letters and syllables and propositions of his Word but his Word Now my Word is like fire sayes God fire is the stirringest element of all elements and therefore if there be any feeling at all in you the Word is able to stir you even as if ye had a fire in your bowels Beloved either we that are Gods Ministers are unskilful to handle the Word or else ye are senselesse and stupid if ye do not sit upon hot coals for to hear it it will make the drunkards heart ake to hear what this Word sayes to him it will make the worldlings heart ake and the secure Christians heart ake The Word is fire Did not our hearts burn within us while he opened to us the Scriptures Luk. 24. 32. The Word did so inflame their affections that their hearts burned to hear it Does not the godly heart burn to hear the sweetnesse of Gods promises and burn when the Scriptures are opened to direct thee And so on the other side does not the Usurers heart burn when the Scriptures are opened that rip up his sins Does not the carnal professors heart burn now and then as he sits when the Scriptures are opened to shew him his rottennesse there be such scorching texts in the Word texts of death texts of judgement texts of hell and damnation they may well make a wicked heart
burn for to hear them and therefore the Word being so full of affection a Minister that preaches it must needs be an affectionate preacher if he be a true preacher otherwise he doth not preach the whole Word Secondly As the Word is full of affection it self so it looks that a man should be full of affection that obeys it God loves no other obedience but obedience with affection he loves a cheerful giver 2 Cor. 9. 7. So God loves a cheerful obeyer a cheerful repenter a cheerful beleever whatever we do in his service he loves we should do it with affection Should a Minister preach without any affection happily he may reason men out of many of their sins and prevail with them to take up the duties of religion but all would be formality without any affection It is a good saying of Austin the godly must have affections in obedience otherwise they are not obedient There be two things in every Commandment of God First The duty commanded to be done Fear God and keep his Commandments This is the whole duty Eccles 12. 13. That is there is never a duty that a man hath commanded him but it is within the compass of the Commandments of God So that in every Commandment there is a duty Secondly The strength of affection wherein the Commander commands it and therefore the Commander commands it and therefore the Commandment is called Gods will Teach me to do thy will O God Psa 143. 10. It is called Gods pleasure Blesse the Lord ye Ministers of his that do his pleasure Psa 103. 21. It is called Gods desire Thou desiredst truth in the inward parts Ps 51. 6. Because the strength of Gods will and desire and pleasure and affection lies in it These two things being in every Commandment of God it follows of necessity that a man must have his affections in obedience otherwise he is not obedient As God doth not only command me but also with affection he commands me so I must not only do the thing he commands but with all affection I must do it or else I never obey him Virtuti immitte furorem sayes Homer Adde affections to thy vertue Vertue is no vertue without the affections prayer is no prayer without thine affections be in it repentance is no repentance without thine affections be in it Whatsoever duty thou dost if thou dost it not with all thine affections it is abomination to God and therefore the Minister that preaches must stir up affections if he do not stir up affections the religion he begets in the hearts of his hearers is likely to be little better then wretched formality Thirdly As the Word is full of affection it self and requires affection in them that obey it so men are very dull in affection to embrace it they are dull of hearing Heb. 5. 11. They have dull ears and dull hearts and dull affections tell them they shall perish because they doe not repent they will be damned because they will not obey they shall be saved that will they are like Gallio they care for none of these things and therefore now we that are Ministers must strive to make them â—are whether they will or no. Cry aloud sayes God spare not lift up thy voice like a Trumpet shew my people their transgressions Isa 58. 1. Do not only say a Sermon to them but cry it nor only so but cry aloud they are deaf spare not thou wilt never stir them if thou sparest Spare not spare neither rich nor poor neither great nor small lift up thy voice like a Trumpet that is preach so that if it be possible thou mayst move their affections It is a similitude taken from the Trumpet in battel though the Souldier be faint-hearted it will stir him up with affection to fight Great Alexander was so stirred up at the trumpetting of one Antigenida an admirable trumpetter that all his couragious affections were up and his fingers did itch to be fighting So lift up thy voice like a Trumpet stirre them up if by any means thou canst O they are very dull and senselesse and hard to be affected and therefore we must study how to work on their affections If ye ask me how must the Minister stir up affections I answer First Negatively not with the enticing words of mans wisedom 1 Cor. 2. 4. Some men indeed out of these words do gather that S. Paul condemned all eloquence and affectionate preaching But this cannot be that he should condemn that which he most shewed himself most of all the Apostles of Christ He was such an eloquent golden mouthed man that the Lycaonians thought he had been another Mercury he was such a sweet speaker Act. 14. 12. He was such an affectionate Orator that he made Agrippa's bowels even earn to be a Christian and Felix to tremble S. Austin conceived him to be gifted with such an admirable power this way of Almighty God that it was one of his three wishes if he might have it for wishing namely to hear S. Paul to preach in a Pulpit and therefore he does not condemn all affectionate and eloquent preaching but he condemns that flattering kinde of affected Rhetorick whereby men that preached themselves tickled mens ears and delighted them with luscious phrases of Oratory handling such points as might please the phantasies of their hearts rather then to convince them of their sins thinking it too precise too base to preach of mens damnable estate and condition in sin the curse of the Law that all men are under till they be new creatures in Christ the taking up of Christs Crosse to be hated and mocked and persecuted of all men for Christs sake and his Gospel These points they either thought to be too rustick and burly and austere or they sugred them over with their comments and tickled the people with more velvet-like passages of mercy I say this kinde of eloquence and this kinde of preaching with the enticing words of mans wisedom does the Apostle condemn and therefore I doe not mean this How then must a Minister stirre up affections I answer he must stir up affections five waies First By preaching to the life As a Painter then paints a man well when he paints him to the life he paints it so to the life as if it were a living man indeed So then does a Preacher preach affectionately when he preaches to the life when he preaches of hell he preaches to the life as if hell were before mens eyes when he preaches of heaven as if the people did see it with their eyes as it were As King Iames said of a good preacher in this Kingdom this Preacher saies he preaches as if death were at my back so a good Preacher preaches to the wicked as if vengeance were at their backs as if hell were at their backs he preaches to the godly as if Christ were at their backs and heaven at their backs If this kinde of
this now Gods hand is lifted up and he cals to you and ye will not hear he shews you your sins and ye will not see you shall see sayes he and be ashamed and the fire of hell shall devour you Take heed ye see not too late O that ye had known at least in this thy day before they be hid from thine eyes God will hide his grace from thine eyes and his spirit from thy heart if nothing can move thee I pray God affect our hearts with these things that we who are your Ministers may be more touched our selves This is the second means whereby we might move you if we were affected our selves Thirdly By being godly our selves As we must be affected our selves so if ever we mean to stir up affections in the heart we must be godly our selves Aristotle requires this in an Orator that he be a good man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the good manners and the life of the speaker have the greatest power to perswade the affections Hence is that usual saying of the vulgar He that preaches well and lives ill puls that down with one hand which he built with the other Nay commonly a man loaths a good saying out of a foul mouth Let a drunken Minister exhort to sobriety for the most part the people do loath it Let an adulterous or covetous Minister exhort to be godly and religious for the most part they abhorre it Let a loose Minister preach of strictnesse of life and conversation and zeal and purity Solomon sayes it is like a lame mans legs when one is shorter then the other Prov. 26. 7. that is an ill sight A wicked Minister can never stir up the affections of the people aright Gregory Nazianzen would have a Minister 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Either not preach at all or preach by a good and godly life Otherwise the people will have little affection to hear him nay which is lamentable it is usual in the world not only to set their affections against a wicked Ministers preaching but also to loath the very ordinance it self when Eli his sons were wicked and sons of Belial the Text sayes the people loathed Gods offerings The sinne of the young men was very great before the Lord for men abhorred the offering of the Lord 1 Sam. 2. 17. At the best the people though never so greedy otherwise for to hear yet if the Minister do not as he saies they have smal affection to hear him Christ knew this by his Disciples who were willing to hear him whensoever he preached but he knew they had little affection to hear a Sermon of the Pharisees who said and did not And therefore he was fain to command them not to be offended at that but to hear them It was not then in vain that the Apostle exhorts Titus to look to his own life In all things shew thy self a pattern sayes he a patern of good works For if the Minister that preaches be not a good pattern to his people his Sermons will not be so able to stir up affections in their hearts Pasce verbo pasce exemplo sayes Gregory we must feed them by doctrine and feed by our example this is the way to stir up affections in our hearers It is true the people ought to be stirred up by the Word in whose mouth soever it be and it is their fault that they be not but yet it will never be so the Ministers contrary life in any particular as it is cursed of God so likewise it is a scandalous thing unto others and an infinite occasion of offence and takes off the edge of the Word Yea commonly it does more hurt then all the preaching can do good For thus men will argue If it be necessary to live as he sayes then why does not he live so himself He hath more learning then I and the like nay they call the Word into question and hoodwink their souls with presumptuous pretences Thus millions of souls are gone to hell with their Minister for company Malus Minister est nisus Diaboli It is a true saying of a Father An evil Minister is the devils Gos-Hawk or Sparrow-Hawk He goes a birding for hell But why speak I of these things among you whom it concerneth not Yea it concerns you much every way For as it is a curse to a Parish that a Minister is wicked so is the Parish tied as ever they love their own souls to pray unto God that he would sanctifie their Minister more and more that the Word may runne and be glorified for the life of the Minister hath a great hand in moving the affections The holiest Ministers move most Fourthly By the due carriage of their voices when the Minister is affected himself I do not say it is alwaies so for some have not the same command of themselves through accidental reasons but commonly when the Minister is affected himself the inward affections of his own breast dispose the voice into some gracious manner of expressing the same As Paul that was full of grief and sorrow for the peoples sinnes he for the most part preached with a weeping voice Many walk sayes he of whom I have told you often and now again tell I you even weeping they are enemies of the Crosse of Christ whose end is destruction c. Phil. 3. 18 19. and truly if we consider the iniquities of the times and the sinnes of most men how lamentable their conditions be no other affection better suits then this Loquere flebiliter sayes Bucolcerus to a preather speak mournfully and sorrowfully the very voice it self will somewhat mollifie the affections of the people Certainly it is an ordinance of God and very moving to speak according to the point in hand To speak compassionately in points of pity to speak rejoycingly in points of comfort to speak most terribly in points of terror As Cato advised that souldiers should terrifie their enemies with terrible voices Neither is it amiss that when the Minister threatens the judgements of God against rebellious sinners he should compose his voice accordingly I know not what hidden occult influence the voice hath into the affections saith S. Augustine but a great influence it hath When a Minister goes dreamingly on the people sit carelesly and regard it not and let him say never so good matter they heed it not let him threaten or comfort or command or reprove they respect all alike for they see no difference in the Minister I know the people should not do thus but such is the corruption of men thus they will doe now God hath given many of his messengers more wakening voices as petty instruments to provoke mens affections somewhat the more And truly we are bound to make conscience thereof that our very voice may be a comment upon our matter 't was a pretty story of Demosthenes when one told him that he was beaten and misused exceedingly by such
are come to be carnal affections they are ripened And therefore the Apostle does usually call the carnal affections by the name of lusts The Gentiles walked in lusts excesse of wine revellings c. 1 Pet. 4. 3. that is they walked in their carnal affections because the lusts are then strengthned when they come to be affections Now beloved consider what a hideous condition it is to set our affections on the earth it strengthens our lusts We give a knife to a cut-throat to stab us cherish a company of vipers in our bosome to poyson us We encourage fierce enemies to battel against our souls So S. Peter can tell us Dearly beloved I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstain from filthy lusts which warre against the soul 1 Pet. 2. 11. they warre against the soul they are the devils Infantry yea Chivalry too they are his Souldiers to murder the soul with spiritual death and eternal damnation If ever thou lovedst thine own soul thou wouldest kill sinne in the cradle supplant it and take it by the heel as Iacob did Esau in the womb thou wilt never overcome it else Deny it the first entrance as the Angel shut the door upon the Sodomites cast out the bond-woman with her brat too as Sarah did Hagar and her little one as Gregory speaks Thou wilt never be able to subdue it otherwise Thou wouldest crucifie thy lusts and mark the first risings thereof thus thou wouldst do if thou hadst a care of thy soul But wilt thou let thy lusts grow and get armour to kill thee wilt thou let them gather strength and ripenesse to damn thee there is not a lust of them but it comes like an armed man to fight against thy soul now if thou set thine affections too on the things of this life thou dost strengthen it and weapon it yet more What a wretched misery is this thy lusts war against thy soul to undo it and yet thou dost strengthen them yea thou dost encrease them helpest their forces O fools when will ye understand do we not see how we are overpowred by our lusts do they not every day conquer us in the open field There is not a prayer we make but deadnesse of heart gets the day like a Conquerour Not a duty we perform but lukewarmnesse proves victor Nay our lusts do not only overcome us but they leade us in triumph Some of our lusts carry us up and down from gaming to fretting from fretting to revenging from revenging to swearing from swearing to lying from one sinne to another as they list And our lusts are so strong that war against our souls that we are not ashamed to lay down our bucklers and say we cannot resist I was angry alas it is my nature and I cannot master it I rap out an oath now and then alas I was provoked and I cannot help it I must say and doe as such an one would have me he is my friend I cannot deny him Thus our lusts have given us mortal wounds and have murdered our souls and all this is because our affections are earthly for they encrease all our lusts and make them more able to vanquish us Thirdly If thine affections be carnal so be thy purposes Men purpose according as they affect He that affects such a good bargain will purpose to make it He that affects pleasure will purpose to take it He that affects any thing will purpose to have it First men conceive a thing to be good then they affect it and then they spend thoughts of it and then they purpose to have it if they can Barnabas exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord Act. 11. 23. He joyns these two together their purpose and their affection to God because they could never cleave unto the Lord but it must needs be with the purposes of the heart Well now consider what enemies we are unto God what enemies too to our own souls that set our affections here below we can never have reall purposes to amend or turn unto God We may purpose and purpose a thousand times over but still we are broken off from our purposes they all come to nothing as long as we affect the things of this life Can the fire have a purpose to freeze can the stinking dunghil have a purpose to smell well can a Swine have a purpose not to wallow in the mire No how can this be when they are affected with contrary qualities there is no counsel in such purposes as these Without counsel purposes are disappointed Pro. 15. 22. If thou dost purpose to do this or that and not consult whether thou be able to doe it yea or no no wonder though thou beest disappointed of thy purpose Thou art carnal and hast a purpose to be spiritual thou art full of earthly desires and hast a purpose to hunger after Christ Thou art a company-keeper a worldly and a proud fool thou hast a purpose to be otherwise Alas such purposes as these will surely be disappointed because they are purposes without counsel thou shouldst first take counsel how to crucifie thy affections if thus thou wouldst do thy purposes would stand What an egregious sin is this then to set thine affections on things that are carnal thou art vain and hast no purpose to be otherwise thou secure and hast no purpose to shake off securiry no purpose to give over thy carnal appetites and thy customes and the lusts that thy conscience does know of thy own conscience can point thee out many lusts that thou livest in and thou hast no purpose to leave them O how does this provoke the Lord Jesus to wrath Which of us does thus purpose in his heart I absosutely purpose henceforth to use all the means under Heaven for the saving my soul I have gull'd it to this day now I purpose to do so no more now I will every day examine my conscience every day keep company with the godly I will never sort with my old company more I have used my body like an Idol now I purpose to mortifie it c. Alas our affections will not let us It is certain thou never hast a good purpose to God for thy soul as long as thine affections are earthly All thy purposes are instar paleae sayes a Divine they last for an hour or a day or a health like the chaffe which the winde drives away Fourthly Because if thine affections be carnal so are thy devices and contrivings When a man sets his affections on any thing as he spends many thoughts thereupon and purposes to have it if he can so he deviseth with himself whereby to attain it Davids enemies whose affections were set against him they devised how they might crosse him All that hate me against me do they devise my hurt Ps 41. 7. What a company of devices hath the glutton to satisfie his palate the revengeful person to satisfie his
which he is zealous upon He that is zealous for the world he trusts to the world otherwise he would not be zealous for it He trusts to have pleasures and he trusts to have goods and he trusts to be esteemed that is zealous about them What do you trust to bear all before you as we use to say when we see a man hot and zealous upon any thing the soul would not be zealous but that it verily trusts to prevail Thus shall â—ine anger be accomplished and they shall know that I the Lord have spoken it in my zeal Ezek 5. 13. God was confident of the fullfilling of his wrath why because he had spoken in his zeal Indeed God may well be so were he neverso little angry but the words do expresse the nature of zeal It 's the full trust of the soul to speed A wise man will not be hot upon any thing unlesse he trust to go through stitch If zeal then be the full trust of the soul what a mad man art thou not to be zealous for God Thou trustest to the world and trustest thy pleasures and trustest thy passions thou dost not trust God If thou trustedst the Lord God thou wouldest be zealous for God Alas alas thou canst not trust God thou never labourest to please him He that depends on a man and must be for to trust him for help and assistance he will not offend him Alas what trust can he have to him if he offend him continually when the Sydonians and the Tyrians had offended K. Herod their countrey being nourished by the Kings countrey Act. 12. 20. they laboured to please him again So if thou wouldest trust Almighty God thou wouldst labour to please him and to be zealous for his Name and not make him thine enemy by thy sinnes and iniquities Thou which blasphemest his Name with thine oaths and abusest his creatures with thine intemperance and prophanest his Ordinances with thy carelessenesse and neglect and displeasest him all the year long Alas how canst thou trust him thou makest him thine enemy canst thou trust one that he 'l befriend thee that vows he will hang thee canst thou trust he 'l help thee at all hands that is provok't to undoe thee thou art a damned man if God do not pardon thee Thou art a wofull wretch better thou hadst never been born if God give thee not grace And canst thou trust God he will be good to thee what and displease him day by day offend him every foot No no thou mayst trust him he will confound thee Thou which art a lyar thou mayst trust him what he sayes in the Apocalyps All lyars shall be cast into the lake of brimstone Thou which art a swearer mayst trust him he 'l never hold thee guiltlesse Thou which art a drunkard and a company-keeper and a whore-monger mayst trust him thou shalt never inherit the Kingdom of Heaven thou which talkestidlely and improfitably mayst trust him he 'l call thee to an account at the day of judgement Thou which hardenest thy neck against the reproofs of the word mayst trust him he 'l destroy them without remedy this he hath past his word he will do and herein thou mayst trust him thou canst never trust him for mercy or grace or any good thing thou displeasest him daily and makest him thine enemy And how canst thou trust him what thinkest thou does not he know how little thou carest for his Commandments how little thou respectest his Ordinances how basely thou usest him in thy waies indeed if thou wert zealous for his glory and zealous to please him in holinesse of life and zealous to obey him and seek him then thou mightest trust him Thou canst never trust him otherwise By this time thou mayst see what a woful condition thou art in if the zeal of thine affections be not set upon God But many poor souls may demand how then shall I know whether the zeal of mine affections be set upon God I answer thee There are seven signs whereby thou mayst know it The first If thine affections be notable to God-ward a man may have a little hope and a little grief and a little joy and a little pity and no body see it But if it be zealous it will quickly be notable every one when once it is zealous every one will note it When Epaphras was zealous to save souls in Colosse what sayes Saint Paul of him I bear him record he hath a great zeal for you sayes he Colos 4. 13. Paul could not but note it in him he saw so many strong expressions of it This holinesse and forwardnesse is very remarkable But if on the contrary there be no notable expressions of grace in you alas there may be some goodnesse some pity some grief some motions but this is no zeal it is not remarkable If a man be zealous for the world his scraping and sparing is notable his toyling and studying and talking that way is very notable I will bear him record he is a worldling the world is so much in his speeches the world is so much in his courses and so much in his face Look upon his wayes he is so combred with thoughts of the world Look into his family there be so few good duties of grace and so many tokens of the world Look upon his meetings his discourses of edifying are so scarce and of the world are so copious I will bear him in record he is a worldling Were we zealous for God there would be divers signs and expressions of our zeal unto God Saint Paul when he would make it plain to the Corinthians that he was an Apostle to them he tels them truly the signs of an Apostle were wrought among you 2 Cor. 12. 12. If we were zealous for God ye might answer Truly the signs of true zelots are wrought among us ye that professe Christ what signs of true zelots are there in you if your brethren be secure and grown-dull do ye labour to quicken them If the Gospel do not thrive do ye labour to further it if grace be little stirring in the Parish does Heaven ring with your groans and your prayers if zeal were existent among you it would be notable and remarkable among you we might say I bear you record it is so nay the wicked without would observe it we bear them record they keep a great stir about heaven our lives would convince them May be they would hate us and reproach us the more but this is certain our lives would convince them as Christ's did the Centurion doubtlesse this is a righteous man Luk. 23. 47. So your lives would convince all their consciences doubtlesse they are strict men doubtlesse they are humble and meek and religious Thus it would be were we zealous But if our religion be not notable hardly notable to our selves we can hardly tell whether we have true faith and repentance and zeal at all yea or no much
that he was glad for to hear it would God that all the Lords people were Prophets Num. 11. 29. I confesse a good man may be discontented hereby at the first flesh and blood was stirring in good Ioshua himself at that time Moses forbid them sayes he But a godly soul will check himself and pull down his spirit and force his heart to be glad and rejoyce in the goodnesse of others though it be a seeming disparagement to him A good Minister rejoyceth to hear of another Ministers gifts that out-strips him A good man rejoyces to see others that are better and better beloved then himself though younger and inferiour and meaner otherwise But if thou dost not joy to see men zealous for God it is certain thou art a wretch may be thou thinkest much thine eye is evil because they are so good and so godly and the like this is an argument of a gracelesse heart may be thou art apt to judge hardly of such and such because they are holier and preciser then thy self O but if thou wert zealous thou wouldest rejoyce for to see it Hast thou a better gift then another thou art bound to help him hath he a better gift then thou he is bound to be helpfull to thee It is a good saying of Austin Tolle invidiam tuum est quod habeo tollam invidiam meum est quod habes Take away envy and look wherein I excell thee is thine I will take away envy and then look wherein thou excellest me is mine If thou be zealous thou wilt rejoyce howsoever Be he a childe thou wilt rejoyce that he is better gifted then thy self nay for that may a carnal heart do and be proud he may rejoyce that his childe is better-memoried better-witted better-gifted then himself O thinks he this is my childe this is my sonne this is my daughter never a father or mother hereabouts can say they have such a childe This is nothing but pride But be it a servant yea be it a stranger be it one whom thou countest thine enemy thou wilt rejoyce in his gifts so God may be glorified no matter though I be disgraced yea I count it my honour that my shame in the world may be the stirrup for Gods honour to get up thus thou wilt reason if thou hast a spirit of true zeal It is greatly to be bewailed how many symptomes of Atheism are amongst us in this regard For men are so far from rejoycing in the forwardnesse of others that they grumble and they thunder at nothing so much as that any should be forward and zealous for God they had rather have an hundred boon-companions then one zealous man rather be acquainted with twenty that are carnal then one that is holy in his wayes I thank God sayes one we have never a Puritan in our Parish I am glad we can say we have none of these singular fellows in our town sayes another I speak not of such as the Law doth count Puritans enemies to the State and the Church it is a blessing indeed there be none such but of the godly that are called Puritans by the impure tongues of the wicked the State hath no better friends under heaven the Kingdom no better Subjects in the world then are they for these are they that pray away Gods judgements from the Land that are earnest with the Lord in prayer for the King and Councell and the Church while the men of the world by their drunkennesse and whoredomes and coveteousnes and security and contempt of Gods Word are pulling down vengeance on the Nation and provoke God for to plague us But these are they that most people have little joy in O my brethren where we have ten or twenty such Puritans in our Parish I would to God we had an hundred I tell you the day will come that the worst drunkard in the Town would give a world if he had it he were such a Puritan In this sense the very Heathen man sayes that every good man is a Puritan Integer vitae scelerisque purus An entire man of life and a pure man pure from the sins that others do live in Had ye any zeal towards God ye would be glad that all the Countrey were such Puritans The sixth sign of zeal towards God is zeal to Gods Church and his people Paul before his conversion you may know his zeal was not right because his zeal was against the Church Concerning zeal sayes he I persecuted the Church Phil. 3. 6. His zeal was against the Church and therefore not right but after his conversion he had a zealous care of all the Church his zeal was then to the Church If the Church were not well O how it troubled him If the Church were well O how it comforted him If the Church were any where persecuted or infected with errour and doctrine of devils then he was frequent in prayer for it often would he labour and sigh and mourn for it and be writing for the good of it Now the Saints and the people of God these are the Church Unto the Churches of Galatia Gal. 1. 2. that is unto Gods people in Galatia To feed the Church of God Act. 20. 28. that is the people of God Greet the Church that is in their house Rom. 16. 5. that is the Saints that are in their house In all Churches of the Saints 1 Cor. 14. 33. these are the Church of God Now if thou be zealous for God thou wilt be zealous for Gods Church Examine thy self Dost thou mourn for the troubles and disquietments of Gods Church that the Church is so afflicted in all parts of the world Does it prick thee to the soul Dost thou go to God and put him in remembrance Remember the Children of Edom O Lord how they said down with it down with it even to the ground remember Lord the Tobiahs and Sanballats of these times remember Lord how they cry down with thy people down with them root them out c. This is an infallible sign to try thy heart by If thou be zealous for God thou wilt zealously affect the Church of God Nehemiah cannot smother his grief but it would shew it self in his face even at the Kings elbow when Ierusalem lay waste Vriah cannot finde in his heart to eat and drink freely or take the pleasure of his own house as long as the Ark of God and Israel and Iudah abode in tents Thou must needs be affected with the Church if thou beest zealous for God If thou beest zealous for God thou must needs love there where God loves God loves the very gates of Sion he loves his Church better then he loves all the world besides And so wilt thou if thou beest zealous for him The Church is the whole company of his Saints upon earth One Saint is dearer then a million of other men It is a good saying of Syracides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eccl. 16.
3. One just man is better then a thousand others Though he be a beggar in the world he is better then a thousand wicked though they be all Lords and Nobles Because he is one of Christs redeemed and so thou wilt love him and affect him Thou wilt love him if thou beest zealous to Godwards I say thou wilt love a childe of God albeit in a leathern-coat more then father and mother wife and children friend or patron so they be not Saints I mean with more spirituall love then thou lovest them all And therefore much more the Churches of the Saints The seventh is If thou beest zealous for God then thou wilt be most zealous when the Lord threatens to be going away If ever men will buy any thing at the Fair they 'l buy when they are all breaking up standings taking up their wares and packing away If ever they 'l be forward to buy then they will God is now perchance shutting up shop-doors is now packing up his commodities and his graces to be gone The doors of his Sanctuary have been open a long time and the Shop-windows of Heaven have stood broad ope this many a year And we see plainly the dead of the market is come no body buyes almost How long hath he preached and scarse any converted How many Sermons and Market-daies have we had we can hardly see one drunkard converted one adulterer converted one worldling converted one unprofitable professour converted O that we could see it but alas we cannot our commodities stick upon our hands we can have no vent for grace nor Gospel nor Christ nor mercy nor any thing The dead the dead of the market beloved the market is dead God is now shutting up to be gone and as we may justly fear to remove away his Candlestick to take away the power of his Ordinances and to withdraw his Spirit from striving any more with us our stubbornnesse is so great We are grown to despise his reproofs to be incorrigible under his word to be malicious against his rebukes what encouragement hath he to stay Now if ever ye will be zealous now ye will now ye will come in and be wrought on or never now your proud hearts will stoop or never Now ye'l cry hard and pray hard and beg hard or never 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It 's grievous to come a day after the Fair as we say I mean now is the last pinch in all probability it is so either now let us look to it or never It will be grievous to come a day after grace No man can repent without grace of God and therefore if he come a day after grace he cannot repent vid. Eze. 24. 13. The XII Sermon Col. 3. 2. Set your affections on things that are above c. IT may be demanded what means may we use to make us to be zealous I answer briefly First Frequent meditation Meditate of the infinite misery thou art in by nature and by reason of sinne and this will make thee zealously humbled Meditate of thy grievous iniquities whereby thou hast dishonoured God meditate of the unutterable mercy of God that hath not consumed thee meditate of the admirable patience of God that hath spared thee thus long and not damned thee in hell meditate of the inconceivable goodnes of God in Christ that he should give up his own Sonne unto death rather then that thou shouldest perish for ever these truths are all fiery truths While David was meditating I cannot tell now what truths they were that he meditated of but it seems they were all fiery truths they set his soul all afire as he mused and meditated My heart was hot within me and while I was musing the fire kindled Psa 39. 3. The very sight of a fire will warm a man a little Let thy heart look upon God and his waies let his commandments be ever in sight they will heat thee whensoever thou prayest meditate with thy self if I pray lukewarmly God will spue me out of his mouth Whensoever thou hearest the Word meditate with thy self I must take heed how I hear otherwise my hearing is abominable Whensoever the Sabbath is coming meditate with thy self O I must call it my delight and spend it in Gods worship publike and private or else God will consume thee While I was musing the fire kindled saith the Psalmist what 's the reason thou art so lukewarm in good duties as thou art the reason is plain thou usest not to meditate thou canst be content to hear the Word at a Sermon and let the Minister warm thee for an hour thou canst talk of the Word but when thou art alone thou dost not meditate of the Word if thou wouldest put the Law of God in thy thoughts and meditate of it when thou art solitary it is a fiery law From his right hand went a fiery Law Deut. 33. 2. Gods law is a fiery Law and his Gospell too is a fiery Gospel were it often in thy thoughts it would heat thee Know it for a certain we can never have a jot of saving grace or of zeal if we be not frequent in this duty thou makest a Christ of the world if that can have more room in thy thoughts then Gods word thou canst never be zealous nor gracious at all if thou beest not used to meditation thou art carnal and earthly why because thy thoughts are of that sort the thoughts are incentiva vitiorum sayes Hierom they are the incentives and igniâ—les and the bellows to kindle sin in thy heart whereas were they heavenly they would kindle zeal in thy soul The second means is a constant practise of godlinesse Motus est causa caloris saies the Philosopher Motion is the cause of heat Be ever in action if thou wouldest be zealous be alwaies stirring in the works of religion and godlinesse you shall see men labour and toil naked in their shirts in frost and cold and be hot for all that Labour stirs up the spirits and heateth the bloud labour will not suffer a man to be cold if Peter had been rowing in his boat when he stood still in the High-Priests Hall by the chimney-corner he had had little need of that fire to have heated him and therefore if thou desirest to be zealous labour in reading of the Scriptures labour in hearing and applying the Word to thy heart labour in examining thy conscience and repenting of thy sins and labour in praying and calling upon God this will kindle the heat of zeal in thee Ask and ye shall receive that your ioy may be full Joh. 16. 24. mark that your joy may be full your comfort may be full your love may be full and your hope may be full that is that it may be zealous for zeal is the fulnesse of every affections in its kinde O sayes one I am so dull and so dead I pray indeed but my prayers are dead and I hear
the gallows Set thine affections then upon God and upon Christ when he appears he will help thee to a kingdom of glory Christ is the King of glory Who is the King of glory it is the Lord of hosts he is the King of glory set thine affections on him then The vulgar have a pretty saying He that is in favour with the King is half a King What may not such an one doe what may not such an one have if he be in favour with a King potens potentum amicitia Potent is the favour that a man hath with him that is potent And therefore set thine affections upon Christ let thine affections be in favour with Christ what is that then thou canst not have thine affections are potent if they be in favour with him all power is given to me in heaven and earth sayes Christ Mat. 28. 18. Christ is very potent if thine affections be not set on him he is potent enough to damn thee if they be he is potent to save thee and when he appears then shalt thou appear with him in glory Fifthly The Apostle here perswades by a strong illation or inference Mortifie therefore sayes he mortifie your earthly members inordinate affection c. vers 5. mark he cals the affection when it is not set aright upon God he cals it inordinate affection if thine affections run more after the things of this life then after Christ and his Word and his Commandments and his Ordinances thine affections are disorderly they are all out of order Order is to be observed in all things and wilt thou suffer disorder break in upon thy soul disorder turns all topsie turvie disorder will undoe a whole Kingdom if a Kingdom be out of order it must needs go to wrack If a family be out of order it must needs be brought to nought nothing can stand without order no art can consist without order and certainly thy soul cunnot stand without order if thine affections be out of order thy soul is in civill wars and cannot stand but must perish Now if thine affections be not set upon God they are all out of order What 's the reason that men are so forgetfull of their souls if their bellies do hunger they remember to fill them if their backs be naked they remember to cloath them if their markets be not made they remember to dispatch them but their souls may perish and be damned they do not remember them What 's the reason of this their affections are out of order Ordo est mater memoriae Order is the mother of memory a man can never remember his businesses if all be out of order Saint Paul rejoyced to behold their order in Colosse Col. 2. 5. he was glad to see that all their affairs were in order why then he hop't all would go well with them David prays God to order his steps Order my steps in thy Word and let not any iniquity have dominion over me Psa 119. 133. He knew that his lusts would be like masterlesse hounds he should have no hoe with them if his soul were out of order Order my steps in thy word sayes he and let not any iniquity have dominion over me If thine affections be out of order alas every lust will domineer every corruption will be like a masterlesse hound as we say Iob saith that death is out of order Iob 10. 22. And Aquinas and other Divines thence do observe that hell is out of order and wilt thou suffer a disorder to come among thine affections alas they will be so busie about the things of this life that thou shalt finde no while for better employments no while for repentance and amendment no while for bethinking thy self of thy waies to provide for thy soul Disordered persons are busie-bodies saies the Text. We hear there be some among you that walk disorderly among you and are busie-bodies 2 Th. 3. 11. If thine affections be disorderly they will be so busie that thou shalt never finde leasure to trafick for Heaven or the salvation of thy soul Beloved this must needs then be a strong perswasion to set your affections above because otherwise thine affections are all out of order Thus far the Apostle here helps us with motives expressed in the context That which the Apostle begins let the theme of my Text go further in the same Many and sweet motives there are that we may be stirred up to this duty by to set our affections on God The first motive is taken from the easinesse that our affectiput us in to prosecute any thing we affect if our affections be set on a thing they make it easie to prosecute if thou affect the things of the world thine affections make it easie to labour and to toyl easie to rise early easie to sit up late easie to travell and go through any other difficulty the covetous man thinks his labour to be easie so he may gain and get profit the voluptuous man thinks it easie to hunt and to hawk and ride himself out of breath so he may have pleasure and delight Take thine ease sayes the rich man in the Gospel take thine ease eat drink and be merry Luk. 12. 19. He thought it easie to pull down and to build up easie to gather in his harvests and his wealth easie to be an Epicure and a drunkard and voluptuous why because his affections were set hereupon is it so that thine affections are able to make any businesse easie O set thine affections upon God repentance will be easie mortification will be easie and self-denial will be easie and to suffer all the reproaches of Christ will be easie if once thine affections were setled that way knowledge is easie to him that understandeth Prov. 14 6. The scorner seeks it sayes Solomon and he cannot finde it the worldling seeks it and he cannot finde it it is hard sayes one to know how to pray and be holy it is hard sayes another to know how to repent and give over my sinnes and be strict and I cannot do it No that is because thine affections are bent another way but if thine affections were set upon Heaven this knowledge were easie Come unto me ye that labour sayes the world I will make it easie to travell and cark and care come unto me sayes pleasure I will make it easie to be merry and to laugh come unto me sayes the flesh I will make it easie to be revenged on him that does wrong thee I will make it easie to obtain this and that So sayes the Lord Jesus Come unto me ye that labour and I will give you rest my yoke is easie Mat. 11. 30. Whatever thou affectest come to it and thou shalt finde it to be easie A man would wonder how the labouring man will sweat and work till he is faint to get a little maintenance the reason is this he affects it One would wonder what dangers Alexander did run through
hankring Who would be thus troubled with his affections he cannot go by an Alehouse but his affections water to go in he cannot see a pair of Tables but his affections hanker after a game he cannot meet with an injury but his affections itch to revenge he cannot speak well nor do any thing which is commendable but his affections must be swelling with pride Who I say would be thus troubled with his affections Though God had forbid Lots wife to look back upon pain of his heavy displeasure neverthelesse her affections did so hanker after her house and her countrey and her ancient acquaintance that she looked behinde her Gen. 19. 26. Her carnall affections did so haunt her every step she took that they never lind till that she lookt back They are greedy dogs they look to their own way Isa 56. 11. Thine affections if they be not set right they are like greedy dogs in the Kitchin that are ever looking to the platters be the Mistresse eye never so little off they are licking instantly So thine affections are ever hankering after that which thou affectest and therefore thou art best to set thine affections on God for look where they are set there they will be hankering If ever thy heart be turned to God and thine affections converted to him they will ever be hankring and looking after God At that day shall a man look to his maker and his eyes shall have respect to the holy one of Israel Isa 17. 7. At that day that is when God shall convert them then their hearts shall ever be hankring and looking after God O then set thine affections on God if thou desirest thy heart should hanker after God Thou art yet no better then a wretch till thus it be with thee If thine affections be ever hankering after thy pleasures and thy copesmates and thy vanities thou art never well but when thou art at them The Sermon is quickly tedious and prayer tedious and godly discourses are tedious unto thee why because thy minde hankers about othergates matters as long as it is thus thou canst not be saved Look unto me sayes Christ and be ye saved all the ends of the earth Isa 45. 22. Ye can never be saved unlesse ye hanker and look after me sayes the Lord as the Heliotrope or the turn-sol that ever looks towards the Sun so a gracious heart does after the Lord. God counts it an honour unto him that the soul should be ever a hankering and ever a looking after him Aestimari nos put amus toties quoties aspici sayes Seneca it is a true saying we think we are esteemed when men do look after us So God counts it an honour to his Majesty when our souls do hanker and look after him It is true the things of this life may chance to draw away our mindes now and then and make us look after them but if we have any grace so much as a grain of mustard-seed our souls will ever be hankering and looking after God So it was with Ionas though his corruptions had made him to look off from God neverthelesse he could not abide to be in that case his heart is again looking and hankering after God oh for the light of his countenance oh for his grace and his Spirit oh for power and strength yet to be resolute for God Yet will I look again towards thy holy Temple Ionah 2. 4. Let God afflict me I cannot but look to him let God fling me into the Whales belly I cannot but hanker after him let him cast me into the belly of hell yet will I look again sayes he his affections were set upon God and therefore did his heart ever hanker and look after God This is a sweet motive to perswade us if we would once set our affections on God our souls would ever hanker and look after God The fourth motive is taken from the spurrings of the affections they spur a man to that he affects they are animi calcaria as Melancthon does call them they are as it were the spurs of the soul What is the reason that men go on in any businesse like lazie jaded Asses sayes Vives because they have no affection to it What is the reason they go so sluggishly on to good duties they sit so senselesly still in seats at a Sermon they kneel so lumpishly and dead-heartedly in prayer to God because they have no spurs in their sides they have no affection to these things Now if we would set our affections on God we would feel in our bosomes a certain spur that spurs us to every good word and work a gracious heart is said to stir up it self Exod. 36. 2. God counts those prayers no prayers that are not full of these spurrings and stirrings there is none that calleth upon thy name that stirreth up himself to take hold on thee Isa 64. 7. Dost thou call upon God and hast thou no spurrings nor stirrings in the duty dost thou not spur up thy self to pray with good life the Lord sayes thou dost not call upon his name at all As ever thou desirest to be stirred up and spurred on to good exercises set thine affections on God they are the spurs of the soul the soul goes cheerfully on when it goes with affection The fifth motive is taken from the heartinesse of the affections and therefore the heart is many times and often in Scripture put for the affections My heart sayes Deborah is towards the Governours of Israel Iud. 5 9 that is mine affection is towards them O ye Corinthians our mouth is open unto you our heart is enlarged 2 Cor. 6. 11. that is our affections are enlarged Look whatever thou affectest thy heart is set upon it this motive is strong to perswade for if the affections be in a manner the very heart of the soul this may well move us to set our affections upon God wilt thou settle thy heart any where else but only upon God O how hainously does the Lord take it at thy hands that thou hast no more heart unto him He gives thee his Word and thou hast no heart to it he gives thee his Sabbath and thou hast no heart to it he gives thee his Sacrament and his Ordinances and his Sanctuary and his Commandments and thou hast no heart to them O the Lord is so angry with thy soul that he cals thee a fool and a sot and he repents that ever he hath vouchsafed these things to such wretches as thou art Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisedom seeing he hath no heart to it Prov. 17. 16. Wherefore sayes God and to what end is a price put into your hand to get wisedom Ye might have gotten wisedom a long time or ere now how to be new creatures and in Christ how to get grace and peace and mercy with God ye have had abundance of prices put into your hands a price
of abundance of Sacraments and Sabbaths a price of abundance of Sermons and exhortations many mercies and favours many threatnings and warnings health strength life liberty ye have had a fair time to get grace and holinesse in Jesus Christ prices have been put into your hands but ye have had no heart nor affection to them The Lord is exceedingly wroth with you he casts the fool in your face and repents that ever he hath lent you these things wherefore is a price put into the hand of a fool seeing he hath no heart to it no heart nor affection to make use of it Wherefore sayes he to what end wherefore is a price put into a fools hand that sees not the worth of it better he had been sent to hell quick and never heard Sermon better he had been damned many years since and never had the means What will ye be drunkards in spite of preaching and adulterers and fornicators in spite of Gods threats mockers and despisers of them that are good lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God in spight of the Lord Jesus O this does wofully provoke God that ye should have no more heart nor affection to these things then ye have Set your affections then upon God if ever ye will be wise to escape the vengeance to come your affections are your heart be not so rebellious as to deny your heart unto God The sixth motive is taken from the softnes of the affections the affections are the softnes of the heart Affectus sunt foemineus animae partus sayes the Philosopher they are the feminine and softly brood of the heart They heart is a soft heart where thine affections do stand if thine affections be set upon the things of this life thy heart is a soft heart thereunto thy heart is sensible of every profit sensible of every vain pleasure the things of this life can easily sink down into thy heart if thine affections be to them O let thine affections then be set upon God what wilt thou have a soft heart to the world the things of the world may easily work on it and wilt thou have a hard heart to God that he may not work on it Hardnesse of heart is an argument that a man is damnably and desperately impudent and will neither obey God not his Ministers So God tels Ezechiel the house of Israel will not hearken to thee sayes he for they will not hearken unto me for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted Ezek. 3. 7. When their hearts were once hardned they were so impudent that they would not hearken and obey the Ministers of God nor God himself This is a lamentable condition then thou art in if thine affections be earthly and carnal the heart is quite hardned to Godward Now then my brethren we see here the reason why ye can refuse to obey and be divorced from your sins we see the reason why ye neither yeeld to God nor his Ministers this is the reason sayes God ye are impudent and your hearts are desperately hardned And this is the brand the holy Ghost sets upon you when your hearts are thus hardned he cals you plainly wicked men and wicked women A wicked man hardneth his face Prov. 21. 29. Is it not a pitifull thing that a man should go to hell and have no remedy to deliver him to be damned and have no remedy in the world to escape it in such a case is thy soul whose heart is thus hardned He that being often reproved hardneth his heart shall be destroyed without remedy Prov. 29. 1. Hast thou not been often reproved I know thy conscience can tell thee thou hast been often reproved hast thou not hardned thy heart I know thy conscience can witnesse that thou wouldest not leave off thy courses but hast hardned thy heart to this day thou knowest I say true well then reade what a piteous condition thou art come to there is no remedy for thee to avoid the damnation of hell thou shalt be destroied without remedy sayes God I confesse there is a remedy but he shall be destroyed without it The remedy that God uses to deliver men from hell is to reprove them for their sins but thou puttest off reproofs the preaching of the Word but thou dost disobey it the bloud of the Lord Jesus but thou dost defile it and wilt not lay down thy corruption for it there is a remedy but thou wilt not use it no thy heart is hardned and thou shalt be destroyed without remedy assure thy self of it for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it I speak to you who speak evill of the good way and call it all to nought your hearts are all hardned on this manner when divers were hardned sayes the Text and spake evill of that way Act. 19. 9. They that speak evill of the waies of God are all hardned O sayst thou I do but speak against Puritans and Hypocrites God forbid I should speak evil of the waies of the Lord God forbid yea God forbid indeed but does not thy conscience witnesse thou speakest evill of the waies of the Lord Thou knowest the Lord commands exhorting and reptoving one another and thou speakest evill of it what hath he to do to reprove me sayst thou Thou knowest God hath commanded us to walk strictly and precisely and purely and thou speakest evill of it what must we be so pure sorsooth and so precise and so strict Thou speakest evill of the way of the Lord and the Lord sayes thou art the man that art hardned I speak to you that break the limits of God God hath commanded you a great while ago to repent and beleeve and cast away the evill of your doings Many daies are past since ye were called hereto yesterday and to day thou art called and thou amendest not thou art the man that is hardned Again he limits a certain day after so long a time as it is said to day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts Heb. 4. 7. thou hast broken this limit and thou art not converted to this day thou art the man that is hardned I speak to you who refuse to amend your lives ye do not only not amend but also ye refuse to amend ye are the men that are hardned they have made their faces harder then a rock they have refused to return Ier. 5. 3. When men refuse to return they have hardned their hearts like a rock and more too sayes the Text. Ye have refused and it is not unknown to your consciences that ye refuse therefore ye are the men that are hardned ye are the men that shall be destroyed without remedy I pray God help you with a remedy and awaken your souls that ye may be hardned no longer for if ye be ye shall be destroyed without remedy I beseech you consider your poor souls and understand if perhaps ye may finde mercy Schola cuj â—sque ordinis homines
admittit sayes Quintilian the school admits all sorts of scholars So I may say of you the School of Christ admits all sorts of sinners among you There is never a wretch among you all but if now ye will be content to go to Christs school ye shall be admitted to learn The Lord give you hearts so to do O then set your affections on God the affections are the softnesse of the heart and this is the way for to soften them The XIIII Sermon Col. 3. 2. Set your affections on things that are above c. A Beginning hath been made to perswade you with motives that ye would set your affections on God Five motives have been noted that our Apostle handles in this Chapter and six motives that the theme it self does afford you Give me now leave to go on in the same point and to help you with more For if this point be not copious with motives no point can be copious All perswasion is by moving the affections whatever the theme be now when the affections themselves be the theme the matter of necessity must be copious and abundant other motives remain to set your affections above The first is taken from the everlastingnesse of the affections Our affections are everlasting in our soul especially some of them and those that are not when the soul is in hell the very want of them are a little hell to the soul for there shall be no joy no delight no hope no comfort no love and as the Stomack when it wanteth its meat it devoureth it self so these affections when the matter is wanting they shall eat up and devour up the soul There 's no matter in hell to joy at no matter in hell to delight in no comfortable matter to hope for no amiable thing for to love and this shall vex the soul with weeping and gnashing of teeth neverthelesse many of the affections whether a man go to heaven or to hell are everlasting affections joy and delight and love and all the liking affections shall be everlasting in heaven fear and horrour and hatred and grief and despair and shame shall be everlasting in hell there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth sayes the Text he does not say there shall be love or joy c. Now are the affections everlasting in the soul know this nothing but God can hold the soul tack as we say everlastingly It 's true we may affect meat for a while and raiment for a while and maintenance for a while and houses and wives and husbands and recreations for a while till we die but when death comes death takes off these objects for ever If thine affections were mainly set upon these things when these are all gone alas where art thou then thou art at a losse for ever and ever As Zophar sayes of the wicked though he had the world at will while he was living yet sayes he he shall perish for ever like his own dung they which have seen him shall say where is he Job 20. 7. Before he was at his pleasures and his profits and his businesses in the world there he was where his affections did run but now when his pleasures are all gone his house and his lands and his markets are all gone alas where is he He is now at a losse Zophar knew well enough where he is when he dies he is in hell to be damned and tomented for ever but he expresses it thus to shew that now he is at a losse Set thine affections then upon grace and upon the fear of the Lord for though thou diest this cannot die with thee It was a good answer of Stilpon when he lost his countrey and his children and his wife and his house and Demetrius said to him How now Stilpon where art thou now art thou not at a losse now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at a losse sayes he No no I have vertue still and righteousnesse still so if thou shouldest lose means and maintenance friends stays hopes health and all thou couldest not be at a losse were thine affections set upon Christ thou wouldest have thy faith still thy comfort still thy peace of conscience still assurance of heaven still Thine affections are everlasting and therefore set thine affections upon such things as are everlasting otherwise thou shalt be at a losse one day for ever and ever The second motive is taken from the infinitenesse of the affections the affections are infinite and therefore nothing in this whole world is able to satisfie them He that loveth silver shall never be satisfied with silver nor he that loveth abundance with encrease Eccles 5. 10 give him tens he would be glad with twenties give him them he could afford to have hundreds give him them he could desire thousands when he hath thousands he is never the nearer nothing satisfies him Give Alexander a world he desires another Take me a silly man give him a Curateship he desires a Vicaridge give him that he desires a Parsonage give him that he desires two Benefices give him that he desires a Prebendary an Archdeaconry and then a Bishoprick and if he were Pope of Rome he were not satisfied Take a voluptuous man give him pleasure to day he desires more to morrow from Cards to the Tables from them to Bowls from them to huntings and hawkings and so on he is never satisfied till he dies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayes Eustratius the affections are infinite even as the fire all the forrests and all the woods and all the fewell under heaven can never satisfie the fire give it faggots it could burn logs give it logs it could burn whole trees give it trees it could burn whole houses give it them it could burn the inhabitants Nay Solo compares the affections to the fire of hell aud the mouth of the grave that can never be satisfied Hell and destruction are never full so the eyes of man are never satisfied Pro 27. 20. The eye is never satisfied with seeing the ear is never satisfied with hearing still it desires further what news Pro. 30. 15. he compares them to the Horseleech give give sayes the Horseleech it 's ever sucking more and more and more it 's ever desiring the affections are infinite there 's nothing in this world can ever satisfie them did ever any meals meat so satisfie the stomack that it should never hunger more did ever suit of apparrell so satisfie the back that it should never wish to be cloathed more did ever Rent so sarisfie the Landlord that he should never desire another day to receive more The affections are infinite nothing in the world can ever satisfie them What good reason then is there to set thine affections upon God God is infinite and he can satisfie them He filleth the hungry with good things Luk. 1. 53. If the affections hunger after God he will fill them
and satisfie them If thine affections be set upon God thou shalt have all satisfaction Hath a neighbour wronged thee thou needest not seek after revenge Christ will make thee satisfaction Hast thou had losses in thy estate and disgraces in thy name or troubles in thy minde thou needest not disquiet thy self Christ will make thee satisfaction He that complains is not content as we say thou needest not complain saying O I have but a poor house to dwell in poor diet to feed on poor apparel to put on poor friends to rely on if thine affections be set upon God look what they want Christ will make it up he will satisfie thee My people shall be satisfied with goodnesse saith the Lord. Ier. 31. 14. thou openest thy hand and satisfiest the desire of every living thing Psal 145. 16. Oye poor souls that have gone on in your drinkings and carowsings and are never satisfied that have followed your pleasures and your vanities and to this hour ye are not satisfied what mean you to lose your selves in the things of this life what mean you to befool your own souls as ye do Hear what the Lord Jesus sayes to you Ho every one that thirsteth come to the waters and he that hath no money come ye buy and eat yea come buy wine and milk without money and withâ—ut price wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread and your labour for that which satisfieth not Hearken diligently to me sayes he and eat ye that which is good and let your soul delight it self in fatnesse Isa 55. 1 2. Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters What when ye are athirst will ye go to broken cisterns they cannot hold water to satisfie you here be waters indeed that Christs does afford you when ye have money in your purse to buy food will ye buy that which is not bread stones in stead of bread will ye spend your strength and your health and your wits and your pains and your souls too upon the things of this life alas they can never satisfie you If the fountains should run wine the people would not be content as the Proverb is Nemo suâ sorte contentus est sayes the Heathen Had ye all the beer in the barrels all the bread at the Bakers all the corn upon the ground all the wealth and riches and honour in the earth they can never satisfie you your souls shall die beggars for all these and go to hell notwithstanding all these alas ye buy them all at a dear rate do ye not know what they cost Ahab they cost him himself he sold himself for them Come ye hither sayes Christ set your affections here here is mercy for nothing and grace for nothing and goodnesse for nothing and the holy Spirit for nothing can ye desire it at an easier price though ye have not one single groat of any worth not only single farthing or a brasse token of any righteousnesse of your own yet come hither sayes Christ ye may make as good a market as the best Come and buy without money here ye shall have enough for to satisfie you Benè est cui Deus obtulit sayes Boethius it is happy for you can ye but see your own happinesse that God gives you such an offer as this Here ye may have the pardon of your sinnes will that satisfie you here ye may have deliverance from hell and condemnation will that satisfie you here ye may have grace against your sinnes and power to subdue them here ye may have the love of God and the favour of Christ and the communion of the Spirit will that satisfie you I will promise you here is enough to satisfie you be ye never so unsatisfiable Here ye may have every manner of thing that is good comfort against all troubles sure promises against all doubtings strength against all weaknesses stayes and props under all sicknesses assurance of Heaven and a Kingdom as soon as ever ye die we will warrant you ye shall be satisfied here Old Simeon as soon as ever he had Christ in his arms Lord let me now die sayes he q. d. Lord now I have enough I care for no more in the whole world now Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace I am well satisfied now I have Christ O then set your affections upon God and his Christ and this will then satisfie you your affections are infinite and nothing can give them satisfaction but God that is infinite The third motive is taken from the cloyednesse of the affections as the affections are infinite and can never be satisfied with the things of this life so they are soon cloyed with any of these things sometimes affecting sometimes disaffecting Nothing can give a mans affections full content but only their God If thou dost not set thine affections upon God thine affections can never have content the things of this life were never made for our affections to be set on if thine affections were made to be set upon the things of this life they could never be cloyed with them Is the fire ever cloyed with burning Is a stone ever cloyed with lying on the ground Is the Sun ever cloyed with shining no it is made for this end thou wert never made to eat and to drink for thy stomack will be cloyed with meat and cloyed with drinks the sweetest meats under heaven if ye burden your stomack therewith they will cloy it thou wert never made to hunt and to bowl to dice and to card because thou mayst be cloied with pleasure thine affections are subject to a cloy if they be set upon the things of this life they are monsters and devils incarnate that are never weary with swearing and lying and playing and company-keeping I say these men are all monsters for if a man be a man and he be not a monster he will be cloyed and wearied with his waies They are bad enough that the Prophet does speak of I am sure they were cursed wretches yet they were not such-damned wretches as never to be weary with their sins they have wearied themselves to commit iniquity Ier. 9. 5. They were weary with sinning and cloyed with their waies and yet they would on on they went but it seems they were not quite monsters to go on and never be wearied there is nothing in this life thou canst set thine affections upon but it will weary and cloy thine affections and therefore without doubt they are not the true objects of thine affections What base Proverbs have the wicked when they come from their sports sometimes ye shal hear them say I am as weary as a dog when the drunkard hath barreld himself with his liquor he is as sick as a dog otherwhiles as we say such filthy-mouthed speeches we have which shew they are cloyed now and then with these things as the Poet sayes of the Horse and the Oxe Optat
insomuch that they groaned under it and cryed out unto God Pharaoh played the Tyger-like Tyrant over them and made them weary of their lives so do the affections tyrannize over a man that is carnall and earthly they do so besot him and befool him that he knows not how to come out of his sins they do so harden him and obdurate him that no preaching nor counsell can convert him they do so occupie and task him and busie him that he can finde no while to save his own soul or bethink himself of escaping of hell and damnation he is in hell before ever he thinks on it seriously they plague him like Tantalus sayes he and leave his soul in the lurch after all his vain hopes he can never be free for God The Apostle speaking of the lust and affections of the world how they allure men into vanity he sayes they promise men liberty but they are the servants and slaves of corruption 2 Pet. 2. 19. A man would wonder how one should be in bondage with a pot or a pipe with a bowl or a game with a carnall friend or an use he hath gotten but so it is that nor Minister nor Sermon nor warnings from God nor any thing can free him still he is enthralled Now consider are our affections such tyrants when they be set upon the things of this life O let us set them upon God If they can captivate us to God and bring us into a golden bondage with grace and with goodnesse we are happy Seest thou how the wicked are tyed to their sins and their lusts so if thine affections were set upon God thou wouldest be tyed unto God O it 's an admirable tye this to be tyed unto God This is it that the wisest man in the earth adviseth us to My son sayes he keep thy fathers commandments binde them continually upon thy heart and tye them about thy neck Pro. 6. 21. Thine affections are these stay-bands and these typers if thine affections be set upon the Word they will tye it to thy soul if they be set upon grace and love to Gods Ordinances his Sabbaths and his waies they will tye them to thy heart if thou wilt not set thine affections upon God thou art a very slave a very slave unto Satan and to sinne thou art not only in a wofull condition as thou art but they tye thee fast to it and if God may not be so much beholden to thee for thine affections to him-ward he will intrap thee and take thee by them as a Bare is taken by a Collar and hale thee to judgement Thou hast little affection or none at all to the Word may be thou comest not to be reproved and amended by the Word but thou comest to have some knowledge and some pretty sentence to talk on or some fine story or passage to speak on As I live saith the Lord I will answer thee according to thy thoughts may be thou comest that thou mayst scrape up some hopes to have mercy and heaven at the last may be thou comest to snatch up some sentence or other that may secure up thy conscience if there be ever a passage of mercy that thou wouldest fain have As I live saith the Lord I will answer thee according to thy thoughts and thine own vain heart that which thou camest for in the Word as I live saith the Lord thou shalt have it Thou dost not come to learn how to be holy and be stricter then thou art but though thou beest no stricter then thou art already yet to have some hopes to be saved for all that FINIS Doctr. What the â—ffections â—re 1. The affeâ—â—ions are â—otions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 L. 6 de vero cultu cap. 17. By faith Noah warned of God moved with fear c. Hâ—b 11. 7. 2. The affections are motions of the Will Stoici vocant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Simolicius in Epictetum 3. They are forcible motions of the heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est impetus ut Salmâ—sius vertit Motio animi quâ— ad aliquid fertur sive sponte sive aliunde incitata 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 voâ—atur Stoicis 4. They are the sensible motions of the heart 5. They are such motions as are according to the apprehension of good or evil Iudith 16. 9. Gen. 37. Reasons The Affections are the wings of the soul Affections not subdued 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Simplicius in Epictetum Aâ—sâ—lâ—us They are the Inclinations of the Soul 3. They are the passions of the Soul Elias was â—uâ—ject to like passiâ—ns as we are Jam 9. 17 That is subjeâ—â— to like afâ—ctions with us 4. They are the perturbations of the soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. The heart is enticed and allured by them 3. The heart is somewhat bowed by them 4. The heart is stolen away with them 4. The heart is enflamed by them 6. The heart is overturned from what it was before Job 10. 10 7. The heart is engaged for God 8. The heart is glued to a thing by them De vita Pythag. The heart is quite given up to that which it affects The affection may be thus raised 1. By the sparks of right reason that regulate the affections Lib. 2. Eth. cap 6. 2. By knowledge out of the word that raiseth up the affection 3. By knowledge and conscience quickned Eâ—estro 4. By a deep apprehension of the horrour of their estate Mal. 2 13. 5. By self-love Which may First make a man be loth to commit sinne In vitus feci as â—e said in the Comedy And vomit up a dear sin committed by himself and be sorry that others should commit it 3. And not dare to venture upon a sin though he lose by it 4. And to be forward in Religion run to persecution 5. And to be ravished with the joys of the Spirit Reasons 4. 1. The carnal mans affections are not kindely wrought on 2. They are not judiciously wrought on 3. They are not regularly wrought on 4. They are not wrought on universally 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saies the Text. We must therefore examine our selves especially those That think their affections are set on God 1. He that truly affects grace affects nothing so much as grace Vers 23. 2. He must needs have expressions of grace Proverb 3. He is troubled with any interruption Aristot 4. He hath his conversation in heaven whence grace descends Hereby only are we marriageable to Christ l. de sacrif Abel Cain 2. Hereby only doth the soul set favourites in the heart 3. Hereby the soul is converâ—ible and reconcileable to God Râ—et c. 1. 4. The affections are the hands of the soul Mat. 22 1â— 5. The affections are the handles of our hearts Epist 6. Affections are the souls stomack L. 3. ad Nico. c. 3. 7. Affectioâ—s are the main mâ—tter of â—race Arist 8. Affections are arguments what we be It is a Christians duty to set his affections upon God 1
Reason Because it is an infallible argument of our being or not being in Christ 1 Reason Because it is a matter of reasonable equity Yea of necessity 1. Because God is the principal object of our affections 2. Nothing but God hath that which the affections look for Because nothing is good but God Chrysoft 3. Because nothing is my good but only God 1. The good of the creature not thy good because but the good of the body 2. Because not so long as thou art 3. Because they will not take thy part Iuv. Sat. 13. 4. Nothing can rest the soul but only God 1. Because nothing but God is all good 2. Nothing but God is the ultimate good 3. Nothing is it self without God Vse It is a blessing of God that we have affections Apud Cic Tuscul 4. The affections are not in themselvs sinful 1. Because Adam and Eve had affections in innocency 2. Because Christ took our affections upon him 3. Because God doth command the use of the affections 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vol. Arâ—â—â— Eth. l. 2. c. 6. Reasons why affections are necessary 1. Because without affections we should be like stocks 2. Because without affections we should be lazie and idle l de virtute morum in fine Plutarch ubi supra 3. Because affections are the channels of grace Iust Mar. Apol. 8. pro Christ ad Antâ—â— The first impediment that hinders the setting the affections on God because it is an hard thing to turn an antipathy or sympathy 2. The 2. impediment Because affections are the bewitchings of the heart Plutarch sympos l. 5 c. 7. Heliodor lib. 3. Hist 2. Del-Rio Disq mag lib. 2. c 3. 3. The 3. impediment Because affections are the estimations of the heart Chrys hom 7. in Iob. 4. The affections are the most natural temperaments of the heart 1. Ground We cannot set our affections on God unlesse we have a new heart Estsimill tudo Angeli Poliâ—iaâ—â— de irâ sed paulo secus applisat 2. Ground Nor unlesse we feed on Christ Means to set our affections on God 1. Pray to God to gether up your affections from the things of the world Hierom in Marcum 2. Light up 2 Candle in thy heart Suetonius 3. Occasion thine affections this way Oâ—casiones faciunt latrones Horat. 4. Let thine affections be often wooed to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 5. To be sober and temperate in all things A man may be drunk with any passion Hier. Com. in Ezek. cap. 34. 6. To clip the wings of our affections by abstaining from much of our lawful liberty Vid banc regulam apud Greg l. 5. moral hom 3. super Evang. Pet. Mart. Chrysost in 1 Cor. 6. 1. 7. To be abundant in the exercise of godliness 8. Dive down to the bottom of thine affections Means to get up the bottom of the affections 1. Be humbled after thy turning unto God 2. Keep no close lust unmortified Vid. v. 21 22. 3. Consider God will shame thee one day if the bottom be not sound Regula moralis It concerns us to use all these means 1. Because the affections are the bonds of the soul Chrysost 2. Because earthly affections are the fore-stallers of the heart Ministers must labour to stir up the affections of their hearers L. 1. de invent c. 1. Keck Ecc. Rhet. l. 1. c. 3. Reasons 1. Because the Word is full of affections 3. The word looks to be obeyed with affections 3. Men are very dull in affections to embrace the Word A Minister must not stir up affections by the enticing words of mans wisdome 1. A Minister must stirre up affections by preaching to the life A saying of K. Iames 2. By being full of affections himself Summa movendorum affectuum in eo est ut prius ipse sis molus Quin Hor. de art Poet Com. in 1 Cor. 2. 4 Cal. Multâ— sunt clamosi reprehensores qui in vitia deciamitando vel potius fulminando mirum zeli arâ—orem prae se ferunt interea ipsi securi ut videantur per lusum latera guttera â—xercere vesle at Christiani â—astorus est flere secum priusquam alios ad fletum provocet plus apud se retinere doioris quam aliis faciat Dabis voci tuae vo cem virtutis si quod suades prius ipse tibi persuasisse cognoscaris Bern. Simonides apud Arist Epiced Haymo Jer. 9. 1. 3. A Minister may stirre up the affections of others by being godly himself L. 1. Rhet. cap. 2. Quis tulerit Graâ—chos c. Iuvenal L. 1. Sent. Spiritual Tetrast 4. Tit. 2. 7. Gregory 4. A Minister may stirre up affections by his voice Plutarch in Demost 5. By a decent action It is a great sin to set our affections on the earth Four Arguments to convince this truth 1. If a man sets his affections on the earth he sets all his affections on it Gal. 3. 1. 2. Affections hâ—mper and intangle the soul He was in love with his Noverca L. de ludo parvae sphaerae 3. The affections are in a high degree in regard 〈◊〉 the acts of the soul 1. As the affections are so are the thoughts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Macâ—r hom 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Macar hom 16. Thinking is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pla. Sophist 2. If thy affections be carnal so are thy lusts They are like stirpiâ— fibrae as Chrysostom compares them like the strings at the roots of the Tree Apud Damascen â— par c. 7. Gregory 3. If thine affections be carnal so are thy purposes Car. in Pro. 15. 22. 4. If thy affections be carnal so are thy devices Qui praeter usâ—â—ata mala alia excogitant â—asil Theodoret alij in loc The extremity of the affections is zeal and it is due only to God Zelus quid 5. Things in zeal 1. A high measure of affections 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clavasius saith it 's fervor Divinae charitatis 2. Zeal a high measure of all the affections In prol sâ—n dub 3. 3. With all the might of the soul 4. The putting forth of all the affections 5. Upon a thing that the heart doth absolutely affect Zeal is due only to God 1. Because it is the religious part of the affections 2. Because zeal is the most of every affection 3. Zeal is the peculiar pitch of every affection 4. Zeal is the most spending part of the affections 5. Zeal is the impatient part of the affections Vse 1. God demands the zeal of our affections 2. We are bound to give God 〈◊〉 affections Jer 48. 10. 3. On pain of damnation 1. In Cant. Serm. 49. August Saâ—it unus quisque quod didiclt Proverb 1. Zeal is the firâ—â— of the soul Chrysost 2. Zeal is the running of the soul Tiberius Nero. 3. Zeal is the predominant element in the soul 4. Zeal is the self-cruelty of the soul 5. Zeal is the brand of the soul Ambros Act. 1. 23. 6. Zeal is the transporting of the soul out of it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—ayes Aristotle servants have no leisure 7. Zeal is the strength of the soul 8. Zeal is the confidence of the soul Sperant omnes quae cupiunt nimis sayes Lucian Rev. 21. 8. Signs whether the zeal of thine â—ffections be set on God 1. Sign If thine affections be notable to God-ward 2. If thou beest impatient of sinne 1. Zeal cannot abide any sinne 2. In any person 1. In friend 2. In childe 3. In wife or husband 4. In a rich man 5. In ones self 3. It cannot be quiet without assurance of Gods favour 4. Glaadness to further and be furthered in the waies of God 5. Rejoycing to see the â—orwardnesse of others Camment in Iob. 6. Zeal to Gods Church and people The 7 sign shewing most zeal when the Lord threatneth to be going away Ferrum quando calet cudere quisque valet Means to make us zealous 1. Frequent Meditation Hier. Ep. ad Deme triadem 2. A constant practise of godliness Philos Seneca Psal 119. Ver. 154. Ver. 156. Ver. 149. Ver. 159. Ver. 88. Ver. 107. 4. Shunning the occasions of sin Gen. 14 23 Nemo diu tuâ—us periculo proximus Terent. 5. Means to eschew the beginnings of sinne VigilanduÌ„ est maximè tentationis initio Greg. Exhortation to be zealous 1. Else you can never be revenged on your worst enemies Iuvenal Sat. 13. 2. Zeal enables us to doe good unto others Theodoret in locum 3. Peoples zeal encourageth Ministers Mic. 7. 1. Ambros Chrysost 4. Zeal makes a man excell Proverb 5. Zeal makes men like Angels Gregor Ambros 6. We have greatneed of zeal In the context are these motives to set our affections on God 1. Because else we deny our interest in Christs resurrection 2. Because we are dead to the things of this world 3. Because Christ is our life Vt vitam redimas Horat. 4. Because Christ will bring us to glory 5. If our affâ—ctions be not let on Christ they are out of order Other motives to set our affections on God 1. Because it is easie to prosecute that we affect L. 4. c. 12. de doctr Christ 1. A man is not ashamed of what he affects Agesilaus Philopaem 3. What the â—ffections be upon they will hanker after that Seneca de tranq 4. Our affections spur uâ—on to what we affect Melan. in Ethic. Lud Viv. l 3 de animâ 5. 6. Affections are the softnesse of the heâ—rt Phi. Iud. l. de sacrif Ab. Cain Quint. Other motives to move the affections 1. From the everlastingnesse of the affections Stilpon Plat. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sen in Epist 2. From the infinâ—tâ—nesse of the affections Ca. 7. l. 10 Ethn. ad Nicon Horat. Boeth Luk. 2. 28. 3. From the cloyedness of the affections Hor. Ep. 14 In omnibus rebuâ— magis offendâ—â—nimium quam parum Cic. 4. From the preciousnesse of the affections 5. From the instability of the affections 6. From the jealousie of the affections 7. From the tyranny 〈…〉 affection◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vid. Ezek. 14. 3 4 5. c.