into me by thee an intelligent understanding Soul a Soul that hath love in its Nature but a Soul that never loved thee Thirdly Judge thy self before him as to the fact and as to the fault As to the fact I have never yet loved thee O God I own it to thee Lord I accuse I charge my Soul with this before thee this is the truth of the fact I have not the love of God in me And charge thy self with the fault Oh horrid Creature that I am I was made by thee and don 't love thee thou didst breath into me this reasonable immortal Spirit and it doth not love thee It is thy own Off-spring and does not love thee It can never be blessed in any thing but thee and it does not love thee And then hereupon in the Fourth place Joyn to this self-judging self-loathing That we are to Judge our selves is a Law laid upon us by the Supream Law-giver the one Law-giver that hath power to save and to destroy And his Word that enjoyns it as plainly tells us what must go with it that this self-judging must be accompanied with self-loathing Ezek. 6.9 ch 20.43 and 36.31 Do God that right upon thy self that thou mayest tell him Blessed God! I do even hate my self because I find I have not loved thee and I cannot but hate my self and I never will be reconciled to my self till I find I am reconciled to thee This is doing Justice Doth not the Scripture usually and familiarly so represent to us the great turn of the Soul to God When poor sinners become Penitents and return that they are brought to hate themselves and loath themselves in their own Eyes And is there any thing that can make a Soul so loathsom in it self or ought to make it so loathsom to it self as not to love God to be destitute of the love of God And then Fifthly Hereupon too Pity thy self pity thy own Soul there is cause to hate it to loath it and is there no cause to pity it to lament it Doth not this look like a lamentable case Oh! what a Soul have I that can love any thing else that can love Trifles that can love Impurities that can love Sin And can't love God Christ the most desirable good of Souls What a Soul have I What a Monster in the Creation of God is this Soul of mine Methinks you should set your selves if any of you can find this to be the case to weep over your own Souls Some may see cause to say Oh my Soul thou hast in thee other valuable things thou hast Understanding in thee Judgment in thee Wit in thee perhaps Learning considerable acquired Endowments in thee but thou hast not the love of God in thee I can do many other commendable or useful things I can Discourse plausibly Argue subtilly I can manage Affairs dexterously but I can't love God Oh my Soul how great an Essential dost thou want to all Religion to all Duty to all Felicity The one thing necessary thou wantest thou hast every thing but what thou needest more than any thing more than all things And Oh my Soul what is like at this rate to become of thee Where art thou to have thy eternal abode To what Regions of Horror and Darkness and Woe art thou going What Society can be fit for thee No lover of God! No lover of God! what but of Infernal accursed Spirits that are at utmost distance from him and to whom no beam of holy vital Light shall ever shine to all Eternity Thou Oh my Soul art self-abandon'd to the blackness of Darkness for ever Thy doom is in thy Breast thy own Bosom Thy no-love to God is thy own doom thy eternal doom Creates thee a present Hell and shews whither thou belongest Sixth place Let a due fear and solicitude hereupon be set on work in thee For consider thy self as one shortly to be arraign'd before the Supream Tribunal And then here is the critical vertical point upon which thy Judgment turns Lovers of God Or no Lovers of God All are to be judged in reference to what they were and did in the Body whether good or evil As in 2 Cor. chap. 5. ver 10. What wast thou as to this point while thou wast in the Body For the last Judgment regards that former state what thou didst and what was thy wont as to this whilst thou wast in the Body Therefore by the way no hope after thou art gone out of the Body Go out of the Body no lover of God the departing Soul no lover of God and this will be found your state at the Judgment-day You are not to expect after Death a Gospel to be preach'd that you may then be reconciled to God No but what did you do in the Body According to that you are to be judged Did you love God in this Body while here yea or no And this is a Tryal upon the most Fundamental Point For as all the Law is comprehended in Love as was formerly hinted if you be found guilty in this Point that you were no lover of God totally destitute of the love of God you were a perpetual underminer of his whole Government of the whole frame of his Law a Disloyal Creature Rebellious and False to the God that made you to Jesus Christ that redeemed you by his Blood All Disobedience and Rebellion is summ'd up in this one word Having been no lover of God And won't it make any man's heart to meditate Terror to think of having such a charge as this likely to lye against him in the Judgment of that day that day when the secrets of all hearts are to be laid open Every work must be then brought into Judgment and every secret thing whether it be good or evil Eccles. 12.14 And it will be to the confusion of many a one It may be your no-love of God was heretofore a great Secret You had a heart in which was no love of God but it was a secret you took not care to have it writ in your forehead you convers'd with Men so plausibly no body took you to be no lover of God to have a heart disaffected to God But now out comes the Secret that which you kept for a great Secret all your days out comes the Secret And to have such a Secret as this disclosed to that vast Assembly before Angels and Men Here was a Creature a Reasonable Creature an Intelligent Soul that lived upon the Divine Bounty and Goodness so many Years in the World below and hid a false disloyal Heart by a plausible shew and external profession of great devotedness to God all the time of his abode in that World Oh! What a fearful thing would it be to have this Secret so disclosed And do you think that all the Loyal Creatures that shall be Spectators and Auditors in the hearing of that great day will not all conceive a just and a loyal Indignation against
such a one when convicted of not loving God convicted of not loving him that gave him breath him whose he was to whom he belonged whose name he bore What a fearful thing will it be to stand convicted so upon such a Point as this And sure in the mean time there 's great reason for continual fear why a man's heart should meditate terror One would even think that all the Creation should be continually every moment in Arms against him One would be afraid that every Wind that blows should be a deadly blast to destroy me That when the Sun shines upon me all its beams should be turn'd into vindictive flames to execute vengeance upon me I would fear that even the very stones in the streets should fly against me and every thing that meets me be my death What to go about the streets from day to day with a heart void of the love of God! What a heart have I Fear ought to be exercised in this case We are bid to fear if we do evil against an Humane Ruler If thou do that which is evil be afraid for he beareth not the Sword in vain Rom. 13.4 But if I be such an evil doer against the Supream Ruler the Lord of Heaven and Earth Have I not reason to be afraid And to think sadly with my self what will the end of this be But yet I will add in the Seventh place Don't despair for all this God is in Christ reconciling the World to himself As in that 2 Cor. chap. 5. v. 19. that sin might not be imputed He is in Christ to reconcile you to win Hearts to captivate Souls to the love of God For what else is Reconciliation on our part He is in Christ to reconcile to conquer Enmity to subdue disaffected Hearts to make such Souls call and cry My Lord and my God! I have been a stranger to thee I will through thy grace be so no longer therefore don't despair Despair that ever you should do well without loving of God But don 't despair you shall ever be brought to love him by no means You have to do with him that is the Element of Love the God of Love the Fountain of Love the great Source of Love the Fountain at once both of Loveliness and Love whose Nature is Love and is with his name in his Son who was manifested in the Flesh full of Grace and Truth i. e. sincerest love He was incarnate Love Love pointed at us and is upon these terms able to transform all the World into Love the Nature of God is all Love 1 John 4.16 and in Christ he is Emanuel God with us so the Divine Love hath a direct aspect upon us Why then apply your selves to him Turn your selves towards him open your Souls to him say to him Lord flow in with all the mighty Powers of thine own Love upon my Soul thou that 〈…〉 the true genuine Sons of Abraham and there can be no such Children without Love Oh dissolve this stone this stone in my Breast mollifie this obdurate Heart turn it into Love How soon may it be done upon due application He can quickly do it draw thee into a Love-Union with himself so as that thou shouldest come to dwell in Love And dwell in God who is Love And he in thee Then the Foundations are surely laid for all thy future Duty and for all thy future Felicity Then how pleasantly wilt thou obey and how blessedly wilt thou enjoy God for ever But such application must be made through Christ and for the Spirit Which Spirit is the Spirit of Love and of Power and of a sound Mind as you have it in that first of the second to Tim. v. 7. But these things I can't now further insist upon FINIS Books written by the Reverend Mr. John Howe and Sold by Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside 1. OF Thoughtfulness for the Morrow with an Appendix concerning the immoderate desire of fore-knowing things to come 2. Of Charity in reference to other mens sins 3. The Redeemer's Tears wept over lost Souls in a Treatise on Luke 19.41 42. With an Appendix wherein somewhat is occasionally discoursed concerning the Sin against the Holy Ghost and how God is said to will the Salvation of them that perish 4. Two Sermons Preach'd upon these words Yield your selves to God 5. A Sermon directing what we are to do after a strict Enquiry whether or no we truly love God 6. A Funeral Sermon for Mrs. Esther Sampson the late Wife of Henry Sampson Doctor of Physick who died Novemb. 24 th 1689. 7. The Carnality of Religious Contention in two Sermons Preach'd at the Merchant's Lecture in Broadstreet 8. A Calm and Sober Enquiry concerning the possibility of a Trinity in the Godhead in a Letter to a Person of Worth 9. A Letter to a Friend concerning a Postscript to the Defence of Dr. Sherlock's Notion of the Trinity in Unity relating to the Calm Enquiry 10. A View of that Part of the late Considerations address'd to H.H. about the Trinity which concerns the Calm and Sober Enquiry on the same Subject 11. A Funeral Sermon on the Death of that Pious Gentlewoman Mrs. Judith Hamond late Wife of the Reverend Mr. George Hamond Minister of the Gospel in London Some other Books Printed for and Sold by Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside A Body of Practical Divinity consisting of above 176 Sermons on the Lesser Catechism composed by the Reverend Assembly of Divines at Westminster with a Supplement of some Sermons on several Texts of Scripture By Tho. Watson formerly Minister of St. Stephen's Walbrook London Recommended by 26 Ministers to Masters of Families and others Folio Sermons and Discourses on several Divine Subjects by the late Reverend and Learned David Clarkson B. D. and sometime Fellow of Clare-Hall Cambridge With an Epistle by Mr. John Howe and Mr. Matth. Mead. Folio The Grace and Duty of being Spiritually-minded declared and Practically improved By John Owen D. D. Quarto A Practical Exposition on the 130 Psalm wherein the Nature of Forgiveness of Sin is declared the Truth and Reality of it asserted and the case of a Soul distressed with the guilt of Sin and relieved by a discovery of Forgiveness with God is at large discoursed By John Owen D. D. Quarto An Exposition with Practical Observations upon the Book of Ecclesiastes By Mr. Alexander Nisbet Minister of the Gospel at Irwin Quarto Theological Discourses in Two Parts The First Containing Eight Letters and Three Sermons concerning the Blessed Trinity The Second Discourses and Sermons on several Occasions By John Wallis D. D. Professor of Geometry in Oxford Quarto
What to have this matter hang in indifferency through neglect whether thou lovest God or lovest him not It shews that neither regard to God nor a just value of thy self makes thee care whether thou art an holy Man or a Devil For know that the loving God or not loving him does more distinguish a Saint from a Devil than wearing a Body or not wearing it can do A Devil if he did love God were a Saint A Man that doth not love God he is no other though he wear a Body than an incarnate Devil It 's the want of love to God that makes the Devil a Devil makes him what he is Secondly For further Direction Take heed of passing a false Judgment in this case a Judgment contrary to the truth for first That 's to no purpose it will avail thee nothing you can't be advantag'd by it for yours is not the supream Judgment there will be another and superior Judgment to yours that will controul and reverse your false Judgment and make it signifie nothing it is therefore to no purpose And Secondly It is a great piece of Insolency for it will be to oppose your Judgment to his certain and most authoriz'd Judgment Who if this be your case hath already judg'd it and tells you I know you that you have not the love of God in you It belongs to him by Office to Judge The Father hath committed all Judgment to the Son as a little above in this Chapter From what will you depose him dethrone him disannul his Judgment condemn him that thou may be righteous to borrow that Job 40.8 Thirdly It 's most absurd supposing such Characters as you have heard do conclude against a Man in this case yet to judge himself a lover of God If against the Evidence of such Characters a Man should pronounce the wrong Judgment it would be the most unreasonable and absurd thing imaginable For then let us but suppose how that wrong Judgment must lye related to those fore-mention'd Characters that have been given you Let me remind you of some of them He that never put forth the Act of love to God cannot say he hath the Principle He that is not inclin'd to do good to others for the sake of God 1 John 3.17 He that indulges himself in the inconsistent love of this World 1 John 2.15 He that lives not in obedience to his known Laws John 14.15 1 John 5.3 with many more Now if you will pass a Judgment of your case against the Evidence of such Characters come forth then let the matter be brought into clear light put your sense into plain words and this it will be I am a Lover of God or I have the love of God in me though I can't tell that ever I put forth one act of love towards him in all my Life I have the love of God in me though I never knew what it meant to do good to any for his sake against the express words of Scripture How dwelleth the love of God in such a man I have the Love of God in me though I have constantly indulged my self in that which he maketh an inconsistent love Love not the World nor the things which are in the World If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him I have the love of God in me though I would never allow him to Rule me though I never kept his Commandments with a design to please him and comply with his wâ—ll I have the love of God in me though I never vaâ—ued his Love I have the love of God in me though I never cared for his Image for his Presence for his Converse for his Interest and Honour I beseech you consider how all this will sound Can any thing be more absurdly spoken And shall it be upon such improbabilities or impossibilities as these that any Man will think it fit to venture his Soul I 'll pawn my Soul upon it I 'll run the hazard of my Soul upon it I am a lover of God for all this Would you venture any thing else so besides your Soul Would you venture a Finger so an Eye so It 's to place the name where there is nothing of the thing It 's to place the name of a thing upon its contrary The Soul of Man can't be in an indifferency towards God but if there be not love propension there is aversion and that 's hatred And what is hatred to be called love If you bear that habitual disposition of Soul towards God to go all the day long with no inclination towards him no thought of him no design to please him to serve him to glorifie him If this be your habitual temper and usual course will you call this Love Shall this contrariety to the love of God be call'd love to him You may as well call water fire or fire water as so grosly mis-name things here and therefore again In the Third place That we may advance somewhat Plainly and positively pass the true Judgment If the Characters that you have heard do carry the matter so come at last plainly and positively to pass the true Judgment of your own case though it be a sad one and tell your own Souls Oh my Soul Though I must sadly say it I must say it All things conclude and make against thee The love of God is not in thee Why is it not as good this should be the present issue at your own Bar and at the Tribunal of your own Conscience as before God's Judgment-Seat Why should you not concur and fall in with Christ the authorized Judge Whose Judgment is according to truth Why this is a thing that must be done the case requires it and God's express Word requires it 1 Cor. 11.31 Other previous and preparatory Duty plainly enjoyned doth by consequence enjoyn it and requires that it follow 2 Cor. 13.5 What is Examination for but in order to Judgment It must therefore be done and I shall shew how it must be done and proceed to some farther Directions First You must do it solemnly Take your selves aside at some fit season or another Inspect your own Souls review your Life Consider what your wonted frame and your ordinary course has been And if you find by such Characters as heretofore were given this is the truth of your case then let Judgment pass upon deliberation Oh my Soul Thou hast not the love of God in thee Whatsoever thine appearances hitherto have been And whatsoever thy Peace and Quiet hath been thou hast not the love of God in thee Let it be done with Solemnity Secondly Do it in the sight of God as before him as under his Eye as under the Eye of Christ That Eye that is as a flame of fire that searches Hearts and tries Reins Arraign thy self before him Lord I have here brought before thee a guilty Soul a delinquent Soul a wretched an horrid delinquent a Soul that was breathed
A SERMON Directing What we are to do AFTER Strict Enquiry whether or no we truly Love GOD. Preached April 29. 1688. The Second Edition LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers-Chapel 1696. The Epistle YOV may remember what a Solemn Awe was upon our Congregation lately at the Preaching of this ensuing Sermon and that not a few tears drop'd at the hearing of it This engaged some of us to entreat our Reverend Pastor to give way that by this Publication it might be accommodated to your review We know it is no more than one single Thred that belongs to many other Discourses upon the same Subject which have preceded and to others which we hope will follow but such as by your Notes and Memories may easily be wrought into the whole Piece It is but a Thred yet a golden one and may contribute to the service of the Tabernacle as in Exod. 25. We know it is a great condescension in him to suffer such an imperfect Piece to come abroad but when the Reverend Dean of C. and other learned Persons of the Church of England have denyed themselves by suffering such small Prints for the general good we are persuaded though he gave not a positive Judgment for it he will not dislike that which is for your Service and is intended to go no farther Receive it therefore read it over and over and allot some times for the putting in practice the grand Examination urged upon us and do your utmost to persuade all under your Roofs and Commands to do the like that that which was Preached with so much holy Fervor and Affection may beget in us and ours a bright flame of Divine Love to our good LORD to whom we commend you and are Your Affectionate Brethren and Servants c. John 5.42 But I know you that ye have not the love of God in you YOU have heard several Discourses from this Scripture and from another in the same Gospel That we spoke to alternately with this at several times Thou knowest all things Lord thou knowest that I love thee c. 20.17 and that which after Doctrinal Explication hath hitherto been insisted on was an enquiry into the state of our own case in reference hereunto Are we lovers of God in Christ or are we not There have been many things signified to you by which this case might be discerned And that which remains and most naturally follows hereupon is to direct you what you are to do supposing your case upon enquiry to be this or that Why such an enquiry if it hath been attended to at all amongst us it must have signified somewhat It must one would think have some or other result and what should we suppose it to result into but either this I do not love God or I do These are most vastly different Cases it 's a Tryal upon the most important Point that could have been discust among us and supposing there should be two sorts among us the effect of it is as if a parting Line should be drawn through a Congregation severing the living from the dead here are so many living and so many dead Souls Indeed it is a very hard Supposition to suppose that there should be any one in all this Assembly that doth not love God A very hard Supposition I am extreamly loth to make such a Supposition 〈…〉 me is not suppose it For truly it were a very sad case that we should agree so far as we do in many other things and not agree in this That is that we should agree so many of us to come all and meet together here in one place agree to Worship God together agree to sing his Praises together to seek his Face together to call upon his Name together to hear his Word together and not agree all to love God together The God whom we worship whom we invocate whose Name we bear and unto whom we all of us pretend For who is there among us will say I have no part in God And it were a most lovely thing a most comely desirable thing that all such Worshipping Assemblies even this Worshipping Assembly at this time and all times could still meet together under this one common Notion truly and justly assumed as so many lovers of God We are sure there will be an Assembly a General Assembly in which no one that is not a lover of God will be found an Assembly of Glorious Angels and of the Spirits of Just Men made perfect a numerous an innumerable Assembly in which not one but a sincere lover of God What a blessed thing were it if our Assemblies on Earth were such But we cannot speak more gently than to say there is cause to fear they are not such It hath been actually otherwise among a People professing the true Religion They come before thee and sit before thee as my People and with their mouth shew much love with their face or in external appearance and shew ore tenus they are lovers of God and they hear thy words but they will not do them Ezek. 33.31 If such a Case hath been actually it is still possible and is still too much to be feared to be but too common a case But now supposing that there be different Cases amongst us in reference to these different Cases there must be very different Deportments and a very different management of 〈◊〉 selves This Text more naturally leads me to direct what is to be done upon the Supposition of the sadder case most deplorably sadder that one is no lover of God though we must be led on thereto by some things common to both cases Therefore that I may proceed by steps this is requisite in the first place that is that we make one Judgment of our case or another that is that we bring the matter some way to a Judgment not let so great a thing as this hang always in suspence It 's very plain a little to press this That First While the case hangs thus in suspence it suspends the proper subsequent Duty too that should follow hereupon What canst thou do that is certainly fit and proper for thy own Soul when thou dost not understand the state of its case How canst thou guide thy course or tell which way to apply or turn thy self And Secondly to press it further consider That the not bringing or omitting to bring this matter to a Judgment if it proceed from indifferency and neglect speaks the greatest Contempt that can be both of God and thine own Soul the greatest that can be That is now supposing the Question be askt dost thou love God or dost thou not And thou unconcernedly answerest I can't tell I don't know Why what to be carelesly ignorant whether thou lovest God or lovest him not There could not be a more concluding medium against thee that thou dost not love him It speaks thee at once to despise both God and thy self