them and make them fitting to receive his Majesty and therefore sweep your hearts and clense those roomes clense every sinke brush downe every cobweb and make roome for Christ for if thy heart bee prepard and divorced from all corruptions then Christ will come into thy soule and take possession of it Remove therefore all corruptions out of thy heart And when thou hast swept every corner of thy house doe not leave the dust behind the doore for that is a fluts tricke doe not remove sinne out of thy tongue and out of thy eye and out of thy hand and leave it in thy heart No no out with all let every chamber be dressed up let every part and faculty be right disposed that the Lord may come and dwell in thy soule The second motive that may stirre us up to prepare for the Lord Iesus 2. Christ is most worthy for whom we should prepare is his transcendent worthinesse in regard of which all preparation may seeme too little You are not to entertaine an ordinary person it is not a man it is not a King it is not a Monarch but it is a King of Kings that will come into your soules to comfort them yea his holy and blessed Spirit will remaine with you for ever Therefore doe all that possibly may be done to prepare for his comming and for the entertainement and welcomming of him when he comes In Psal 24.7 David calleth upon his owne soule and other of Gods people for so the words are to be expounded there he saith Lift up your heads O yee Gates and be yee lift up yee everlasting doores and the King of glory shall come in As who should say Be enlarged love joy hope set open give way for the Lord is comming But who is the Lord It is the Lord of hostes the Lord strong and mighty the Lord mighty in battell ver 8. And with that he knockes againe Lift up your heads O yee Gates and be yee lift up yee everlasting doores for the King of glory shall come in ver 9. As if he should say What shall the Lord knocke shall the King of glory stand Open suddenly and make all preparation Did David doe thus Why doe you so then Christ knockes by promises hee knockes by judgements hee knockes by threats yea hee speakes this day unto your soules and labours this day to make way for himselfe make therefore all preparation let nothing be wanting that when he comes he may take possession of your soules Particulars and bee a God unto you for ever There will come a great deale of benefit by this meanes unto your soules And this also may encourage us The Lord commeth into our soules not to trouble and charge us no hee commeth to bring everlasting salvation and happinesse to our soules Looke what Christ said to Zacheus Luk. 19.5 8 9. when hee went up into a Sycamore tree to see him Make haste and come downe Zacheus saith he for I must abide with thee in thy house Zacheus made no cavilling but made haste and came downe and received him joyfully And marke what Christ saith unto him This day salvation is come into thine house So likewise it shall be with you when Christ commeth salvation commeth with him when he commeth everlasting happinesse and salvation commeth when Christ commeth goe home and witnesse against all your carnall neighbours that they that refuse Christ and doe not make preparation for him refuse salvation and everlasting happinesse that is offered unto them Amos 4.12 when the Lord had sent a great plague and a heavie judgement upon Ierusalem he saith Thus will I doe unto thee Oh Israel and because I will doe this unto thee prepare to meet thy God O Israel I will doe thus unto thee O Israel that is I will send mildewes plagues and pestilence and famine I will draw you out with hookes and your posteritie with fish-hookes And what followeth Prepare to meet thy God O Israel If God come against us to plague us we must prepare to meet him Reason now with your owne soules upon strong grounds to your everlasting comfort Should the Lord come in judgement to torment us should the Lord come to scourge and punish us if wee must then prepare to meet him then what preparation ought we to make for his comming when hee shall not come thus in judgement to condemne us but in his mercy to save us in his goodnesse to enrich us in his compassion to comfort us then now if ever prepare to meet thy God O Israel Let every heart perswade it selfe of this particular and reason and consider with your owne soules in this case Is Christ so gracious and so mercifull doth he send downe from heaven unto us and say he will come if any man keepe my Commandements I stand at the doore and knocke Rev. 3.20 if any man will open my Father and I will come in and sup and dwell with him Why where is the heart in the meane time And if ever now prepare to meete the Lord. But if neither the judgements of God will perswade us nor the mercies of God allure us yet let the complaints and moanes of Christ Iesus prevaile with you to prepare for him Consider our Saviour Christ hath taken a great journey from heaven to earth to save us miserable wretched and sinfull creatures conceive you saw those streames of bloud trickling downe his cheekes conceive you saw him upon the crosse with his hands thrust thorow with nailes and his side pierced with a speare enduring the wrath of God for our sinnes and behold now hee standeth at the doore and saith with the Church Lam. 1.12 It is nothing to you have you no regard O yee that passe by behold and see if there bee any sorrow like unto my sorrow c. Imagine you heard Christ say I have suffered these and these things for you these hands of mine were nailed this side of mine was pierced this heart of mine was melted with anguish of spirit Imagine you saw Christ standing and knocking at the doore of your hearts as indeed hee doth and say Hoe all you within there hoe all you proud hearts hoe all you covetous and malicious hearts have you no regard of a poore Saviour have you no regard of a crucified Saviour hee that died for you even the bitter death upon the crosse for you and now laboureth to doe good unto you Would not this move you to prepare your your hearts for him and to let him in Nay marke what Christ saith to the Church Cant. 5.2 Open to me my sister my love my dove my undefiled for my head is filled with dew and my lockes with the drops of the night As if hee should say I have had an ill journey a bad way and unkind entertainment and therefore come away my love my dove my undefiled and open unto me So hee saith to every one of our soules This day I have travelled
which immediately prepares mens hearts for the Lord. These crosses and afflictions may make a man to thinke and consider of himselfe and of his sins yea they may make him thinke of a better estate and to desire the word and send for a faithfull minister and heare him but the word that must worke beyond afflictions to prepare men for the Lord. Ob. But some may obiect againe that the word of God doth sometimes harden men how doth it then alone prepare mens hearts for the Lord Answ I answer that the word of God is but an instrument now the Lord is a free-worker a voluntary agent as we use to say he may doe what he will and when he will with his instrument A powerful ministery is the only ordinary means to prepare mens hearts for Christ but God worketh with this means where hee will and upon whom he will And as hee may prepare a man for himselfe by this meanes so he may harden him by it the word is able to prepare a man but God worketh with it upon whom hee will and how he will as it pleaseth him Vse 1 The Vse of this point is first for Ministers Is it so that a powerfull ministery is the speciall means ordinarily to prepare the soule for the Lord Much fault in Ministers that their peoples hearts are not fitted for Christ then from hence the Ministers of God may see the reason of the little good they doe in that course and place wherin God hath set them here lieth the ground of it we preach and take paines but the worke of God prospereth not in our hands after many yeeres hewing there is not one mountain levelled scarce one sinner brought home to the Lord Iesus and truely prepared for him What is the reason of this Surely leaving secrets and times unto God for God may convert when he will and there are seasons wherein God will not vouchsafe any saving grace unto men but leaving these things to God this wee know in general that God is as powerfull as ever he was the ministery is as effectuall as ever it was if it be performed in a right manner We need not complaine as Elisha did Where is the God of Elijah He is not wanting but if the spirit and power of Elias be wanting in us the fault is ours For the sword of the spirit is as powerfull as ever it was If the ministery of God were dispensed as it should it would be as effectuall as ever it was it would worke to saluation But where lies the fault Alas that lieth in the ministers of God who doe not performe the worke of the ministery as it should and with that power they ought A sword in a childs hand though never so sharp will doe no harme but if it be put into a strong mans hand he wil make it cut deeply Too many of Gods Ministers haue weak hearts little affection have they to the people of God little labour is there in their hearts to pluck men unto heaven they doe not strive with soules as they ought to doe they doe not struggle with the hearts of men if they have their profits and liberties they care not And hence it is that little good is done by them they do so marvellously faile in the former particulars Where is that particular and courageous applying of the truth to mens foules and consciences Alas what coverings they have freinds they must not be displeased and great men they are afraid they should bee offended It is pitty but their tongues should cleave to the roofes of their mouthes if they speake any thing the lesse for these base and by respects than God reveales and requireth of them Their slighting and passing by is the reason that men profit so little by their ministery they are ashamed to tell and affraid to speak to the hearts of men and reprove them for those sinnes which they are not ashamed or affraid to doe in the face of the world They convince not so soundly as they ought to doe they doe not gather in those arguments which may make those truths undeniable and mens consciences at a stand If they can but carelesly and idely talke out the houre what becomes of the seed what becomes of the word what becomes of mens soules they care not againe they want that holy spirituall affection which they should deliver Gods word withall unto his people This is the summe of all Ministers doe not deliver the word with a heavenly hearty and violent affection they doe not speake out of the abundance of their affections If they would speake against sin with a holy indignation it would make men stand in awe of sin they talke of it overly and say It is not good to profane Gods Name his Sabbaths and to live an ungodly life but they doe not speake from their hearts in this kind A sturdy messenger if hee come to a mans house to speake with him he will not be put off he will take no deniall but he will speake with him if it be possible before he goes away but send a child of a message to a man if a servant doe but tell him his maister is not at leisure or that he may speake with him another time he will easily be put off and goe away before hee hath delivered his message So it is with a Minister that performes his office with a hearty affection For when a man speakes from his heart in this case he will haue no answer he will not bee dallied withall he will take no deniall but will haue that he came for If a man should say he is not at leisure to speake with him or to heare him now he will speake with him another time he will not goe away with this answer but he will tell him I came to speake with your hearts and I will speake with your hearts he will say to the people Tell your hearts you that love the world and the profits and pleasures thereof and my heart tels you did you but know the good things that are in Christ Iesus did you but know what a happy thing it is to have the assurance of Gods mercy you would never love sin or delight in wickednesse as you have done heretofore I came to speake with your hearts and will speake with them before we part Grieve no more for the things of this world but for your sins The day is comming when the heavens shall melt with fire and ye shall heare the voice of the Arch-angell saying arise ye dead and appeare before the judgement seat of God where you shall heare that woefull and bitter sentence Away from me all yee workers of iniquity I know you not Mat. 7 23 Oh this may be one day your case And wee that are Ministers of God doe mourne for you and tell your soules we must have sorrow from you wee came to speake to your hearts we came for hearts and we will haue
heart Thou hast cause to be ravished with admiration and to say Whence is it that not onely the mother of my Saviour but even my Saviour himselfe should come to me What to visit mee that opposed him and to visit me that have preferred my base lusts before the bloud of the Lord Iesus Christ Whence comes this It was that which Solomon tooke notice of in the first of Kings c. 8. v. 28. for when he had built the Temple and the Lord had engaged himselfe by promise to come and dwell in the same he said Is it true that the Lord will come to dwell upon the earth Behold the heaven of heavens is not able to containe him much lesse this House that I have made As it was in the materiall Temple so much more in the spirituall Temple for thy heart is his Temple Therefore thou maist reason thus with thy selfe and say Is it true will the Lord dwell upon the earth the heaven of heavens cannot containe him and shall this earth-then mud wall this earthly Tabernacle and this sinfull wretched heart Oh that the Lord should come to dwell in such a soul this is a mirrour of mercy Doe you humble soules as the Centurion did when Christ was come into his house I am not worthy saith he that thou shouldest come under my roofe but speake the word onely and my servant shall be whole So say thou Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under the roofe of this sinful wretched heart only send thy Angels to visit me and thy word to comfort me but for to come in thy owne person from heaven to such a poore creature as I am the Angels must come from heaven to wonder at this mercy and to magnifie the Lord for it therfore as you haue received Christ walke worthy of him and be thankfull to the Lord for the same Vse 5 The last use of this Doctrine is for exhortation You see the meanes that God appointed for the conveyance of grace They that would haue Christ dwell in them must be willing to be humbled and mercy to you nay that Christ himselfe may take possession of you and it is the way and meanes that will never deceiue you Would you have Christ to dwell in you then be humbled and bee not wanting to your selues and then Christ will never bee wanting to you labour to get this humiliation and Christ will come immediately into your soules Have a heart but rightly disposed and without all question Christ will come to comfort and refresh thee upon all occasions You see the way to get a Saviour to come and dwell in you then walk in that way and give no rest to thine eyes or any quiet to thy heart before thou hast gotten this frame of heart Take heed of all distempers doe not thinke the time long and say I haue waited long and many a yeere and I have looked many a wishly long look and yet I cannot heare of the Lord Iesus to visit this poore perplexed heart of mine If the Lord seeme to delay in the performance of his promise say as David did Ah when wilt thou comfort me Psal 119.82 Nay lay the blame where the blame is and consider thy owne sturdinesse and vilenesse it is thy owne fault why Christ comes not thou wilt not open and therefore Christ is not come thou dost not prepare for him and for this cause it is that thou dost not enjoy the company of such a blessed Saviour at St. Peter saith 2 Pet. 3. â— The Lord is noâ— slacke as some men count slacknesse but the Lord takes the beâ—… season and is long suffering towards us When the season is wee shall have it for it is not his slacknesse The time is not long doe not thinke so hee hath not forgotten to be gracious to a poore humbled soule but lâ—oke into thy owne heart and way and see thy owne folly there Hast thou pâ—epared often and waited long and yet thou hearest no newes of a Christ and of mercy Ah goe to thine owne heart and say Surely I am in fault the wound is in my self others have received a Christ and he would have come into my heart too for ought know Nay he is as willing to come to thee as to any but thy owne hasty heart shuts the doore against him therefore be a based kindly and the Lord will come and not tarry Did you ever account of the comming of â—hrists presence to you Was the presence of Christ ever worth the having and would you not have him to come into your hearts that will bring grace and glory and mercy when he comes as Lâ—ke 19.9 when Christ was come inâ—o the house of Zacheus he said This daâ— is salvation come to thy house So that when Christ comes mercy and all comfort comes Is not Christ and salvation by him worth the having If ever you hope for Christ whip out all buyers and sellers out of the Temple and then you shall heare newes of a Saviour to take possession of you I have spoken of the meanes how to get an humble heart now let me giue you two motiues to provoke you to it Motiues 1 First consider what an vnreasonable thing it is that thou shouldest rather keepe out the Lord Iesus Christ than cast out a company of base lusts It will stick one day hard upon that mans heart when he shall see the marvellous excellency of that redemption which Christ hath wrought and the beauty of that grace which Christ workes in the hearts of his and the glory and happinesse which hee hath prepared for and will bestow upon his servants when I say in the houre of death or in the day of judgement he shall see himselfe utterly deprived of this grace in Christ he will then gnaw his owne flesh that hee hath lost heaven and happinesse it may be for one base lust The covetous man will say If I had cast away the world I might haue had Christ and mercy and the Adulterer will say If I would have cast away my base lusts and corruptions Christ would haue dwelt in my heart and would have purged my heart and the proud hipocrite will say If I had laid away my owne vanity and my owne pride the Lord would haue taken possession of my soule and hee would have brought glory and salvation and comfort Ah woe to me that ever I was borne that I would not part with base lusts and with wealth but that I was content rather to part with Christ Iesus than to forgoe these corruptions What an unreasonable thing is this he will curse himselfe one day for it 2 As it is unreasonable so in the second place what an vncomfortable thing will it bee Ah think of it in time for the time will come at the great day of account when we shall need a Saviour and crave his presence and be forced to desire Christ to come to us What a cut to our
thing so there must be a beam of Gods love to fall upon the soule before it can love God againe as in Hosea 11.4 I drew them with the cords of a man even with the bands of love God lets in the cords of love into the soule and that drawes love againe to God But above all that place Cant. 2.4 marke the manner how Gods Spirit expresseth himselfe to the soule He brought me into the banquetting house Cant. 2.4 opened and his banner over me was love stay me with flaggons and comfort me with apples for I am sicke of love And so when the banner of Christs love is spread over the soule the soule comes to be sicke in love to Christ As it is in war when the Commander displayes the banner these three things are signified by it First that there is the presence of the Commander Secondly the displaying of the banner commands all to come to it Thirdly while it is held out all keepe to it Now see the excellencie of the Spirit of God in the Scripture The Church was then in some trouble but the Lord Christ brings the Spouse into his chamber nay into the wine-celler and the banner that was displayed over her was love and first Christ came as a Commander to redeeme her and to save her from all troubles and afflictions Secondly it commands the soule to come to the banner Thirdly when God displayes his love in the beautie of it in any measure then all the company of poore sinners come in unto it and so they love the Lord because the Lord hath loved them This love of God doth beget our loves in three particulars First Gods love to us begets love in us towards him and how there is a sweetnesse and a relish which Gods love le ts into the soule and warmes the heart with you shall see how the fire is kindled by and by As when a man is fainting we give him Aqua-vitae so a fainting sinner is cold at the heart and therefore the lets in a drop of his loving kindnesse and this warmes the heart and the soule is even filled with the sappinesse of the mercy of God as Cant. 1.1 2. where the Spouse saith Let him kisse me with the kisses of his mouth for his love is better than wine The poore soule though hee drinke water yet he drinkes better wine than any carnall man under Heaven the kisses of his mouth are the comforts of his Word and Spirit The soule saith Oh let the Lord refresh me with the kisses of his mouth that is of his Word and Spirit let the Lord speak comfort to the heart and this is better than wine For the Lord must doe it before hee can be apprehensive of his love yea let the Lord expresse the comfort of his precious promises in Iesus Christ to me And againe in the second verse Because of the savour of thy garments thy name is as an ointment poured forth therefore the virgins love thee Christ was the oyntment Christs oyntment is his graces and the savour or the communication of this is the expression of his love to the soule the virgins are the soules truly humbled that love the Lord. Secondly as this warmes the heart so the freenesse of the love of God thus let in and thus intimated begins even to kindle this love in the soule that it sparkles againe Rom. 5 8. see how God sets out his love to us Seeing saith the Apostle that while wee were sinners Christ died for us This commends the love of God the Lord sends to poore miserable sinfull broken-hearted sinners and saith Commend my mercie to such a one and tell him that though hee hath beene an enemy to me yet I am a friend to him and though hee have beene rebellious against me yet I am a God and a Father to him and let him not thinke that because he hath offended me therefore hee shall not receive mercie from me but here is my love and it is worth the commendation Christ died for poore sinners when they were enemies therefore if God so loved us as to dye for us when wee were sinners and enemies how ought we then to love one another But much more how ought wee to love the Lord What was it that kindled that frozen and vile and stubborne and wicked heart of wretched Saul who had a heart as hard as ice 1 Sam. 24.19 when David had him upon the hippe and might have slaine him but would not even this wrought upon the heart of Saul and kindled a fire of affections of love towards him and made him say Come againe my son David Thou art more righteous than I for thou hast rewarded me good whereas I have rewarded thee evill And thou hast shewed mee this day how that thou hast dealt well with mee forasmuch as when the Lord hath delivered me into thine hand thou killedst me not For who ever slew not his enemie when he found him at such an advantage wherefore the Lord reward thee good for that which thou hast done unto mee this day Sauls heart is all on fire with this kindnesse So when the poore sinner considers this with himselfe and saith Is the Lord so mercifull to mee who ever thus found his enemie and slew him not I that loved my sins and continued in them had it not beene just that I should have perished in them But will the Lord not only not slay his enemie but give his Sonne for mee Oh let my soule for ever rejoyce in this unconceivable goodnesse of God! Bee thy heart neuer so hard if it have but the sense of this it cannot but stirre thee to humiliation Lastly the greatnesse of the freenesse of this mercie of God being setled upon the heart enflames it This sweetnesse warmes the heart this freenesse kindles the fire and when the greatnesse of the sweetnesse comes to be valued this sets the heart all upon a fire In Eph. 3.17 18. the Apostle desires that Christ might dwell in their hearts and that they might be rooted in love but how shall we come to this that we may bee able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height of the love of God in Christ As if the Apostle had said If I once come to see the unmeasurablenesse of Gods mercy this will blow up the soule and enflame the heart with admirable love againe to the Lord and make the soule say I that have done all that I could against the good God it breakes my heart to thinke it there was no name under Heaven that I did more blaspheme and teare in peeces more than this I have despised no command so much as the command of God and of Christ and I have grieved no spirit so much as the good Spirit of the Lord against those sweet motions that God hath let into my soule and struggled with me to plucke me from my company and to contend with me
and hee is not able to stoope to it nor to be framed by it These men deale with Christ as men that entertain a neighbour liberally to this end that he will look to his owne grounds onely and not intrench upon his for to have him a Land-lord or Commander over him and to bee in dependance upon him this he cannot beare But the Saints of God doe the second they entertaine Christ as a Land-lord but the other onely as a neighbour Let these men know that all those that are not with Christ are against him though a man stand still and doe nothing and love not warre because he would bee in peace let him I say know that all the wrong that is done by others if he be not a helper against it the Lord will require it at his hands as if he had done it himself as in that place Curse ye Merosh Judg 5.23 because she came not to the helpe of the Lord against the mightie as if a man did say I am loath to meddle before I am called to it But I say thou art called the Gospel was persecuted and thou wouldst not stir therefore the Lord will deale with thee as he did with that luke-warme Church in the Revelation the Lord will spue thee out of his mouth luke-warmnesse is loathsome to the stomacke therefore appeare in your colours what you are that you may be knowne either a Saint or a Divell lukewarme water goes against the stomacke and the Lord abhors such lukewarme tame fooles Hypocrites enemies of Christ 3. The third ranke of those that love not Christ are the fawning hypocrites that will fawne upon the Lord Jesus that make admirable faire weather and professe marvellous affectionate love unto him and will speake for a good cause and hazzard himselfe in it and when all is done he is an inward hater of Christ Of this sort I take Saul to bee 1 Sam. 15.13 the Lord gave a commandement to goe and kil all the Amalekites who when he saw Samuel comming toward him saith Blessed bee thou of the Lord here marke the tricke of an hypocrite I have performed the commandement of the Lord and therefore blessed be God that I see thee that I may give up my account unto thee But saith he What meaneth then this bleating of the sheepe in mine eares and the lowing of the oxen which I heare I need not speake for the bleatings of the sheepe shew that Saul is an hypocrite These men may be discovered by these two passages They doe not desire to give contentment to Jesus Christ but to themselves and withall they lift up their own glory with Christ Foure sorts of hypocrites Of this ranke there are foure sorts The wrangling hypocrite The whining hypocrite The vaine-glorious hypocrite The presumptuous hypocrite The first sort is the wrangling hypocrite I know many men that will professe they are at your command to serve you and to doe what they shall be commanded and they shall thinke themselves happy to be imployed by you and yet in conclusion they intend no such matter They desire to live no longer to do nothing but that which may promote the honour of the Lord Jesus and if they did not think to honour him by this or that they would not doe it but if it come to this that a man must leave his profits or livings or honours for Christ he will not say expressely he will not do it and that hee will not part with his honours and profits for Christ but yet he will stand to quarrell and say It is not fit to doe it and there is no command for it It is admirable to see and to conceive the vileness and basenesse that is in the spirits of these men for when the duty is revealed and enjoyned they will search far and neer to make it no duty they will rake the Divels skull and invent some new shifts to prove that it is not needfull to be done that so they may avoid the doing of it as it is amongst some that follow the fashions of the times though they pretend to doe things comely and to keep close to the Word yet if a new fashion come up though never so absurd they will forget their promise and plead for it not questioning what is lawfull but what most pleases their humour But observe this in thy owne soule do not thinke to quarrell with thy selfe about duties which the Lord requires at thy hands But art thou in good earnest content that the Word should be true as God would have it and to have that accounted naught which God saith is naught It is certaine many will say it for shame but they have an inward league between them and some sin they will not have that lawfull that they may not doe and they will not have that to be sinne which God saith is sinne that they may commit it with quiet ease and liberty striving more to content their owne hearts and the fashion then Christ They must content their liberty they will not be imprisoned and therefore will give full content to a spirit that desires freedome These never had this fire of love to Christ kindled in their hearts Now before I come to the next give me leave to unmaske this hypocrite and to dogge him to his owne doore and for this end First I will shew what this pretence of love to Christ is Secondly I will shew the prankes that hee hath to cover his hypocrisie withall and when both these are opened it will appeare that he onely intends to wrangle and that he hath not this true love of Jesus Christ For first he wil joyne side with Christ in the generall in the common nay when it cōes to the particular case wherin his heart withdrawes yet therein also he wil vow openly that he doth nothing but what his conscience tels him is fit to be done and that which his judgement is fully satisfied in Alas poore conscience he hath couzened thee before or else curbed and charmed thee by saying I am resolved that it is not so therefore conscience you must be of my side yet conscience replies You should not do this or that let the Lord have the glory and take you the shame that all may be warned for ever Thus it was with the old Prophet 1 Ki. 13.18 when he came to couzen the young Prophet he said I am a Prophet also as thou art an Angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord saying bring him back with thee into thine house And thus it is with this wretched hypocrite in his pretence of love unto Christ it is cleare in his conscience he dares not do any thing against the Lord Jesus and in his judgement and in his conscience he thinkes so and so hee hath peace at home but let him goe with his peace Again he will talke marvellously of Gods honour and of the promoting of the Gospel the
When a man entertaines the King he is content though the King put him out of his owne house to bee his servant for the while and if his Majesty may be contented he cares not so it is with a gracious humble heart if the Lord will blast a mans parts and comforts and take all from him and give him Christ naked and onely that honour that is in him hee is contented This heart is right and hee will say It is Gods will to take away these parts honours credit c. and if the Lord Jesus say I will not assist nor comfort thy soule he lyes downe and saith not a word but this Let the Lord be honoured though I be as the dung in the streets whatsoever become of me though I be damned so the Lords glory may be advanced I am content Suppose this should be which indeed cannot be that a man were left destitute of al comfort friends and meanes and all that he hath loved heretofore and in stead of honour were to have shame and imprisonment for liberty and want and dishonour in stead of friends the soule saith It is Gods will to doe so and to take away honour and parts who must order the businesse but he onely Doth it please the Lord Jesus to doe so blessed bee his name for it I shall now be contented let me lye at his feet though I goe downe to hell let me wait on him and let him doe what he will Now all you that are of any of these sorts to you is the Word of the Lord spoken this day and I beseech you in the name of Christ take it in love and as spoken out of indignation to your sinnes to you I say the Minister and the Word saith The Lord bee mercifull to you you are haters of the Lord Jesus there is none of the love of God in the hearts of any of this generation to this day Now do not goe away and say Let the Minister say what he will for hee must say something to hold out the houre What wilt thou shew thy selfe to bee a most notorious wrangling hypocrite Conscience speake is not thy heart met withall as in all the former particulars Conscience saith so and the Lord saith so Oh be perswaded therefore and yeeld the bucklers and say Now I see it is not in truth all that I have done is wrong and false Oh that I could once at last fall upon the right way The Lord perswade your hearts to conceive of it and to say I am still a hater of Christ I am yet an enemy Do I yet live to be saved by Christ and do I hate him think of thy sin and consider thy sorrow 1. Thinke thus much with thy selfe This sinne of all other is most unconceivable and not to bee named much lesse to bee practised and retained Oh that ever any wretch that hath received so much from Christ should still hate him Good Lord that ever there should bee such a wretch upon the earth and yet Lord I am the man I am hee that have approved of the practises of the wicked thou art an open enemy to the Lord Jesus and therefore thinke what thou hast done all this while Rom. 1.19 20. That which may be known of God is manifest in the creatures But in the meane time thinke but what thy sinne is that thou hast not onely the creatures to preach to thee but the Lord Jesus who came downe from heaven It is a wonder that ever he came for such wretches as we are hee hath torne his bowels in pieces for thee and entreated thee to bathe thy soule in his death and bee saved for ever Luke 19.42 yea hee hath wept over thee and said Oh that thou hadst knowne even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace yet thou regardest not Oh thou poore ignorant profane carnall wretch nay the blood of Christ and his teares and the offer of his mercies and his spirit speake to thee and intreat thee to beleeve in him and live for ever and yet thou continuest an infidell You know the spirit of love hath met you in your Churches and in your houses and walked with you in your journeies and said Now open the Lord Jesus calls tenders mercy and you have snubbed it Good Lord is it possible that the blood of Jesus Christ should speake to us and that a company of wretched creatures should trample upon that blood and grieve that spirit rather then forsake their lusts and corruptions You children tell your fathers of this and you wives your husbands and say Is it possible that we have done this and yet live still it is a wonder Therefore reason thus with your selves and say If a heathen shall be condemned that had but trees preaching to him and his conscience open then what shall become of me that have had Christ and his blood to preach to me what will become of me what sin is mine it is a scarlet sin it hath in it all abominations 2. Secondly thinke of thy sorrow how will the Lord Jesus be revenged on thee Doest thou say Oh he is mercifull and will forgive all What wil the Lord suffer his sonne to be trampled upon will God the Father suffer this thinke what will be the end of it Oh thy judgement is intolerable and unrecoverable continuing as thou art Consider the heavinesse of thy plagues 1 Cor. 16.22 If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be had in execration or bee accursed or bee made Maranatha that is All the curses of heaven and earth and all the curses of the world to the highest straine of cursing as if he should say All you Churches on earth and all you Angels in heaven curse ye that man and all ye Divels in hell torment that man nay let him be accursed for ever and then blessed Redeemer take this man into thy owne hands and let him be accursed for ever As in Jude 14. And Enoch also the seventh from Adam prohecied of these saying Behold the Lord commeth with tenne thousands of his Saints to execute judgement upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him You thinke it is nothing to speake against the Lord Jesus thousands of Angels shall minister to him and ten thousands shall goe before him and say The Lord is comming to execute judgement upon all that work wickednesse and upon those that have spoken against him So that when the Church of Christ and the Angels in heaven and the Divels in hell have conspired to torment a man then also the Lord Jesus will come to torment him Oh that my heart could bleed and if it were possible breake in sunder for the misery in which you are in that day the Lord Jesus will say to such as hee
THE SOULES IMPLANTATION INTO THE NATURALL OLIVE By T.H. Carefully corrected and much enlarged with a Table of the Contents prefixed JAMES 1.21 Receive with meeknesse the ingraffed Word which is able to save your soules LONDON Printed by R. Young and are to be sold by Fulke Clifton on New-Fish-street-hill 1640. THE CONTENTS TWo wayes God prepareth the heart for Christ Pag. 1 It is also prepared by contrition and humiliation 2 Doct. None but a broken heart is an house for Christ 3 Two lets of faith removed by brokennesse of heart 6 By faith the soule goeth out to another for all-sufficiencie 11 Use 1. Reproofe to them that would have comfort without brokennesse of heart 15. and them that dislike broken-heartednesse in others 18 Use 2 To get comfort begin in sorrow 22 Use 3 Comfort to the broken-hearted in two respects 25 Doct. The heart must first be prepared for Christ 31 Preparation for Christ standeth in three things 35 Use 1. Those reproved who thinke to have mercie and heaven upon a sudden 40 Use 2 A miserable estate to live in the old sinnes 47 Use 3 Prepare for Christ or thinke not to enjoy him 55 Motives to prepare for Christ 56 Doct. The Ministery a speciall meanes to prepare us for Christ 68 A powerfull ministery consisteth in three things 71 How a powerfull Ministery workes upon the heart to prepare it for Christ 79 Affliction prepares the heart for the Word the Word for God 88 Use 1. Much fault in Ministers that their peoples hearts are not fitted for Christ 84 Use 2 Fearfull is their estate whom a powerfull Ministerie workes not upon 88 Use 3 Let the Word be powerfull to prepare thy heart for Christ 90 Two things keep from Christ 95 What ingraffing into Christ is 99 Doct. Christ delayes not to come into an humbled heart 106 Use 1. Great comfort to each humbled soule 114 Use 2 They are of a naughtie spirit who endure not broken spirits 118 Use 3 Chuse the broken-hearted for companions 120 Use 4 Be thankefull for this great respect of Christ to thy poore soule 122 Use 5 They that would have Christ dwell in them must be willing to be humbled 125 Christ neare the soule yet not discerned for foure reasons in us 133. and for three reasons in Christ 147 Doct. Christ takes possession of every humbled soule 157 Three wayes he disposeth the heart to himselfe 168 Use 1. Reproofe of them that keepe Christ out of possession 171 Use 2 Give all to Christ whose it is 176 Doct. Love and joy by the Spirit wrought in a broken heart for embracing mercie as it deserves 180 The reason of Gods order in working these graces 187 Gods promise the ground of our love and how 195 His love to us begets love in us toward him and how 201 Use 1. Nature breeds no love to Christ 206 Saints love not duly because they rely not on the promise 211 Use 2 Comfort to them that love Christ 213. and blessednesse 216 Notes of true love to Christ 217 Use 3 Reproofe of them that love not Christ in truth 231. sorts of them 238 Enmitie against Christ shewed three wayes 240 Glozing neuters described and shamed 243 Hypocrites enemies to Christ foure sorts of them 246 247 c. Discoveries of not loving Christ 250 Hee thas wrangles against truth never loved Christ 2. arg 254 Expression of sorrow for sin limited 258 Continuall sorrow as needfull as continuall beleeving 261 Use 4 Love the Lord Jesus in sinceritie 272. meanes 273 Three hinderances of loving Christ ibid. 274 Three things in Christ to make us love him 282 Three things done by Christ for a sinner though as yet hee want assurance 286 Two meanes to bring our hearts and the promises together 291 Doct. In greatest wants true Christians have cause enough to rejoyce in God 300 Use 1. Reteine comfort in God whatsoever thou wantest 302 Use 2 Reproof to them that grow uncomfortable for crosses 304 Use 3 Make this sure God is the God of my salvation 305 Six meanes to rejoyce in evill times ibid. Doct. The sorrowful seed-time of true Christians in the exercises of humiliation and mortification yeelds them a rich and joyfull harvest 312. 313 Causes of true joy assured by mourning 314 Use 1. Sharpe Preachers make you gainers ibid. 315 Use 2 Enemies helpe the joy of Christians 315 Use 3 Esteeme none by present grievances 316 Use 4 Sow still though in teares ibid. Use 5 Be patient in suffering for God 317 Use 6 Comfort in death our owne or friends 318 Use 7 Be painfull in thy calling ibid. Use 8 Encouragement to repent of sinne and renew our repentance 319 THE BROKEN HEART ESAY 57.15 For thus saith the high and loftie One that inhabiteth eternity whose Name is holy I dwell in the high and holy place that is in heaven which is his throne and I will dwell with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the heart of the humble and the heart of the contrite ones THere are two maine parts of the preparative worke for Christ First the manner of the worke on Gods part and this discovers it selfe in these two particulars 1. In proposing Christ in the Ministerie of the Gospell as the most beautifull object which the soule can view or affect Psal 2.12 Cant. 5.9 with 6.1 2. That God doth by an holy kind of violence plucke the sinner from sinne to himselfe as in that place Iohn 6.44 No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him The second is on our part a frame and temper of the heart that God workes upon us by this holy kind of violent drawing This discovers it selfe in these two particulars 1 Contrition 2 Humiliation For the handling of these two wee have chosen this place of Scripture And I intend not to trade with every particular in the Verse but so much in it as fitteth my intendment in hand Expos That which I aime at is in the middle of the Verse I dwell with him that is of a broken heart Give me leave to open the words The great God of heaven that inhabiteth eternity in glory for the comfort of every poore broken-hearted sinner Gods two houses saith hee will dwell with him The Lord hath but two standing houses the one is in heaven in glorie the other is every broken heart and every shivered soule How he dwels in the heart Now how doth God dwell in the heart of a poore sinner The Apostle Ephes 3.17 tells us Christ dwells in our hearts by faith and it implies the constant abode of Christ by his Spirit in the soule being received and entertained by faith So that first there must bee a broken heart before there can bee faith or before Christ will dwell in our hearts to our comfort Consider what a kind of heart it must be wherein God will dwell It must bee an humble and a shivered spirit
Hee dwells in heaven by his glory yet though thou wert as low as hell in thy selfe God will come and take possession of thy heart marvellous graciously In the words so farre as they concerne my purpose the thing mainly observable is the necessitie and excellencie of this broken and humble soule It is the only receptacle of the Lord Iesus Christ If you will have Christ and grace to dwell in you you must get humble spirits Doct. So the Doctrine in generall from hence is this The soule must bee broken and humbled None but the broken heart is an house for Christ before the Lord Iesus Christ can or will dwell therein and before faith can be wrought therein There must bee contrition before there will bee an inhabitation of Christ in the soule As men specially great men will have their houses ayred before they come to lie there so this contrition is the ayring or sweeping of the soule that so it may be inhabited Foretold This was typified and foretold in the old law When the people of Israel were to goe into the Land of Canaan which shadowed the kingdome of grace here and of glory hereafter they must goe through the vast terrible troublesome and roaring wildernesse and through those streights and extreme hazzards before God brought them to the Land of Promise Whereby the Lord typified thus much unto us that before the soule can bee truely possessed of Christ it must goe through these rockie wayes of contrition and humiliation Hos 2.14 Therefore behold I will allure her and bring her into the wildernesse Ad aperiendam spem Hieron and speake comfortably to her And in vers 15. I will give her the valley of Achor for the dore of hope and shee shall sing there as in the dayes of her youth and as in the dayes when she came out of Egypt Compare that 15. verse with Ioshua 7.25 The sloodgate of sorow a dore of hope The doore of hope is nothing else but the expectation of all good things from God which hee hath promised And here remember the story of Achor Achan had stollen the wedge of gold and the Babylonish garment and therefore God departed away from the Campe. Now the Lord pursued him and caused the people to stone him with stones and they called the place The Valley of Achor to this day .i. The Valley of trouble and affliction The Lord hath reference to his former dealing As he did before in the time of Ioshua hee first subdued Achan and then hee gave them successe against all their adversaries As if he had said I will give them the Valley of contrition and humiliation for the Gate to all comfort and sweet refreshing here and hereafter So you must goe through the wildernesse to this Valley of Achor before you can come to this doore of hope to this Land of Canaan you must stone these corruptions of yours which have troubled the Spirit of God and then there is a doore of hope set open for you And as it was foretold so it was the end why the Lord Iesus Christ was sent as Isa 61.12 The Spirit of the Lord is upon mee saith Isaiah in the stead of Christ because the Lord hath annointed mee to preach glad tydings unto the meeke hee hath sent mee to bind up the broken-hearted to proclaime libertie to the captives and to comfort all that mourne Nay 2. Accomplished the Lord hath not onely sent Christ to this end and promised this but he hath done as hee did promise And this is the condition upon which he hath promised and given all comfort to his people as in Psal 34.18 The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit Hee is neere them to comfort them and to assist them and deliver them and thus the Saints of God have found it as 2 Chron. 33.12 where the Text saith that Manasses humbled himselfe mightily before the Lord and hee found peace to his soule and the Lord pardoned his sinne Hee was a mighty sinner and had mighty rebellions and mighty pride of heart and therefore the Lord laid him as low as the dust though hee were a King As hee had beene a mighty sinner so hee was now a mighty patterne of humiliation and the Lord had mercy on him Two reasons of the point The reasons and grounds of Gods dispensation this way are these two especially 1 Whether we consider the receiving of faith and Christ with it or 2 The keeping and maintaining of faith being received In both these it is plaine that God will breake our hearts before hee gives us Christ or faith I say it is necessary in the way of his providence Reas 1 1 It is an especiall meanes to make way for faith and for Christ because all the lets and impediments which hinder the entrance of faith into the soule are removed by humiliation and brokennesse of spirit Two let ts of faith removed by brokennesse of heart Now besides many other bolts and springs as in a locke there are many springs and little bolts besides the maine bolt so I say there are two maine bolts which make the soule uncapable of faith which being removed faith will come into the soule The first let which is an hinderance to the worke of faith is this 1 Lett. To seek contentment in the naturall condition there is a settled kind of contentment which the soule taketh up in its owne estate and the heart of a sinfull creature sitteth downe well apaid in that sinfull miserable condition wherein he is and hee desireth no other nay hee would have no change in this kind This is one maine bolt which stoppeth the way and keepeth faith from comming into the heart This is the frame of every mans heart naturally So we see in Deut. 29.19 And if it come to passe that when hee heareth the words of this curse that he blesse himselfe in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walke in the imagination of mine owne heart or adde drunkennesse to thirst The Lord will not spare him but the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoake against that man and all the curses that are written in this booke shall fall upon him and the Lord shall blot his name from under heaven People blesse themselves in their condition notwithstanding all the promises of blessing and threatning of judgement If any man have such a root of bitternesse in him and shall blesse himselfe in this condition and say I will promise my felfe an happy end let Moses threaten what he can I tell thee the wrath of the Lord shall smoake against that man See that notable place in Iob 21.14 It imports so much For they said to God Depart from us for wee desire not the knowledge of thy wayes that is wee are as we would be When wholsome counsels and exhortations are ministred namely that
they would take up a better course and be more holy before God and yeeld obedience to him in his Word and the Minister biddeth them take a farewell of their pleasures and profits and they thinke wee invite them to losse now all the while that a poore sinner quiets his heart in this condition it is meerely impossible in the course of providence nay it is a flat contradiction that ever grace should be bestowed upon that soule or that ever faith should come there For faith purgeth the heart wheresoever it comes as the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 5.17 All things are become new all old things are passed away There must be a new frame of the heart and a new course of life and conversation Now for the soule to approve of its condition and yet desire to goe out of it these two cannot stand together in reason and therefore know that while people please themselves in this condition and let the Minister say what the will and let God reveale what hee will still they thinke they cannot be in a better estate I say it is impossible that ever upon these termes faith should come into the heart for faith will bring a change Therefore when the Lord will doe good to a soule hee will make him see his sinnes and make him weary of them and tire him with the sense of his condition and shew him the necessity of faith and that he must be a new man and then he is content to take that way whereby he may be better disposed of by the Spirit of God In the Gospell the phrase is this Mat. 9.12 The whole need not the Physitian He thinkes himselfe well and therefore what need he goe to Physick And it is so in common reason No man can reare up a new house but he must first pull downe the old If a man be fish-whole what need doth he see of Christ as many people see no need of this humbling and this strictnesse and they thinke they love God in their owne apprehension and therefore they quiet themselves in that condition But God will plucke downe this old frame and then there is a way to build a new frame in the heart Before the heart is broken the soule would not bee otherwise and therefore it cannot be content to be under the power of faith which would worke a change of the heart The second maine hinderance of faith is this 2. Let. To seeke a sufficiencie at home Suppose the soule were sensible of its condition and were wounded and broken and could bee content to have ease and reliefe yet the soule seeketh for succour from its owne sufficiencie and when as the Word hath discovered our condition unto us and now we see we have need of reliefe we have recourse to some shift of our owne And this doth wonderfully crosse and oppose faith nay faith cannot come into the soule till the Lord undermine this corruption of heart This is a fruit of Adams rebellion for when the Lord put into his hands a stocke of grace that hee was made perfectly happy and righteous and able to doe whatsoever God commanded while hee continued in this estate of innocencie hee needed not to goe out of himselfe to find succour and reliefe he had no need of Christ This is the sinfull temper that hangeth upon all the posteritie of Adam that though fallen from God we will scramble for our owne comfort and doe what wee can by our owne strength to procure comfort and ease and shelter to our owne soules in the day of distresse Happely God layeth a man upon his sicke bed and awakeneth his conscience and in this condition men will promise and resolve any thing that if God would spare them they would doe any dutie to get Gods favour toward them and they thinke it is some outward reformation of some ungodly practises that will give God contentment and so they rest in themselves still And hence it is that after a great deale of horror of conscience in conclusion they fall backe to their old courses or else they content themselves with an outward and overly reformation of life and take up a calme civilized course till they come to their death-bed and then their hearts faile them and the reason is this because the heart was never throughly humbled And it may be a man thinkes if he shall now pray and heare and doe some duties then all will bee well never seeing an utter insufficiencie in himselfe that hee may receive mercie from the Lord. This is the lowest and last hinderance of all and there is nothing more crosse to faith than this It is commonly the shift that Satan puts upon men in their troubles meerely to make them doe something out of their good parts and good gifts and there to rest themselves and so to sinke downe into the Pit before they bee aware Now this crosseth the worke of faith By faith the soule goeth out to another for all-sufficiencie for the nature of faith is this it is the going out of the soule to another and to see all sufficiencie in another and to fetch all from another To have supply in a mans selfe and to see all-sufficiencie in Christ these two cannot stand together So that while the soule is thus possessed with his owne sufficiencie to procure ease to himselfe it is certaine this stops the worke of faith and hinders the pouring in of faith into the soule whereby you should goe wholly out of your selves and fetch all from Christ Therefore marke now what followes As contrition tooke away the former hinderance so the Lord hath this worke of humiliation whereby hee shuts backe this bolt and makes him to see an utter inabilitie in himselfe to procure or receive any good For there are many sinnes which formerly he hath committed and many weaknesses and wants whereof he is guilty Now when this is done then the barre is removed and the lets taken away by these two contrition and humiliation Consider that place 1 Cor. 3.18 If any man would be wise hee must be a foole that he may be wise and if any man will be made rich hee must see himselfe poore and if any man will have succour in his miserie he must see himselfe unable to relieve himselfe and then the Lord will doe it for him There cannot be faith in the soule if either of these doe remaine in the soule still Now these being taken away the soule is fit to receive the worke of faith Simile As it is with a man that would take a graft from a tree and graft it into a new stocke first it must be cut off from the old and then secondly be pared and made fit for the other so it is here all the sinfull sonnes of men grow upon the root of Adams rebellion and wee prosper and thrive there Adam was the old and wild Olive and Christ the true Vine and the new Olive Now before wee
except it be humbled and broken so those knotty proud hearts of yours must be planed and hewed before you will rest upon God for mercy or yeeld obedience to him How farre God breaketh and humbleth we will shew afterward 2. Those reproved who dislike brokennesse of heart in others 2. This may fall heavie upon the brave Spirits and boone Gallants of the world that are not able to see and approve this brokennesse of heart in others they count it a womanish and weake kinde of disposition and make a mocke of this humility of heart and when God hath wounded and humbled a poore sinner they tread upon him and follow him with desperate disgraces reproaches and discouragements I need not mention their language in this case I wish wee were freed from them What say they And are you one of these broken hearts and tender consciences Take heed how you sinne for if you doe you must weepe out your eyes and mope out your dayes in a corner even for ever Good Lord is it possible that ever there should rest such inhumane desperate divellish prophannesse in the heart of any man upon earth Let mee presse a passage or two to this end that such as are guiltie of this sinne may take notice of it as there are too many of them in this age This argues a man almost forsaken of God and I had almost said reserved to everlasting destruction There is no greater token that God never purposeth any good to that man Consider that place in Psal 69.23 24 25 26 27 28. The holy Prophet makes many fearful imprecations as though he would pluck justice from heaven Let their eyes be darkened that they see not and make their loynes continually to shake Poure out thine indignation upon them and let thy wrathfull anger take hold upon them Oh what a strange passage is this that a man that was inward with God should rend the heavens to pull downe vengeance thence for such men Who are all these Surely they were some Divels incarnate and no men that Gods Prophet would pray against Let their habitation bee desolate and no man to dwell in their tents Why what 's the matter For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten and they talke to the griefe of those whom thou hast wounded Lord saith he adde iniquitie to their iniquity and let them not come into thy righteousnesse You that are guilty of this consider it Me-thinkes it might make the soule of a sinful man to shake at the hearing of it When God hath wounded the heart and awakened the conscience and the Lord hath spoken bitter things to his heart wilt thou grieve those that God hath smitten It is an argument of a man whom God hath devoted to destruction Were a mans eyes opened and his conscience awakened it would make him tremble Thou that hast bin an enemy to the Saints of God and because the Saints of God cry mightily and dare not doe as they have done to joyne with thee in thy wicked courses wilt thou I say reproach them and lay more burthen upon them and say What you have had Sermons enow Now you are wounded and you must mourne and you must be holy The God of heaven hath spoken this by his holy Prophet David who knew those wicked wretches Though I know none such it may be for the while yet no question there be such in the Congregation He that now makes a mocke of contrition shall breake for ever and he that will not now be broken shall have the wrath of God to burne in his heart for ever in hell The Lord in mercy breake the hearts of such men and make them to say Good Lord is this the brand of a reprobate and what shall my name be blotted out of the booke of life I have persecuted such and such a man and such a woman the Lord grieved him and I grieved him too His was the sorrow but mine was the sin and shall bee my shame for ever for ought I know Another passage is Deu. 25.17 18 19. When the people of Israel came from Egypt Amalek tooke advantage against them when they were weake Remember saith the Text what Amalek did unto thee by the way when you came forth of Egypt How hee smote thee when thou wert faint and weary Therefore it shall be when the Lord thy God shall give thee rest from all thine enemies that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven And 1 Sam. 15.2.3 seventy yeares after the Lord remembred that For the Text saith I remember what Amalek did to Israel how hee laid wait for him in the way when he came out of Egypt Now therefore goe and smite Amalek and utterly destroy all that they have both infants and sucklings and oxen and the like What this Amalek did even so doe these wicked men When a poore soule is humbled and will forsake his sinnes and his wicked wayes and he groweth faint and feeble-hearted and wonderfull heavie burthened wilt thou now turne Amalek Wilt thou kill him that is now burthened under the heavie wrath of God and wilt thou now raile upon him Curse Amalek I will remember him saith God Take heed lest God remember thee and root out thee and thy posteritie from under heaven Nay the Lord himselfe and all the Saints doe rejoyce in the ruine and destruction of an ungodly wretch as in the example of Doeg Psalme 52.3 4 5. Thou lovest evill more than good and lying rather then to speake righteousnesse Selah Thou lovest all devouring words O thou false tongue God shall likewise destroy thee for ever hee shall take thee away and plucke thee out of thy dwelling place Selah Thou lovest grieving words Well God will serve thee in thy kind and when thou art in hell the righteous shall rejoyce over thee and say Lord this is he that grieved the hearts of such as were humbled this is he that had a proud herrt and scorned to be humbled and therefore shall everlastingly de damned The Divels themselves will rejoyce in thy torments and say What are you become like to us This is the man that scorned to bee humbled and to have his heart broken what is hee come downe to hell now The hearts of the damned shall be enlarged to glory in thy confusion Indeed if a poore soule feele any weight of sin upon him then all the Towne is up in armes against him Oh see your sinne and goe and breake your hearts for this sinne Dislike not in others what yourselves are bound to be and to doe This of the first Use 2. Vse 2 To get comfort begin in sorrow It is a word of direction and instruction how to get this grace at the hands of God goe Gods way and goe the ready way If ever thou wilt receive grace from God doe that which God doth as Hosea 2.14 Behold I will allure her and bring her into the wildernesse and speake comfortably
Though there is malice neere to pursue thee yet there is mercy neere to comfort thee and God will dwell in thee though it may bee thy neighbours will not dwell by thee Psal 51.17 The sacrifice of a broken and contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise There the Prophet David saith that the Lord preferres this Sacrifice before others What though men distast thee if the Lord accept and regard thee What if men refuse and despise thee if the Lord love thee and delight in thee Therefore all you broken-hearted sinners take this word of comfort goe on and goe cheerily and the God of heaven bee with you Though you bee poore in the world and live in a smoakie cottage yet the Lord will dwell with you in that poore cottage and in that poore family of yours and hee will revive that poore heart of yours Where the King is the Court must be prepared for and when the Lord Iesus Christ comes to dwell in the heart of a poore sinner he will comfort him He that sitteth in heaven and hath ten thousand thousand of Angels to minister unto him hath but two Thrones the highest heavens and the lowest heart What a consolation is this to thee Goe your way therefore and cheere up your hearts with this and say I thanke God I have now an humble and broken heart I hope comfort is comming THE PREPARING OF THE HEART FOR TO RECEIVE CHRIST Luke 1.17 To make ready a people prepared for the Lord. BEfore the soule of a man can share in the merits of Christ Iesus and receive benefit thereby and comfort therefrom before it can bee made partaker of those spirituall benefits which God hath promised to bestow upon his owne two things are required first there must be a preparation of the soule to receive and entertaine the Lord Iesus Christ and secondly there must be an implantation of the soule into Christ and then being thus ingrafted into Christ it hath a title to all those good things which he hath purchased for his Elect. For the conclusion of Saint Iohn is peremptory in this kind Iohn 3.36 He that hath the Sonne saith he hath life and he that hath not the Sonne hath not life As if hee should say There is no hope of receiving any good from the stocke unlesse the graft bee implanted into the stocke before the foule be cut off from the rebellion of Adam it cannot be implanted into Christ and unlesse it bee ingrafted into Christ it can have no comfort from him But if we can once get into Christ we shall have the participation of all spiritual things which he hath prepared for his chosen But it is impossible for flesh and bloud thus to enter into Christ and be implanted into him and therefore that wee maybe implanted into him we must be prepared First there must be a preparation of the soule to be in Christ before it can bee made partaker of Christ and his benefits This preparation is the fitting of a sinner for his being in Christ The Lord Christ being to come in person and to take upon him the ministery of the Gospell he sent Iohn the Baptist as his Harbinger to prepare his wayes and therefore he was indued with all gifts this way He had the spirit of thunder hee was indued with the spirit and power of Elias to make the way plaine for the Lord Christ Iesus and in that spirit hee came and preached to ungodly men and taught them repentance he came to levell mountaines and make crookked things straight to turne the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisedome of the just to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. This was Saint Iohns taske to prepare mens hearts for the receiving and entertaining of Christ when he should come The point of Doctrine to bee observed from hence is this Doct. That the soule of a poore sinner must be prepared for Christ The heart must first be prepared for Christ before he can have any heart to entertaine him This is the maine scope of the Text the maine drift of Iohn Baptist his ministery The hearts of men were not fitted for Christ and therefore he was sent before Christ Iesus to make way for him and to make peoples hearts fit to receive Christ that when the Lord Iesus came he might take place in his and worke effectually in the soules of his to their everlasting peace For the proofe of the Doctrine it is that which was prophesied before Mal. 3.1 for this Prophet was the last of the Prophets for Iohn the Baptists was a kind of intermingled ministerie it was neither Propheticall nor Apostolicall properly Marke what Malachy speakes there of him Mal. 3.1 Behold saith he I will send my messenger and he shall prepare the way before me and the Lord whom you seeke shall suddenly come to his Temple It is plaine to bee observed that Iohn the Baptist is there prophesied of The Iewes sought for a Messias and for comfort through Christ now Iohn the Baptist was to make way for Christ and when the way was prepared then the Lord would stay no longer Mal. 3.1 but would suddenly come into his Temple saith the Text that is into the soules of his children that were willing to receive him upon such termes as hee offered himselfe And as this was prophesied of Iohn the Baptist so it was also performed by the ministerie of Iohn Luke 3.4 The voyce of one crying in the wildernesse Prepare yee the way of the Lord make his paths straite That which Malachy foretold of Iohn is done he comes according to the Prophecie and fulfills what God intended hee should doe and what he was sent for to doe Simile Kings when they goe to any place send messengers and harbingers before them to make all things ready for their entertainement when they come Now Christ is a great King Christ is at King spiritually not temporally to be considered but he is a spirituall King and rules in the hearts of all those that belong to his election of grace and for his enemies if they will not bee ruled by his golden rod with his iron rod hee will breake them in pieces Now as with great Kings there must bee a preparation that all things may bee ready to receive them so it must be with our Saviour Christ he never commeth into the soule of any unawares or on the sudden but he sends his messengers before him his Ministers to prepare them for the receiving of him to humble mens soules to make mountaines low to make crooked things straite to pull downe every thing that exalts it selfe against God and when the heart is thus fitted and prepared then Christ sends his Spirit to take possession of it and rule in it and be a direction of it in the way of life and happinesse And the preparation for him is spirituall That this preparation is spiritually to
forget also thy owne people and thy fathers house So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty for hee is thy Lord and worship thou him Take notice there must be a forgetting of the fathers house that is of all lusts sinnes and corruptions profits and pleasures all must bee forgotten and forsaken Simile A woman when shee is married unto a husband must not thinke alwayes to bee at home and to live in her fathers house so we when we are married to the Lord Christ Iesus must leave all our darling sinnes and forsake all our beloved lusts and reserve our selves wholly for our husband So that then the heart is prepared for Christ when all is laid aside when all former wicked courses are forgotten so farre as to love them as to remember to hate them that so the soule may be ready and the heart fitted to receive and entertaine Christ Iesus when he commeth And this is the rule which Christ himselfe giveth to any which will be his Disciple Mat. 10.37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me that is he is not fitted and prepared to receive me He that is not content to part with all profits pleasures and delights for the Lords sake he is not fit to receive the Lord Iesus Christ that soule is not yet prepared to entertaine him and to give any welcome to him So that this is the first passage there must bee nothing betweene Christ and the soule hee must lie next the heart as there must none lie in the Privie Chamber but the King so there must nothing but Christ lie next the heart The second thing wherein this preparation discovers it selfe is this 2. In giving way to Jesus Christ As the soule must reserve itselfe onely for Christ so the soule in the second place must be willing to give way to Christ Iesus For howsoever the soule in the very point and instant of preparation hath no more power or grace or strength to get dominion over sin than it had before yet it is willingly content that Iesus Christ should come into it and overthrow all that opposeth him it is content to joyne sides with Christ it goeth along with him it is content that Christ should do what pleaseth him in the soule if there be any corruption that the soule cannot get mastery of it wisheth Oh that Christ would come and remoove this corruption Thus the soule is content to have Christ make havock of all and set up his kingdome in it and doe whatsoever pleaseth him The soule that is prepared for Christ how soever it hath not grace and power and strength in the particular moment of preparation though it hath not attained that power to kill and crucifie all corruptions yet it is willingly content that Christ should come and take all the keyes of the house it is willing to open the gates of the City unto him and let him doe what hee will therein it is content that the Lord Iesus should every way overthrow the power that comes against him and dispose of all things to his owne glory and honour In Esay 26.13 There is a pretty passage saith the Text Other Lords besides thee have had dominion over us but by thee onely will we make mention of thy Name The people of the Iewes here would not beare the Lords yoke and therefore they had hard taskmasters and when they saw enemies on the one side and enemies on the other then they complained Many vexations have we found at the hands of unreasonable tyrants but now we wil remember thy Name onely that is if our God will now come and rule over us wee would rebell against our other lords and let God be Lord onely over us and doe what he will unto us In 2 Kings 10.3.4 when Iehu had overcome two Kings he sendeth messengers to the people of Israel to choose a King and set him up over them But saith the Text behold two Kings stood not before him how then shall wee stand But in the fifth verse they sent word unto Iehu and sayd We are thy servants and will doe what thou wouldst have us to doe we wil not not make any King doe what is good in thine own eyes This is the frame of the heart prepared for the Lord Iesus When Christ cōmeth against a soule and saith You have set up your corruptions to be your gods you have cast away my Commandements defend therefore your selves and know that God is angry with you and I am comming against you to take vengeance if the soule now submits it selfe and saith Lord do what thou wilt and what is good in thine owne eyes our humors shall not be followed any more we will not follow our owne minds and affections but we will doe what thou commandest us doe Lord even what is good in thine eyes if a soule bee thus disposed then it is prepared for the Lord Iesus The prodigall son Luke 15. when hee saw that poverty pinched him and that he must come home by weeping crosse when by wofull experience hee saw that want befell him and that famine came close unto him then hee confessed What a wretch am I there are they in my fathers house yea the servants there have bread enough but I starve here for hunger upon this he resolves to goe to his father he doth not stand vpon termes with him and say I will be so and so advanced but he saith Luk. 15.18.19 Father I have sinned against heaven and against thee am no more worthy to be called thy son make me as one of thy hired servants Now if hee can come within his fathers doores he cares not hee will stoope and bee conformable in every case So it is with the soule prepared for Christ those that have stubborne hearts they will not obey the Lord but they will be gone as the prodigall sonne did yet they will one day bee found when misery hath seized upon their soules and then they will say Oh happy are those that live under the ministery of the Word If the Lord would but once receive mee to mercy againe then I would obey every command and stoope to every word of the Lord then I would willingly give place ever to the Lord. And this is the second thing wherein this preparation manifests it selfe when the soule of a poore sinner is willing thus to give way to Christ and to let him take possession of it to overthrow whatsoever hindereth and opposeth him and to dispose of all things to his owne good pleasure Thirdly 3. In giving up all the roome unto Christ when the soule doth rebell against her former sinnes and is reserved only for Christ and is content thus to receive God and is willing that Christ should overthrow whatsoever opposeth him and doe whatsoever pleaseth him then in the third place this is only observable the manner how the soule prepared giveth way unto God It gives the
come in Can any man put good gold into a purse that is filled with stones before can the soule of a sinner entertaine Christ Iesus when it is full of lusts and they doe altogether possesse it No no Come out saith Christ and touch no uncleane thing that is bee not married unto it for that is the meaning of the words let thy affections be removed from all lusts and corruptions and then I will come and dwell with thee and walke with thee that is I will bountifully provide for thee for the consolation of thy soule here and hereafter It was the order of God Luke 3.5 when Iohn the Baptist was to make way for Christ marke here how he was levelling and undermining Every mountaine and hill shall bee brought low every valley shall be filled and the rough wayes made plaine and the crooked things straite And then all flesh shall see the salvation of the Lord. If you will have a mountaine before your salvation or goe into a ditch you shall never see salvation soundly and surely but if you purpose to see salvation downe with those mountaines of pride you must lay them flat to the ground you must be teachable stoope and bee conformable you must not lift up your selves against Christ you must not walke in your owne wayes No no downe with those mountaines downe with those stubborne and disobedient hearts for you shall never see salvation as long as these mountaines remaine but your soules must be made pliable to Christ and then you shall see the day of comfort approaching and drawing nigh unto you Doe you thinke it is fit if a man were to entertaine the King to put his servants in the chiefe roome and afford the King some out-roomes only and let him bee as a servant to his servants What a base and absurd thing is this that Christ should come into thy soule to be a servant as it were to thy base lusts They that have made their base lewd and wicked courses their gods one man in one kind and another in another kind let them as they love their owne soules bee perswaded to consider of this They that have thus set up any thing above God and before him when God at the great and dreadfull day of judgement shall come in flames of fire as the Apostle hath it 2 Thes 1.8 to take account of them whom they have served God will then send you home to your gods hee will say Goe to your gods that you have served the Divell and sinne and not mee you have cast off my yoke you have broken my law and transgressed my statutes goe then to your lusts and your sinnes you have so much hunted after let them save you now and shew mercie towards you for they were your gods and they shall save you if ever you have salvation Thinke of this and bee throughly perswaded of this and cut off that sinfull conceit that Christ and corruption will stand together and come on the sudden with one word speaking thinke not if you can say Lord have mercy upon me and receive the Sacrament from the hand of some factious Minister then Christ will presently come to your hearts No no you must have your hearts prepared before Christ Iesus will come into your soules the the heart must bee broken and the soule severed from sinne and corruption before Christ will come and take possession of it Take heed of this foolish and sottish conceit that Christ will come into your hearts all on the sudden Vse 2 The second Vse sheweth the wofull estate and miserable condition of those which entertaine their old courses and conversations A miserable estate to liue in the old sins It is a glory that men take unto themselues they are no changelings Oh poore fooles they must become changelings if ever they looke to be saved They glory in this what they were they are where you left them one yeere you may find them the next But mark what we may conclude here the condition of the man is marvellous miserable that never had his heart prepared never humbled never changed never fitted for the Lord Iesus for Christ will never come into that soule that is most certaine You that content your selves with this I never knew what it was to be humbled the precise Ministers indeed talke of preparation but I never knew what it meant Oh poore creatures they know now not what belongs to the Ministery of God in this kind but in the meane time be sure of this that if thou hast not the former thou canst not expect the latter if thy heart be not prepared for Christ there can be no receiuing of Christ Salvation is farre from the wicked because they keepe not thy lawes saith the Prophet David Thou that hast no care to walke with God dost thou dreame of salvation Alas alas it never came neere thy heart it is a hundred thousand miles of from thee it is not neere thy habitation thou art not prepared to entertaine the Lord Iesus and therfore thou canst not expect Christ and salvation by him Appeale to your owne consciences in this kind If a man should goe to a great house and see the best part of it stuffed with ordinary commodities and a great deale of it with base baggage and filthy trash he wil presently conclude the King will not come heere and why because there is no preparation for him there is therefore no expectation of his Maiesty in this place And it is a good argument when a man shall see the hearts and lives of men stuffed not onely with a great deale of ordinary trash but full of worldly affections full of the world in their hearts lives and conversations yea when a man shall see every place full in this kind as when the whole man is full of sin and of base corruptions will any thinke that this man shall be saved Can any man in common sense imagine that Christ wil come into that mans soule where there is no preparation for him Mountains must be levelled crooked things made straight and the rough wayes made smooth and all to make way for Christ before hee will come and therefore surely where there is no fitting of the heart this way there is no hope no expectation that Christ Iesus will come in thither Men prepare for the world continually and prepare onely how they may may shut out Christ Iesus One man prepares honours and his person that must have preferment another man provides for his ease and therefore he will make any shift that he may not endanger himself he will be content to make any shew of reason rather than he will come into office whereby his ease may be hindred another man will provide for his family that that may be comforted and sustained and though religion and a good conscience bee shaken he cares not he must make preparation for the maintenance of his family oh what will become of that Hee
will say How doe you gather the doctrine out of the Text what ground have you for the doctrine out of the words of the Text Answ Yes it is one of the maine passages of the Text it was the scope and purpose and sending of Iohn the Baptist for the Text saith He shall goe before him in the spirit and power of Elias Who shall goe before Iesus Christ Iohn the Baptist How shall hee be fitted He shall have the spirit and power of Elias And what shall he doe He shall goe before him in the spirit and power of Elias to turne the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdome of the just to make ready a people prepared for the Lord Luke 1.17 The Lord prepares a fit workeman for this worke Iohn was to prepare a people for the Lord and therefore hee comes in the spirit and power of Elias That is hee had a wonderfull abilitie bestowed upon him by God whereby he might deliver the Word of God to mens hearts so powerfully as thereby he might fit and prepare them for the receiving of the Lord Iesus and hee made a company of desperate sinners to quake yea hee made Herod who was a sinfull wretch to stand in feare of him So then we see God fitted Iohn with a powerfull ministerie with the spirit and power of Elias and being so fitted of God hee was sent for the purpose to prepare mens hearts for the receiving of the Lord Iesus And therefore this must be a speciall meanes soundly to prepare mens hearts for the entertaining of the Lord Iesus Christ So the doctrine is cleere and plaine out of the Text. Ier. â—3 29 the Lord there speaking of his Word compares it to fire in the 28. verse the Lord was speaking of dreamers There are a company of dreamers saith he but let him that hath a dreame tell a dreame and hee that hath my Word let him speake my word faithfully Is not my word like fire ver 29. there is the power of the Word Simile Looke as it is with the Gold smith his mettall is full of drosse and hee must trie it and clense it and purifie it in the fire before it bee fit to make a vessell of so it is with the drossie soules of sinners every heart hath abundance of drosse for many sinfull abominations harbour in the poore soule of a man It must be a powerfull ministerie that is able by the power of the Lord to set fire on the hearts of men to melt their soules to pull downe their haughtie spirits thereby to fit and prepare their soules for the receiving of the Lord Iesus Christ that so they might receive comfort and consolation from him In Hosea 6.5 it is a phrase wee shall meet withall for there the Text saith I have hewen them by my Prophets The Church is compared to a Vineyard the godly to the Branches the Word to the pruning and cutting of these Branches As it was with the building of the materiall Temple of Solomon there were many sturdy Oakes and tall Cedars that were to be hewen and fashioned before they would be fit for the building so it must bee here with the trees of righteousnesse our sinfull soules some of us have sturdy hearts like Oakes and some have proud and lofty hearts like the tall Cedars of Lebanon these stout hearts and lofty spirits must bee cut downe by the axe of Gods word and levelled and fitted to lay hold upon and bee settled unto the Lord Iesus Christ Every mans soule especially those soules that belong to the election of grace are ground that must be tilled and plowed by the word of God their fallow grounds must be broken up before any seed of grace can be cast into their soules 1 Cor. 3 9. there the Apostle saith You are Gods husbandrie and therefore God by his word must plow up the weeds of sinne and corruption which are in you before he can sow the graces of his holy Spirit in your hearts And that place Acts 2.37 will make the Doctrine cleere and evident Saint Peter was a man of a stout and courageous spirit and hee spake home unto the Iewes hee tells them that God hath made that Iesus whom they crucified the Lord and Christ And when they heard these things saith the Text that is the word powerfully delivered and brought home to their soules they were pricked in their hearts and said Men and brethren what shall we doe Now they were prepared in some measure to seeke after salvation For the better understanding of this point two things are to be considered first what a powerfull ministerie is and wherein the power and efficacie of it consists secondly how this powerfull ministerie doth worke upon the soule to prepare it for Christ First what is this powerfull ministery 1. A powerfull Ministery consisteth in 3. things wherein doth the power of the ministerie and of Elias consist It is discovered in three particulars First in a particular application of the truth to the soules of men with courage When a faithfull Minister out of undauntednesse of spirit doth in a speciall and particular manner apply the Word vnto the soules of them over whom he is set this is a powerfull minâ—stery 1 Kings 18.21 there the ministery of Elias is mentioned for the Text saith Elias came unto all the people and said How long halt ye betweene two opinions If the Lord be God follow him but if Baal be God follow him It was in a time when people had departed from the Lord. Elias at this time did not come to one man alone in a corner and say You should doe well to consider of the case how it stands it is very desperate I would wish you to returne unto the Lord it will be your best course hee doth not doe thus but he came to all the people and marke how hee speakes If Baal be God follow him if the Lord be God follow him Away with this halting what neither hot nor cold A man cannot tell where to have you intend one thing or other if Baal be God why so if the Lord bee God so make something of it in this case thus hee spake to all the people saith the Text. And we shall observe the same in Iohn Baptist that had the power and spirit of Elias Matth. 3.7 hee did not goe there behind the doore to speake but hee spake to the Pharisees and Sadduces after this manner O yee generation of vipers who hath forewarned you to flee from the wrath to come As if he had said You are they that opposed Christ and set your selues against the Gospell you have hardned your hearts you will not enter into heaven your selues not suffer others to enter in Why who hath forewarned you to flee from the wrath to come Neither is this a strange course or unprofitable for our Saviour Christ himselfe useth it in Mat 23.23 from thence to the
with any thing must first bee affected withall himselfe hee must mourne before others will sorrow his heart must be affected with the truth that he delivers to others before he can make others to be affected with it I compare a mans word and the delivery of it to an arrow draw it up to the head in a bow and then it will both carry levell hit sure and fasten to the marke the word we speake is the arrow the delivery of it coldly like the shooting of the arrow with a small strength but the delivery of it with true and hearty affection is the drawing it up to the head and then somewhat will be done then we shall shoot home into the hearts and consciences of men and make them at a stand It was a speech of Moses Deut. 32.2 Let my doctrine drop as the dew as the raine upon the grasse Moses his doctrine is compared to dew and to raine now if there come a great raine and a mighty wind with it especially a whirlewind it carrieth all before it sometimes it breakes up the foundations of houses and sometimes rends up trees by the roots and overturnes all things with the violence of it The Doctrine and truth which the Ministers of God deliver is as the raine now the holy affection wherewith it is delivered is like the whirlewind When the truth of God is delivered with a holy violence and hearty affection by Gods servants evermore it makes way it beats downe and breaks all before it it wets more and sinkes more and farre deeper then any kind of other teaching So then hee particularly and soundly applies the word of God to mens hearts and consciences that evidently by Scriptures and strong arguments convinceth others with an holy and hearty affection this man performes the ministery of God powerfully Now wee must see how this powerfull ministerie works upon the soule and heart of a poore sinner How a powerfull Ministery works upon the heart to prepare it for Christ to fit and prepare him for Christ Iesus And first this kind of preaching doth discover the very secrets of a mans soule together with the vilenesse and wickednes that is in the heart so that the soule seeth that it never saw before and apprehendeth that which before it never conceived The soule of a poore sinner that before lay under a lazie ministerie when it comes to be under a powerfull ministery and sees things particularly applied followed oh how then it begins to be at a stand Heb. 4.12 there the Text saith The word of God is quick and powerfull and sharper than any two edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soule and spirit and of the joynts and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart When a man preaches powerfully he preaches as if hee were in the bosome of a man he may tell him things in his eare which he thinks no man knowes of Therefore saith Saint Paul 2 Cor. 4.1.2 seeing we have this ministery as we have received mercy we faint not But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty not walking in craftinesse not handling the word of God deceitfully but by manifestation of the truth commending our selues to every mans conscience in the sight of God As if hee should say Wee doe not set another colour upon the word of God as the word implieth being taken from tradesmen that would set a faire colour glosse upon their wares and make them seem otherwise than they are we doe not doe thus saith the Apostle but our word goeth home vnto your consciences and discovers what is in your hearts Secondly as the word powerfully preached doth discover what is in a mans heart and driveth his soule to an amazement by reason of the sin that is in it so also it drives the soule into an awe of sin so that it dares not meddle with sin as it did before it overpoureth the soule of a poore sinner and makes him affraid of sin and nothing but the word can doe it nothing but the powerfull delivery of the word will do it Luke 3.9 10. when Iohn preached the word powerfully the people came to him and asked him saying What shall we doe Then came the Publicans which were ranked among the worst company to be baptized and said unto him Master what shall we doe And the souldiers asked him What shall wee doe So that all came under the powerfull ministery of S. Iohn So Matth. 7.29 where the Text saith Christ taught as one having authority and not as the Scribes and Pharisees what is the meaning of this The meaning is hee taught as hee would command mens consciences not that he converted all he preached unto for it is probable that Saint Peter converted more than ever Christ did but hee did command the consciences of men he made men either yeeld to his doctrine and be humbled or else he made them know that they should be condemned by his word for ever Our Saviour did not preach as the Scribes and Pharisees that made a lazie tale to the people and when he was gone no man was affected with it No no Christ commands the consciences of men and either made them seale to his truth or else sealed them up to condemnation His doctrine drave the soules of his hearers to a stand hee did convince their consciences that that which he taught was true they could not deny it And this is to teach with authority this is the nature of the worke of the Lord in the ministery of the word when it commeth with power so that it is plaine that a powerfull ministery which with a particular application couragiously applieth the word of God to mens soules and with soundnesse of argument conuinceth and with zealous and fervent affection is delivered will both discover sin and over-power sin in the hearts of men and so fit and prepare them for the receiving entertaining and welcomming of the Lord Iesus Christ Reasons of the point The Reasons of the point are two First God appoints this powerfull ministerie as the meanes onely to prepare men for Christ therefore nothing can doe it besides Secondly God worketh onely with this meanes and blesseth it onely this is the sword of the Spirit The Spirit of the Lord moveth onely with this means and therefore nothing but this can do it Ob. I but some may say corrections and afflictions prepare men for the Lord how then is a powerfull ministery the onely meanes to doe it Ans I answer Affliction prepares the heart for the word the word for God that afflictions may prepare mens hearts for the word but not immediately for God that is these if they be blessed unto men goe thus farre they open the eyes of a man in so much that he is willing to heare and attend unto the word and be informed by it and is content to take the counsell of God but the word is that
hearts before we goe And this is the first use of the point to discover unto us what is the reason that the Ministers of God doe so little good in their places it is because this power is wanting in them Vse 2 Fearefull is their estate whom a powerfull Ministery workes not upon The second use discovereth unto us the fearefull estate and miserable condition of those that have lived a long time under a powerfull ministery and yet have not found their soules fitted and prepard for the Lord by the same it is a fearefull suspicion that God will never conferre any good to that soule he that hath lived under a powerfull ministery many yeeres and yet is not wrought upon and framed to the truth oâ— God it cannot be certainly concluded but it is greatly to be suspected that the meanes will never profit that man Looke as it is with the Master Carpenter Simile when he hath turned every peece of timber and taken what he will for his turne hee tells them that bee under him Let this be hewed and this be framed and made fit for the building afterward he finds one piece broken and another crackt and another knottie Why what saith he here is no squaring of it these peices are fit for nothing but for the burning they are fit for no place in the building Oh take heed when Gods ministers have been cutting and hewing now exhorting now perswading now cutting the heart with reproofes and yet finde here a crackt heart and there a stubborne soule that will not be squared to the Word least then the Lord should say These will never be fitted and prepared for me they are fit for nothing but for the fire Oh take heed of it he that will not be fitted for grace shall be made a fire brand in hel for ever and therefore goe home you that haue lived under a powerful ministerie and are not yet prepared go home I say and reason with your own souls plead with your own hearts and say Lord why am not I yet humbled and prepared shall I stand at this hacking and hewing and never be framed Such a man and such a man that was stubborne was wrought upon the Lord hath brought him upon his knees there was another drunkard so wicked and so profane that all the world gave him for lost many dayes a gone and yet the Lord hath brought him home and hee is become a broken hearted Christian Nay if the Devill himselfe had had those meanes that I have had and any hope of mercy he would have beene bettered by it those reproofes those instructions those admonitions which I have had would have done the Devill himselfe good But what shall I think that am not fitted and prepared for Christ by this great means Alas thou maist justly suspect that God never intends good to thy soule it is no absolute conclusion but it is a great suspition that those which have lived under a powerfull ministery halfe a dozen yeers or longer and have got no good nor profited under the same it is a shrewd suspicion I say that God will send them downe to hell therefore suspect thy owne soule and say Lord will exhortations ever prevaile will instructions doe me any good will terrours and reproofes ever strike my heart Why I have heard Sermons that would have shaken the very stones I trode upon that would have moved the very seat I sate upon the very fire of hell hath flashed in my face I have seen even the plagues of hell and if terrors can doe me good why not then those exhortations instructions admonitions and reproofs that I have often had I have had as powerfull meanes as may bee which yet never did me any good The Lord be mercifull to such a poore soule The Lord turne the heart of such a poore sinner that he may lay hold of mercy in due time Vse 3 Let the word be powerfull to prepare thy heart for Christ The third use is a use of exhortation Is it so that a powerfull ministery is able to prepare the soule of a poore sinner for the Lord Iesus Why then when you heare the word of God powerfully preached labour that the word may be so to you as it is in it selfe it is a preparing word labour you that it may prepare your hearts to receive Christ You that be hearers every one labour to saue the soule of another let the father speake concerning his children and the husband concerning his wife and his family and the wise concerning her husband Oh when will it once be when will the time come that my child may be fitted for the Lord when will it bee that my poore family my poore wife my poore husband shall bee prepared for the Lord the Lord grant that he may be prepared if not this sunday yet on another if not at this Sermon then at the next Lord humble your hearts and giue way to the word of God and suffer your soules to be wrought upon by it for the word of God is powerfull to prepare you for the Lord but the Minister must hew your hearts and hack them he must frame and fashion your soules before they can be prepared Give up your soules therefore to the word and come unto it with holy dispositions let the Ministers of God cut and hew you let them doe any thing that may do you good let the word of God fall upon you and fashion you and frame and prepare you for the Lord Iesus As it is with men when they set Carpenters on worke to build an house then they come every day Simile and aske them How doth the work goe on how doth the building goe forward When you goe home so doe you reason with your selves and aske your owne hearts how the worke of the Lord goeth forward in you Is my heart yet humbled am I yet fitted and prepared for Christ I thanke God I am in some measure fitted and humbled and therfore I hope the building will goe forward Thus try and examine your hearts whether they bee fitted and prepared to receive the Lord Iesus THE SOULES INGRAFTING INTO CHRIST Mal. 3.1 And the Lord whom yee seeke shall suddenly come into his Temple THE last day as you remember I finished the doctrine of humiliation of soule whereby the heart is prepared and the soule is emptied of it self and of all carnall confidence in any outward excellencie and so is contented to bee at the dispose of the Lord Iesus Christ But before I come to that which is to follow give mee leave to preface for my selfe that the order of the worke may bee more better and cleerely conceived and that the weake may be holpen in their condition and have their hearts enlarged to seeke unto God Now in the way of preface let me shew how farre we have gone secondly let mee shew you how I meane to goe on in this worke if God give leaue and
treat of First that the humbled sinner stands possessed of Christ for he that is not humbled and broken hearted hath nothing to doe with Christ nor comfort comming from him I use this phrase He stands possessed of Christ rather then that Hee possesseth Christ because the worke lies on Christs part The Spirit of the Lord Iesus takes possession of and humbled sinner and makes him part of his care and hee comes by that meanes to bee interessed into the care of Christ Christ possesseth him and by this meanes he comes to be possessed of Christ so that all he hath is meerely the worke of the Spirit of God upon him as the Apostle saith Gal. 4.9 But now that you haue known God or rather are known of God It is not what wee conceive or what wee know but what hee knows and conceives and in Phil. 3.14 Saint Paul strove hard If that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of him He doth not say that hee is able to apprehend God but that God comprehends him As it is with a little child that is not able to goe of it selfe the father takes the child in his hand and then it is able to go The child holds the father not because it hath any power of it selfe but because the father holds him so we hold the Lord Iesus Christ because we are holden of him for the humbled soule stands possessed of Christ because Christ maketh him his care and his charge and takes possession of him and therefore he comes to have an interest in Christ Secondly as he stands possessed of Christ so he is made partaker of all the spirituall good things that are in Christ still the action lies chiefly upon Christ and we so move as we are first moued by him and we so worke as we are wrought upon by him He is made partaker of all the good in Christ not because hee can challenge it but because the Lord will convey and communicate it to him These two things you shall obserue to be general operations and to go through all the works of application of Christ as in vocation the Lord by his Spirit doth draw the soule after him there is the possession of Christ and then the soule follows Christ and comes to him and in justification Christ undertakes for the sinner and layes downe the payment of the debt for him and then he freeth the sinner from the debt thus the soul is neerer still and in adoption God the Father taketh him in the roome and right of a son and then he stands further possessed of grace and withall the Lord estates him in all the priviledges of grace in meeknesse and holinesse and he sets his seale to him and gives him his marke and withall he is free from the power and dominion of his corruptions So that these two are generall things and have a kind of conveyance of themselves over all the whole worke of application of Christ Thirdly the last thing in the description is this All this is done by the worke of Gods Spirit For the graft cannot be planted till it be cut off and pared It must have the same hand that cut it off and pared it by contrition and humiliation for the same hand of the same Spirit must ingraft the soule into Christ Now for the following discourse we haue chosen these words of the Prophet Malachy from which we will take onely so much as will serue our turne for that wee have to speake These words are nothing else but a Prophecy of the ministerie of Iohn Baptist and in them two things principally considerable First the worke of the ministery of Iohn Baptist Mal. 3.1 Behold I send my messenger to prepare my way before mee Secondly The consequent good that flowes from this And the Lord whom ye seeke shall suddenly come into his Temple As great men have their harbingers to make ready their way before them and to make preparation for them before they come to any place so it is with the Lord of life hee is the great Commander of the world it is he that takes possession of the hearts of all that belong to life and happinesse but before he comes to take possession he sends Iohn Baptist to prepare the heart and when it is fitted then he comes suddenly into his Temple Here consider First What the Temple is Secondly What it is to come into his Temple and how Christ commeth into it This word Temple besides the natural and literall sense of it wherein it aimes at the materiall Temple of Ierusalem which we will not meddle with Christs temple is spirituall is taken spiritually and so it is to be conceived here and then it implies the Church of Christ in the number of the faithfull You shall see the phrase of Scripture to intimate so much 1 Pet. 4.17 If judgment begin at the house of God what shall the end of the ungodly be that obey not the Gospell of God There the house of God is opposed to them that obey not the truth of God so that they that obey the truth that are willing to bee at the dispose of God and reforme their lives after his will and word they are the house and temple of Christ As in generall all the people of God thus obeying the word of God so in particular euery Christian man and woman is the Temple of Christ As the Apostle saith You are the Temples of the living God 2 Cor. 6 16 As it was in the materiall Temple in Ierusalem the glory of the Lord filled it and the Lord said he would dwell in it for ever so the heart truely prepared is the Temple of the Lord and the Lord Christ takes possession and rules in it and fils it with all grace This is the meaning of the first word It is plaine by force of argument The word Temple is to bee taken in the same sense in which the way to the temple is taken As also the way to the Temple but the way to the Temple is the fitting of the soule and the heart for Christ for so all the Evangelists expresse it Iohn saith Repent yee for the kingdome of heaven is at hand Mat. 3.2 Isa 40.3 Also Isaiah saith Prepare ye the way of the Lord make his paths straight So that the preparation of the way to the Lord is nothing else but for people to repent of their sins Repenting and preparing are both one But more especially that place of Saint Luke ch 1. ver 15.17 where speaking of Iohn Baptist he saith He shall bee full of the holy Ghost nay Hee shall come in the spirit and power of Elias to turne the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisedome of the just to make ready a people prepared for the Lord The way is in the heart of a man and this preparation is the turning of their hearts to the way of the just men
And that other place in Luke 3.5.6 can admit of no other sense Every valley shall be filled and every mountaine and hill shall be brought low And all flesh shall see the salvation of God These words cannot be literally understood for there was no mountaines to be removed nor no vallies to bee filled up for Christ was no temporall King but the meaning is a removeall of all those mountains and impediments that stood betweene Christ and the soule Thus you see the Temple prepared is nothing but the heart truely broken and humbled Secondly let us see what it is to come into this Temple And Christs comming to it As the way and the Temple was so the comming into this Temple is to be spiritually understood and that is when the Lord Iesus Christ comes to take possession of him but consider this he comes like a King and therefore hee hath Iohn Baptist to make way for him The comming of a King discovers it selfe in two things first the King taketh the Soveraigne command of the place where he is and if there be any guests there they must be gone and resigne up all the house to him so the Lord Iesus comes to take soveraigne possession of the soule Secondly the King brings all his provision with him so the Lord Christ brings all provision for the soule with him So then the meaning is this When Iohn Baptist by the power of the word hath wrovght upon the soule and made it humble and low and willing to be at the Lords dispose when the broken heart seeks for a Saviour then the Lord comes suddenly and like a King You humble soules consider this he will take possession of those humble broken hearts of yours and he will bring his owne provision with him he cares for nothing but a vessell emptied and a heart thus fitted and prepared he will bring provision enough of comfort of vocation of adoption of sanctification and the like In this part of the verse thus opened wee have two doctrines first that the Lord Iesus Christ will not delay to come into the heart that is truely humbled and broken Who is the Lord Christ What is the Temple The heart truely humbled And when comes he Suddenly this is the ground of the doctrine The second is the Lord Iesus takes possession of the soule humbled and provides for it as his owne he comes like a King as I said before This is the ground of the second point which discovers the nature of the implantation the first discouers the appurtenances of it Doct. Christ delays not to come into an humbled heart For the first The Lord Iesus will not delay to come into the heart truely humbled as I may say he layeth all other workes aside as if he did looke for none but this how he may come home to the heart truely humbled The Lord will not come at a proud worldly minded man No the Lord leaves all yea heaven and all the world and onely lookes after and loues to live with the humble broken heart For proofe of the point This is the reason why the Scripture doth not content it selfe to shew the marvellous delight that God hath in such a spirit See how plenteous the Scripture is to shew how ready the Lord is to call in at the heart of the humbled soule and to rise and lie and rest to eat and drink and sleep with the humble heart nay when he is come he wil not away againe as wee may see in that example of the lost son Luke 15.20 Hee said I will arise and goe to my father and say Father I have sinned against heaven and before thee and am not worthy to bee called thy son make me as one of thy hired servants As soone as ever he resolved of the worke marke how the father behaues himselfe towards him though he were base and beggarly in his condition He might have said Let thy Harlots and thy Queanes helpe thee But he saw him a far off and ran to meet him and fell upon his neck and kissed him Though he were a wretched creature yet now he because the father saw him humble he remembers not that he had been with Harlots all was forgotten the father saw him afarre off before the child could spie him he pittied him before he could confesse his sin he was more ready to meet him than he was to come and he kissed him before he could receiue any acknowledgement from him This is the marvellous enlargement of the Lord to receive an humble broken heart And when he had kissed him Luk 15.21 22 the lost child said Father I have sinned against heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to bee called thy son But the father said to his servants Bring forth the best robe and put it on him and put a ring upon his hand and so forth as if he had said It is no matter what thou hast bin now thou art come home and hast humbled thy selfe I am glad of it Thus he passeth by all the former misdemenours And so it is in the same Chapter ver 4.5.6 If a man have an hundred sheep and lose one will he not leaue the ninety nine and seek that which was lost And when hee hath found it hee layeth it on his shoulders rejoycing And when he comes home he calleth together his friends and saith Rejoyce with me for I have found my lost sheep The meaning is this The lost sheep is the lost sinner that is wandred from the Lord Iesus Christ The soule that after all the mercies and favours that God hath shewed to allure him he goes away from God and then one drops in a ditch and another is lost in the wildernesse or Forrest yet hee leaues all to seeke the lost sheepe and leaveth not seeking till he findeth it and if he hath found it he reioyceth For the Lord will leave all to seeke a poore lost sinner and the more need thou hast and the more lost thou art in thy selfe the more labour will the Lord take to find thee out and though thou canst not goe the Lord will carry thee upon his shoulders and when thou art come home hee rejoyceth exceedingly This shewes the marvellous bounty of the Lord to poore sinners it is the scope of the Parable concerning the Pearle Matth. 13.45.46 The kingdome of heaven is like unto a wise Merchant man who having found one Pearle of great Price went and sold all that he had to buy it The pearle is nothing else but that rich mercy of God in his son Christ and Christ in the promise is the Pearle and the Merchant-man is every Christian man that wants mercy and comfort to releive him for he saith What is all the world to me if my soule wants mercy Well he knowes where the Pearle is What 's the price of it Sell all Selling of all is nothing but this when a man is content to part with sin and all
cannot be granted for Christ is so farre from being unwilling that he desires to come in for he hath knockt at many a proud heart Behold I stand at the doore and knock if any man heare my voyce and open unto me I will come into him and will sup with him and he with me Rev. 3.20 And in other places he saith Forsake thy sins and corruptions and receive thy owne salvation and be not under the rule of sinne and those base lusts Cant. 5.2 Open my love my dove my undefiled Surely if the doore were open he would come in nay himselfe saith so professedly as in that place aforenamed Oh hee hath knocked many a time at the heart of a poore wretch and said If any man will open to me I will come in If any He that promiseth to come in if the doore were open there is no unwillingnesse on his part but in the humbled soule there are no more lets for he hath thrown away sin in himselfe and said I love you not I regard you not let the Lord Iesus come and rule in this same broken heart of mine Thus gather up all If it be the end of God the Fathers sending Christ and the scope of Christs comming and if the glory of his grace bee much more advanced this way and if there be no hinderances then immediately expect him hee commeth suddenly Vse 1 Great comfort to each humbled soule Vse 1. The uses are manifold First it is a ground of marvellous comfort to every humbled soule let not stubborne and rebellious wretches that say Wee will not have this man rule over us let not such I say meddle with this comfort To you I have nothing to say now hereafter I shall say something to you to your cost But all you soules that are willing to give way to Christ Iesus and to breake open doore for Christ and all you that have any evidence of this work I say all you broken hearts goe your way with comfort Christ will comfort you nay hee will meet you at home Me thinks this is enough to comfort the heart of any in the world Then let what can befall us the Lord Christ will come suddenly But some will say Quest. Many are my sins that lie hard upon me and my aâ—ominations come in like troups and all the old train band of loosenesse and vanity they are come in against me and all the sins that I have committed the guilt of them yet remaines and I cannot get strength against them but still they prevaile for my conscience is not quieted but my old sins flie in my face Answ But are your hearts thus perplexed with the sight of sin and with the expectation of the misery of them as in truth there is much cause to lament Art thou thus broken hearted and thus perplexed And canst thou say Were my heart rid of my sinnes I should bee comforted Then I say notwithstanding all thy sins if the Lord see thee humbled he seeth not thy sinnes hee will come and comfort thee let all thy sinnes come and rise up in armes against thee the Lord Christ will come suddenly and then mercy will come to pardon and grace will come to succour thee against thy sin Quest But what will the Lord come into this wretched vile corrupt heart of mine What will Iesus Christ come into this Temple Indeed he may come to such a man that is humbled but he will never come to such a wretch as I am I have sinned thus and thus Answ See what the Text saith Apoc. 3.2 Behold I stand at the doore and knocke if any man will heare and open he doth not say I stand at the doore of a Nobleman but at every base adultererer and drunken wretch If the drunkard and the adulterer will open the Lord will come in and sanctifie him and take possession of him and rule in him and cleanse him from all his lusts and corruptions Though thy lusts and abominations be many that will not hinder him And as there is admirable comfort against sin so there is admirable comfort against all misery He knowes nothing that knowes not that all the Christian world is in an uprore and that the enemy doth worke abroad But though you doe not see these you may see the world opposing and the Divell temptting and the wicked casting reproach upon all hands and your hearts begin to bee daunted and say I would professe Religion but my father would be discontented and shame and disgrace will come in amaine and misery and persecution will come notwithstanding the Lord Iesus Christ is comming into those soules of â—ours For if you bee soundly humbled Christ comes suddenly and then come what can come in all troubles Christ will comfort you and in all weaknesses Christ will strengthen you yea he will let the spirit of glory rest upon you here and glorifie you with himselfe for ever hereafter In all wants there is comfort though friends and meanes and all go yet Christ comes and the further thy friends go from thee the nearer will Christ come to thee Eccles 10.19 Let your soules be herein refreshed for ever Mony as the Proverb is answers all A man will change honour and leave his place for money and we use to say Money will doe it If you want honour money will buy it and whatsoever the world can doe money can doe And hereupon it is that the rich man saith I have it by me if he wants a house hee hath money that will buy it You that are humbled goe your wayes and eat your meat with glad hearts the Lord accept of you the God of comfort refresh your hearts yet more against these troublesome times Luke 12.32 It is the speach of Christ to his disciples Feare not little flocke it is your fathers will to give you a kingdome If a broken and humbled soule goe into prison Christ wil goe to all the prisons in Christendome but he will find him out and there he will comfort him If the humbled soule goe into the Indies Christ will bee there with him nay if it were possible for the humbled soule to goe downe to hell the Lord Christ would come into him for wheresoever he is Christ will be Feare not be not dismaied Christ is thine you have not onely a Kingdome but a Christ and he answers to all Christ is the God of all comfort and the father of all mercy thou hast many wants and weaknesses and Christ is the God of all mercies from him comes every good and perfect gift and he will comfort thee Wheresoever thou art Christ will looke in if thou art banished he will wander up and downe all wildernesses but hee will find thee and save thee for ever If we be not comforted it is a shame for us considering what wonderful priviledges we have in Christ Vse 2 Vse 2. The second use is for examination and triall They are of a
naughty spirit who endure not broken spirits Doth Christ come suddenly into the heart truely humbled and prepared Let us trie then and take a taste of the spirits of such men that are not able to beare nor endure the presence of poore broken hearted sinners If the servant will not lie for the masters advantage and if the child leaue his base courses and will not give a carnall father content according to his mind marke how their spirits rise against such men their hearts rise with marvellous desperate indignation against such men they cannot thinke of them with any quiet they cannot brook the sight of them if it be a servant never so loose and vile hee is regarded but the humble child is trampled upon and they say to him You had best goe to your holy brethren and to the company of such and such precise ones This is the undoubted argument of a gracelesse spirit either Christ erres or else thou art out of the way either Christ is to be blamed for his practice or thou Doth he come to such as are humbled and art thou weary of them Thou art a gracelesse soule and an enemy to the Lord of life When the people of Israel began to speake of going into the wildernesse to sacrifice to the Lord their God they did stinke and were abominable in the eyes of Pharaoh and the Egyptians indeed the Egyptians did alwayes dislike them Exod. 5.21 but now they were an abomination to them This was nothing else but a type Pharaoh is the Devill and this Egyptian servitude is our spirituall bondage under sinne How doth thy heart stand towards these poore soules Art thou carried with indignation against them It is an argument of a heart void of grace and that thou art an Egyptian to this day therefore the Lord will requite thee in thy owne kind and that thou art now weary of their society and art not able to live with them and art loath to be seene amongst them and darest not shew thy selfe to come within the compasse of a broken heart lest thy drunkken companions revile thee for the same and say art turned a Puritan now will you bee of their company and then thou swearest thou knowest them not This is a shrewd signe thou shalt never enioy the company of those poore Saints in glory Vse 3 The third use is a ground of instruction and we hence learne how to make choice of our companions Chuse the broken-hearted for companions Learne of our Saviour the broken hearted sinners are the best for society in the world and therefore reioyce thou in their company Let us not thinke much to come to such as Christ comes to let us not thinke that the basenesse of their persons or the meannesse of their estates will be any cause for us why we should discard or disdaine their company Be sure that thy soule bee farre from this carnall distemper Happily thy carnall friend will say Thou wilt disgrace thy person to keepe company with such as those are Make answer for thy selfe and against their face and say They are my betters yea the Lord Iesus Christ blessed for ever keeps company with them and shall not I doe it too The Lord Iesus desires no better company and shall I goe any further If he bee a sound broken hearted sinner it s no matter what his condition be As the Apostle Saint Iohn saith That you also may have fellowship with us 1 Iohn 1.3 Why may some say what great matter is that The Apostle saith our fellowship is no small matter for it is with God the Father and with Iesus Christ There is never a poore soule though hee goe barely and fare meanely but if his heart bee truely humbled his fellowship is with Iesus Christ which is no little matter Zech. 8.23 when the Lord had honoured the Iewes there came many citizens to them and took hold of the skirt of a Iew and said We will go with you for we have heard that God is with you So doe thou Dost thou see a broken hearted man lay hold on his skirts dwell in that house if thou canst and say I will liue with thee for ever God is with thee nay the Lord is in thee yea the company of an humbled soule is even a corner of heaven here upon earth It is so in truth and therefore let it be so in your judgements What is it to be in heaven Wee shall be ever with the Lord this is to be in heaven 1 Thes 4.17 Is this to be in heaven Then wheresoever thou art thou art with Christ thou art in heaven Whensoever thou art in the company of a broken hearted sinner thou art with Christ and therefore in heaven and whensoever thou commest into their company Christ Iesus will give thee the meeting Your fashionmungers count it a matter of credit to have Court fashions this is the Court fashion and the Court is where Christ our Lord and King is Christ dwels in such a house and in such a heart and therefore as thou dost hope to be with Christ for ever rejoyce to be with such persons this is the onely way that a man must take to chuse his company Doe good to all neighbours and all Christians and hope well of all but reioyce especially in those whose hearts are truely broken in the sight and presence of the Lord. Vse 4 4. It is a ground of thankfulnesse to all that are truely humbled before God Be thankfull for this great respect of Christ to thy poore soule Thus you ought to have your hearts stored with thankfulnesse nay to stand and wonder at the goodnesse and kindnesse of God I would have a man spend all his time this way When the Lord Iesus hath gone through many Countries and passed by many rich and honourable and great ones of the world and that he should looke in at a poore family and knocke at a poore mans doore and that hee should looke in at a poore wretched heart of a wife or of a child this is marvellous mercy If a great person especially a Prince or Monarch did looke into a poore mans house or come to visit a man in prison what would the world say Oh the like was never heard of the King himselfe in his owne person lighted there and staid there and went into the dungeon and conferred with him a great while Men would bee besides themselves if they had this favour from the King In Luke 1.43 when Mary was with child of the Lord and came to visit Elizabeth shee said to Mary Whence is this to mee that the mother of my Lord should come to mee I see no ground nor reason for this there is no worth on my part that I should looke for such favour Now if shee were so ravished with the presence of Mary the mother of Christ what maist thou bee then in regard of the presence of Christ himselfe that is come to lodge in thy
sutes best with the hearts of wayward sinners onely hee lets in some incklings of his favour and grace and upholds the heart with so much mercy as may beare it up and yet but with so much Thus the Lord deales with us as a wise father doth with his child Simile hee seeth if he had his portion in his hands he would be riotous and carelesse and therefore it is wisedome not to trust him with his estate but to keepe him low and to keepe him upon dependance that hee may have better subjection from his hands So it is with the Lord he seeth that wee have unruly hearts and that if wee had that evidence of Gods mercy made knowne to us that wee would have we would be so proud and so haughty and so full of contempt and so censorious that there were no living with us therfore the Lord keepes us short and holds such soules low and keepes us only in some hope to hold up our soules and the more dependance the soule hath the more observance hath the Lord from us Experience proveth it true I have many things to write unto you but you are not able to beare them now you are not capable of them yet As it is with a little barke Simile if it should have a great maine mast and broad saile cloathes then in stead of carrying it it would bee overthrowne by them therefore men proportion their mast according to their shippe or barke and if it have skilfull Mariners they strike saile when they come into the shallow or narrow Seas This is the reason why the Lord deales so with us the soule is like the ship and the sense of Gods love and mercy is like the saile that carries us on in a Christian course and if we get but a little saile of mercy and favour we goe on sweetly and comfortably but if God give us aboundance of assurance our cursed rotten hearts would overturne and in stead of quickning of us it would ouerthrow us so that though God doth it the fault is in our selues That I take to bee the ground why many a poore Saint of God hath smoaked out his dayes in doubting and making question of Gods mercy and goodnes and at the houre of death God hath given them a full assurance of mercy Note and so carried them full saile to heaven they were not able to beare this before As a faithfull Minister of God once said to a poore woman that had beene long time questioning her selfe and doubting of her salvation when at last the Lord made it good unto her soule that Christ was her owne then the Minister sayd to her The Lord will not alwayes giue his children a cordiall but he hath it ready for them when they are fainting The comfort of Gods spirit is better then wine Cant 1.2 Now when a man hath a proud haughty selfe-conceited heart if he had much of this cordiall hee would forget himselfe and trample upon every one and therefore the Lord reserues this great mercy to the last this deprives a Christian of abundance of sweetnesse that otherwise God would bestow upon him Let every man therefore goe to his owne heart and examine it if while God is pleased to keepe us under hatches and to knock off our wheeles and leaue us in the dust if yet in the meanest degree we can snarle with Gods providence and say Why do I pray and God answers not others crie and God heareth them and why doth hee not heare me If when we are under wee doe thus then what would we doe if we might haue what we would we would say as the people in Ieremies time Wee will come no more at thee we are Lords Ieremy 2.31 Therefore that the Lord may prevent this proud spirit of ours and that we may walke in humility before him it is just with God to withdraw his Spirit from us if you haue not comfort thanke your selues for it So then gather up all and the summe is this If wee have not the apprehension of Christs presence with us though hee is there then either it is because of our owne ignorance or carelesnesse wee know him not or attend not when hee comes or else we mis-judge the presence of Christ and onely esteeme of his favour and presence according to the extraordinary sweetnesse that we would haue and that wee imagine should accompany the presence of Christ or else because our eyes are held with the hurry of some temptation and some worldly inconvenience that wee cannot see the Lord Christ though hee bee within us or else the Lord justly hideth himselfe from us because we are fallen into some grosse sinne or else parly with some private infirmities and doe not labour to humble our selues mightily for them and strive against them or else we doe abuse the favour of God or else wee have proud hearts that wee are not able to beaâ—e that comfort that we would have therefore I say the Lord hides himselfe from us to prevent evill in us This I take to be the answer to the question in hand Come into his Temple Here is a word that giues us foot-hold for the second Doctrine into his Temple This is a word of propriety as in that place when Christ came into the Temple and saw those that bought and sold in it He made a scourge of small cords and drave them all out of the Temple and the sheepe and the oxen and cast out the changers of money and overthrew the Tables Iohn 2.15 and he claimed the house for his owne saying My house shall be called a house of prayer Mat. 21 13. This word I say is a word of propriety Hee comes not like a stranger or like a forreiner but like a King to his Palace to take possession of it So the Doctrine is this Doct. 2 Doct. 2. Christ takes possession of every humbled soule When the Lord Iesus comes to a soule truely humbled hee taketh possession of it as his owne he comes into his Temple This is the scope of the comparison he comes as a King to his Throne where hee sits and to the Kingdome where hee rules I told you before that the ingraffing of the soule into Christ is nothing else but when the Lord by his Spirit comes to take possession of the humbled soule so that the soule stands possessed of Christ and is made partaker of all those spirituall good things that are in Christ This is generall to all the workes of application of Christ and the footsteps are to be seene in all the workes of of vocation justification adoption sanctification and the like the Lord Iesus gets ground in the heart by all these As in vocation the Lord drawes the soule to himselfe and the soule followes him in justification the Lord undertakes for the sinner and unites the soule to himselfe and makes it one with himselfe in adoption the Lord makes him a sonne and in sanctification
thou the hope of Israel why dost thou depart In Gen. 19.2 when the two Angels came to Lot in Sodome the one was Christ Lot compelled them to go in Christ is not now unwilling but hee knockes and calls and saith Open to me my love my dove my undefiled he entreats the loose person to forsake his base practises and the covetous person to leave his oppression and to receive mercy but you suffer Christ to lye in the street and despise that word of his and will bee at your owne carving This especially falls foule upon two sorts of persons The first sort is all carnal profane opposers of the Lord Iesus The carnall Gospeller is content that Christ should undertake for him and bee his Protectort to defend him from the plague of sin but he is not content that Christ should rule in him He doth as the Inne-keeeper that receives a guest into his house to make an advantage of him for as the Inne-keeper will come to his guest and pretend great matters to him not because he would have his guest to possesse him but because hee would bee possessor of his money so the carnall Gospeller would have Christ for his owne turne hee would dispose of Christ and mercy for his owne purpose and hence come all those speeches God is mercifull and Hath the Lord Christ created men to damne them Oh but mercy is sweet and pardon is good This is thus much you would have Christ to pardon sinne that you might commit it with lesse feare and more freedome If you did see no Saviour but that you must needs be damned for it you would startle at it But you would have Christ to stand by you that you might sinne the more freely Oh be not deceived doe you thinke that Christ will come to be an underling to your lusts and a drudge to your base distempers whose condemnation is iust saith the Apostle No you are deceived you shall not have Christ a servant to carry your lusts and pleasures to heaven with you The truth is the Lord Iesus will never bring comfort nor consolation to thee that wilt not bee possessed of him either haue both or neither chuse whether you will The second sort to be reproved are a company of slie hypocrites that would part stakes with Christ and part houses with him they could bee content that hee should have some roome in the house but they will dispose of all themselues as a man that lets some roomes in his house Simile upon this condition that he may have them when he lists You willl pray against sinne provided that now and then Christ will give you leaue to practise it and you will cry out against it provided that you may have a privy seale or some secret licence for it and you will professe bitterly against base courses so you may haue some backe doore and inward lust still The Lord Iesus doth not share with any man can he have a part and the Divell a part nay hee will have either all or none It was the tricke of an adulterous heart for when there was contention for the children the harlot said 1 King 3.26 Let it be neither thine nor mine but divide it Nay saith the mother let her have all Shee was the harlot that would have the child devided So it is with an adulterous and dissembling heart that saith Let Christ have a part and the world a part let lusts and pompe have a part and Christ a part this is dissimulation with GOD and shall receive condemnation there must bee no sharing If your hearts be guilty of this I charge you in the name of the Lord Iesus consider it the Lord never came into your soules you must resigne all to him and then he will saue all he will pardon all sin and give power against it What a fearfull thing were it if the Lord should deale with you as you deale with him Suppose thou couldst be halfe damned wouldst thou be content to have thy heart go to hell and thine eye to heaven or thy body to hell and thy soule to heaven therefore that thy body and soule may both be saved resigne up up all into the hands of thy Saviour and let him dispose of all here in the kingdome of grace and then he will take all to himselfe in glory for ever Vse 2. If the Lord Iesus be the possessor of all the house then let every one haue his owne Give all to Christ whose it is doe not with draw from Christ that which is his Whose image and superscription hath the soule Christ Iesus hath the protection of it therefore let him have all Let thine eye see his works and wonder and admire at them let thy minde know Iesus Christ whom to know is eternal life but do not withdraw any thing from the true owner therof that hath purchased it full deare 1 Cor. 5.15 Shall I take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot God forbid Thine eye and thy tongue and thy hand and thy heart they are all Christs members he hath bought all with his blood and thou hast nothing to do with that which Christ hath bought therefore whensoever thy corruptions stirre and Satan tempts and begges for the use of thy mind or heart make answer and say Shall I take that heart that is Christs and thinke basely God forbid Shall I take the hand of Christ and worke wickednesse with it The holy Apostle is marvellous peremptory in this case as 1 Cor. 6.19 Glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are Gods and hee hath bought you with a price your bodies and soules are the Lords hee undertakes for both therefore glorifie God in both If a man did come to your house and take the meat and drinke that you have provided and rob you of your money you would take it very hardly and say It is my owne So you are not your owne Therefore if the Divell or the world would prevaile with you and enter into the use of your heart or minde tell him they are not thy owne they are the Lords IESVS CHRIST hath come into thy heart and minde in mercy and therefore say it is the Lords let him doe what hee will with it â‚ SPIRITVALL LOVE AND IOY Gal. 5.22 The fruit of the Spirit is love ioy goodnes faith c. THE sure mercies of David which faith beleeveth love embraceth And who so getteth this field and treasure must needs go away rejoycing in so good a bargain All this and all other graces and comforts worketh one and the same Spirit directing the heart to God uniting it unto Christ and thereby comforting it abundantly All is his fruit in us At this time of loue and joy The point of Doctrine is this Love and joy by the spirit wrought in a broken heart for embracing mercy as it deserves Doct. The Spirit of the Father kindles in the soule of
not worthy of mee He that prizeth any thing more in love or delights in any thing more with joy than in Christ is not worthy of Christ So then whosoever bestowes love or joy upon any carnall contents more than upon Christ his love and joy is not brought from Heaven it is a false love that will fade and will not bring him that comfort which hee lookes to receive from it This love is called the spirituall love 2 Tim. 1.7 For God hath not given us the spirit of feare but of power of love and of a sound mind wee have not received the spirit of bondage that is in preparation but the spirit of love that is in vocation It is called spirituall love because the Spirit of God in the promise kindles it and joy goes with it as you shall heare anon and it is that affection also in the example of Zacheus Luke 19.6 hee had a moneths mind to see Christ and as the learned well interpret it he had a blind desire but well set on by Christ and therefore see how hee labours to preventall opportunities and occasions he runnes before the croude and gets up into a tree and when hee was there Christ saw him and said Come downe quickly for I must dine at thy house Here was the voyce of Christ and the kindnesse of Christ too and this kindled the fire and wrought love and ioy for these two goe together and therefore the Text saith Hee came downe and received him joyfully This seemes to me to be the reason and meaning why sometimes in the phrase of Scripture love is put for beleeving as in Ioh. 3.18 19. Hee that beleeveth is not condemned but hee that beleeveth not is condemned already because he beleeveth not in the name of the onely begotten Sonne of God And this is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men love darknesse more than light The Text saith He that beleeveth not or he that receiveth not for they are both one hee proves this that a man not beleeving shall be damned why for this is the great condemnation that light is come into the world and men love darknesse more than light because he will not love Christ and will not receive him he receives darknesse and loves darknesse more than Christ intimating the neere combination betweene these two and the working and acting of them There are many other places that speake of love and ioy but none that fits this place of vocation Now to make this good there are two things necessarie to bee propounded and handled First to shew the reason of the order of Gods worke why after hope and desire there comes this love and ioy Secondly the ground of this love and what it is in the promise that will kindle and strike fire upon these two affections and bring them home to the Lord this being cleared it will then appeare how the Spirit of God in the promise doth kindle this love and ioy First for the former What is the reason of the order of Gods worke Why after hope and desire God workes love and joy in the soule why comes love and ioy next after hope and desire I answer There are but two affections and there need no more God being perfectly wise hath appointed it whereby the soule should send to meet with any good that is absent if the good be absent then the understanding saith that is a good to be desired and very comfortable oh that I had it then it sends out hope and that waits for that good and stayes till it can see it and if that good come not then desire hath another proper worke it goes up and downe wandering and seeking and suing for Iesus Christ and this desire goes from place to place from East to West from North to South saith When shall I and how may I come to the sight of Iesus Christ As the Spouse in the Canticles sought to the watch-men to enquire after Christ so desire wanders up and downe For so I told you it is the wandering of the heart and it never ceaseth going and enquiring if it can gaine any intelligence of Iesus Christ It goes to prayer to see if it can speake with Christ there and from thence it goes to the Word to see if that will reveale Christ and to conference if that will mention it and saith See you the Lord Iesus Christ The hungrie soule comes to the Church to see if it can heare any newes of Christ And thus it continues till at last the Lord Iesus Christ is pleased to come himselfe after the soule hath hungred for him and sought for him as Marie said Oh if you can tell me where my Lord is So the soule goes from one place to another from Prayer to the Word and from the Sacrament to Fasting and asketh of the ordinances Where is my Saviour and saith If you know where hee is tell me of him that I may be possessed of him After this the Lord Iesus Christ is pleased to come himselfe into the view of the heart which longeth thus after him and saith as the Prophet Behold thy King commeth So he saith Oh thou poore broken-hearted sinner here is thy Saviour hee is come downe from Heaven this day to speake peace and comfort to thee and thou that hast so long time prayed to thee he saith Here I am and all my merits are now become thine and to thee that doest thus hunger and desire Christ hee is now come to comfort thee Now when the Lord Iesus Christ is come within thy view and thy desire hath met with him then there comes the other two affections he is come within sight and now there are other affections stirred up and sent out by the Spirit of the Lord to give entertainment to Christ Iesus Love leads him into the soule and tels the will of him and saith Loe here is Iesus Christ the Messiah that hath ordered these great things for his Saints and people and Ioy is the attendant to wait upon him when he is come Suffer me to expresse my selfe thus in this manner because I would shew the guise of the frame of the heart in this worke It is with a poore humbled sinner Simile as it is with a malefactour or traitor who is pursued with a Pursuivant that hath laid wait for him as farre as the Sea and at last hee is resolved to yeeld and come in He hath offended his Soveraigne and hee is driven to a stand he cannot procure a pardon nor hee cannot escape therefore hee is content to come in and yeeld his necke to the blocke that as he hath offended so he may receive his punishment accordingly Now as hee is going he heares an inckling that there is some hope of a pardon and thereupon the poore man begins to reioyce in hope that he may be pardoned and then heareth other newes which saith if hee will but bee humbled before his Maiestie
and come to the Court and importune him for pardon it is likely that he may be pardoned nay it shall be so Marry saith he that I will with all my heart and so hee sets forward and comes to the Court his desire carries him thither Thus it is I say with a poore sinner hee is brought home to the Court and about the Court hee attends and askes for every man that comes forth Did you not heare the King speake of me and What doe you thinke of my case At last some of the bed-chamber say to him The King heareth that you are mightily humbled and earnestly desire his favour you shall heare more from him ere long At last the King himselfe lookes out at a window and saith Is this the Traytor Yes this is he that hath beene humbled and lyes at your mercy Then the King calls out and saith His pardon is drawing and it is comming by and by and so the King smiles on him Oh then his heart leapes in his breast and hee saith The Lord preserve your Grace I thinke there was never such a mercifull Prince knowne in the world This is the love and delight that is stirred up Now when the Pardon is sealed and granted then you shall see the worke of faith A poore humbled sinner is this malefactor that hath committed high Treason against the God of heaven for every sinner hath rebelled against the God of grace The stubborne rebellious heart hath stood out against the Lord God which is high Treason though you little thinke it when you goe on wilfully and say This man shall not rule over me Well bee humbled now in time while you have mercy offered for if you bee not humbled the Lord shall send a â—aylor to take and throw you downe to Hell and therefore you had better heare of it now than hereafter when there is no remedie Perhaps the Lord now pursueth a man with his heavie indignation and le ts flye at him and sets conscience on worke to follow him and to dogge him saying This is thy sinne and hell is thy portion to hell thou must Now the soule being beset with Gods wrath in conclusion seeth hee cannot escape the Lords hands and how to purchase mercy he knowes not nor is it possible otherwise for him to escape and yet hee hath nothing to purchase mercy withall therefore hee is content to lye downe before God saying I confesse I have sinned Oh Lord bee thou glorified though I be damned for ever my sinnes are so many and so vile I cannot almost desire mercy but if the Lord will who can let him Now when the heart is thus humbled then there comes a noise a great way off in the Ministery of the Gospell and that saith Thy sinnes are all pardonable so he lookes up and hope saith Lord it may bee a damned creature may bee recovered a dead dogge may be restored to life and a Traytor may be pardoned receiued Then the Lord sends another comfortable message namely That if thou canst but see a need of mercy and looke out and waite for him thou shalt be pardoned hereupon the penitent goes to the Court gate that is hee comes mourning to the Word and saith Oh yee faithfull Ministers of God you are of the bed-chamber and you know Gods minde I pray what doth God intend towards me Hereupon we that are the Ministers of God we tell him your case is right and happely if you attend upon God you may heare more of him hereafter for the Lord heares that you lye at the Court gate and that you are exceedingly humbled and thus farre desire goes At last the Lord Iesus Christ shewes and presents himselfe to the sinner and speakes with him in the Ministery of the Word and saith That fainting weary loaden heart of thine shall bee refreshed and then giveth him a looke of mercy so that his heart danceth within him Still you must understand that the Lord alwayes speaketh by the Ministery of the Word and therefore looke for no strange dreames and visions while the Lord saith Thou art hee that longs for my salvation goe thy way I have heard thy prayers thy pardon is granted and drawne it shall be delivered to thee afterward Now when a poore sinner findes some chearing of heart he may say The Lord spake to me it s done in heaven mercie is comming towards mee the pardon is now granted and is in drawing and shall be delivered to me in due time now againe his heart leapeth within him and hee saith Blesse the Lord O my soule who ever heard of such mercy what my sinnes be pardoned and is the pardon granted and drawne if I never heare more of it and if I goe downe to hell it is enough that God hath once smiled upon mee in his love it is enough though I have the paines of hell upon me for ever for it Esa 40.12 Comfort yee comfort yee my people saith your God Speake yee comfortably to Ierusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished that her iniquity is pardoned So the Lord saith to poore sinners after they have waited long enough and God hath seene their desires to be sound the Lord I say saith Tell that poore man from heaven and from the Lord Christ and under the hand of the Spirit that his sinnes are pardoned and he shall bee received to mercy Esa 66.1 2 3. The Lord lookes to him that is poore and of a contrite spirit and trembles at his word The poore creature comes and trembles at every truth and when hee heares of mercy hee saith Oh that is sweet mercy indeed but it is not mine and he shakes in the consideration of mercy that he should heare of it and not receive it The Lord lookes to him that is he casts a sweet looke upon him and lets in some sweet intimation of mercy and saith to the poore creature I have an eye to thee and my love is unto thee in the Lord Iesus Christ and with that his heart leapes in his bosome Of this kind I take that to be Ier. 31.18 19 20. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning and lamenting himselfe thus there is a heart humbled broken and thirsting thou hast chastised me and I was chastised as a bullocke unaccustomed to the yoke turne thou me and I shall bee turned thou art the Lord my God Surely after that I was turned I repented and after that I was instructed I smote upon my thigh I was ashamed yea even confounded because I did beare the reproach of my youth Here you see Ephraim bemoaning himselfe as if hee had said I am the man that have enjoyed all the meanes in abundant plenty and yet never profited the Lord hath corrected mee and I was not humbled Oh turne thou me then O Lord for there is no abilitie in mee Now I see the sinnes that before I could not see and the basenesse of my evill courses and I am even
ashamed of the former abuse of Gods graces and the many abominations harboured and liked Now marke what God answers in that place Verse 20. Is Ephraim my deare sonne is hee a pleasant child as if the Lord had said Since I spake to him I still remember him all the while that the Lord let in the fiercenesse of his wrath into his soule he earnestly remembred him I saw all his desires and I observed all his teares and my bowels are towards that poore hungry and longing sinner that longs for my goodnes in Iesus Christ and I will shew mercy to him This is the behaviour of the Lord to the soule and of the soule to the Lord again Thus you see the reason of the order of Gods worke love is like the Host that welcomes the guest and delight and joy is like the Chamberlaine that waites upon the guest This is the very guise of the heart Now in the second place I come to the Motiues or that spirituall good Gods promise the ground of our love and how whereby the promise comes to worke this First what is it in the promise Secondly how comes the promise to work this in the hear◠and then we have the whole frame of the worke opened I answer for the opening of the point and the discovery of the truth in hand consider thus much It is when the spirit of God in the promise lets in some intimation of Gods love into the soule The weight lyes upon these two words Le ts in le ts in I say and conveyes some rellish of the loue of God into the heart when the Lord doth expresse any love and favour and goodnesse in that powerfull manner to the heart humbled and longing for his favour so that it doth prevaile with the soule and makes the soule to be affected with that rellish of his favour This is the ground of loue the certainty of a good stirreth up hope and the excellency of that good quickens up desire and the presence of this good kindles love there is a fulnesse that takes up all the whole frame of the work upon all the affections of the soule In Psal 42.8 it is said Psal 42.8 expounded The Lord will command his loving kindnesse in the day time what is that it is a phrase taken from kings and princes and great Commanders in the field whose words of command stand for lawes so the Lord shall send out his loving kindnesse and say Goe out my everlasting love and and kindnesse take a commission from me and goe to that humble thirsty and hunger-bitten sinner and goe and prosper and prevaile and settle my love effectually upon him and fasten my mercy upon him I command my loving kindnesse to doe it The Lord doth put a Commission into the hands of his loving kindnesse that it shall do good to the poore soule yea though he withdraw his soule saying what I mercy will Iesus Christ accept of me No no there is no hope of mcrcy for me Indeed if I could pray thus and heare thus and performe duties with that enlargement and had those parts and abilities then there were some comfort but now there is no hope of mercy for me We demand Is this your case is it thus and thus Yes you are thus humbled and have thus longed for the riches of his mercy in Christ haue you not Yes Then say we grace and mercy is yours I cannot thinke it saith he what such a wretch as I goe to Heaven no no Heaven would rather fall then such a sinner as I should come to be received there Thus he puts off mercy and shuts the door against it and at the last cast when carnall reason builds up forts against mercy and sets up strong holds against comfort consolation and neither Word nor Minister can comfort them then the Lord I say is faine to put a commission into the hands of his loving kindnesse when the poore sinner hath bin sighing and longing and nothing will content him but Christ thē then the Lord gives out the commission and saith Goe home to that poore soule and breake open the doores upon that weary weltering heart and knocke off all those bolts and rend off that veile of ignorance and carnall reason and all base arguments goe I say to that soule and cheare it and warme it and tell him from mee that his sinnes are pardoned and his soule shall be saved and his sighes and his prayers are heard in Heaven and I charge you doe the worke before you come againe Here is the goodnesse of God to expresse himselfe thus mercifully in his Word to the soule if it were in mans power no comfort should ever come to the soule but the Lord blessed be his Name for it he commands his loving kindnesse to breake in upon him As it is with an High Sheriffe when a man will not deliver up quiet possession to the owner he comes with his men and breakes open all before him and will estate the man into his possession so this loving kindnesse is the Lords High Sheriffe and when a company of Rake-shames of carnall reason would keepe out mercy the Lord is faine to send his loving kindnesse with a commission to seaze upon the heart Now take notice of this the ground of a mans love is any good which expresseth his presence to him as a good to come was the ground of hope and the necessitie and excellencie of that good makes the soule to long after it so now when a good is not onely present but expresseth his presence and leaues a kind of remembrance upon the soule that stirres up love continually but this must be done before love will come As it is with the naturall body if that which lyes upon a man carries some weight with it then it is easily felt but if it bee marvellous light it may lye upon us and wee not perceive it as a feather a flye or the like and if there comes any weight that affects the hand either wet or cold or warmth then hee feeles it but if it be light hee perceives it not as a mote may bee on the face and not be felt nor seene so love in the soule is like this touching of the body Now when loving kindnesse is not set on upon the soule and when it leaves no expression in the soule the heart cannot be affected with it nor returne that joy and delight that otherwise it would doe so that there must be a present good and a good expressing it selfe to the heart and affecting the heart therewith and then this love comes to God againe Gods love affecting the heart and setled upon it it breeds a love to God againe that is the ground which S. Iohn speaketh of 1 Ioh. 4 19. Wee love him because he loved us first As I told you in the example of the burning-glasse it must receive the heat of the beames of the Sunne before it can burne any
way and the God of heaven goe with thee this is a worke of God that will never leaue thee and it is a badge and a proper livery that the Lord Iesus gives onely to his Saints never a meere professor under heauen ever wore it nay there was never any hipocrite under heauen to whom God did intend it but onely those whom he hath effectually called and whom hee will save therefore though thou wantest all thou hast all to comfort thee in the want of all and thou maist say I can say little for Christ my tongue falters and my memory is weake yet the Lord knowes I loue the Lord Iesus 1 Ioh. 4.7 it is the incouragement that the Apostle gives saying Love one another for love commeth of God and every one that loveth is borne of God Indeed he presseth it in regard of the love to the brethren but the arguments serve for our purpose for if the loue of the brethren come from God then the loue of God is a more speciall worke of God Therefore can you plead thus with your hearts and say The time was Lord that this wretched sinfull carnall heart of mine could find no relish in the promises of grace and I could not bring this base heart to love the Lord Iesus Christ and the promise was wearisome to me but now I thanke God I can doe that which before I could not doe I thanke God that the promise of life and the light of Gods countenance is more to me now than all the contentments of the world surely I loue the Lord Iesus Christ And is not this of God Yes I warrant theee it is not of thy selfe thou hast beene taught from heaven it was not the schoole of the flesh and the world that taught thee this lecture it is from heaven and the Spirit of the Father hath over-shadowed thee in his promise and hath kindled this sparkle of loue in thee and thou hast that which is sound and true therefore bee comforted and reioyce in it thou canst say more than any man under heaven can say that hath not this sound love in his heart And likewise blessednesse And as this is a ground of comfort so also it is a ground of blessednesse Rom. 8.28 All things worke for the bâ—st to those that loue God Me-thinkes the Apostle speakes of such a love as is wrought by the Spirit of the Father in our vocation they worke for the best to those that are called according to his purpose he minded well towards them and called them from the love of the world And therefore since nothing can harme thee goe thy way and let nothing dismay thee nor discourage thee nay goe away ever cheered I charge you David desired no more but what God was wont to doe to his children that loved his name Doe to mee saith the Text as thou usest to doe to those that loue and feare thy Name Psal 119.132 I know thou lovest them that love thee and wilt save and glorifie them in the end I desire no more but this Doe as thou usest to doe to those that love thy Name Be quieted with thy childs part thy lot is fallen into a marvellous faire ground David a King desired no more and if thou hast so much as hee had it is enough Ob. Oh but some will say this is all the difficulty if a man had this love which came from God effectually calling him it were enough and a man might have comfort in it but there is a great deale of false love and false ioy in the world therefore how shall I know whether mine be any otherwise than theirs that I may not bee deceived as they are How may I know if this be of the right stamp For if it be right love God will owne it Answ Notes of true love to Christ Now for the answer to this question let every man put his love vpon the triall and wee will say no more then that which we have ground for from the doctrine delivered Therefore examine thy loue and thy joy thus Whether dost thou welcome Christ and grace according to the worth of them Now marke this if I prove I love God then there will be joy there too for they both grow upon one root onely this joy hath a little more of the sweetnesse of Gods love in it Now whether we welcome Christ according to the worth of it it will appeare by these five particulars First observe the roote and rise from whence thy love came 1. Triall consider this and weigh it sadly for it is of great difficulty yet it is never failing and it is the narrowest search that I know of therefore looke well to it if it come from the right mint it is currant You know it is the priviledge of Kings and Princes Simile that all the coine that comes from his Mint and is coined with his stamp is warrantable but if there bee any other Mint the King will not allow of it but rather punish him that did it lust so it is with this love it is the priviledge of the Lord Iesus Christ the Sonne of Gods love to mint and to coine love that may bee currant love indeed that hee may take for good payment Therefore doth thy love come from the Spirit of the Father then it is onely fit to close with a Saviour with the Father and the Spirit and so consequently the Father allowes it Great men must bee entertained answerable to their persons Another for such a man to have poore and leane diet it is not meet for him the greatest delicates that can be doe beseeme such men of place So this leane and earthly and naturall love that growes onely out of thy owne parts and abilities or whatsoever it is it is but leane love and poore provision and suites not with God the Father nor Iesus Christ Base love and base things for base men and meane love for meane things and naturall love for naturall things but would you entertaine the Father from heaven and a spirituall Saviour then you must let your love be spirituall to welcome a blessed Saviour This besuits him Simile and otherwise he will not be entertained As it is with flowers the flowers that are of speciall planting as Ieremy speaks of the Iewes and the flowers that are inoculated by the hand of the cunning Gardiner as the Provice Rose or the like there is much care and paines about them but your ordinary hedge row Roses there is no care taken for them Iust so it is with the worke of Gods grace and all other common graces in the world there is a provice love and joy that is a love that comes from the planting and a joy that comes from the inoculating of the spirit This provice love and joy is wrought by the Spirit of God and this makes a sweet savour in the nostrils of Almighty God and of the Lord Iesus Christ and the Lord
Christ will say Oh that love pleaseth me They cannot welcome the Lord better than with this love but the other love and joy pleaseth him not Canst thou say I love the Lord because hee hath loved mee then thy love is of a right mettall and know it for ever that that God which cannot but love himselfe hee cannot but like that love which came from himselfe who is the God of all love and which comes from his owne divine nature Is thy soule affected and enlarged in love to the Lord because thou hast felt and received the rellish and sweetnesse of his grace Dost thou love and joy in God upon this ground namely upon a grounded affection of Gods loue to thee setled and sealed to thy selfe so that thou canst say The Lord hath let in the glimpse of his favour and the Lord hath said it in his truth hee lookes to him that trembles at his word the Minister said it and the Spirit saith it that my mercy is registred in heaven and my desires are received and granted Oh how shall I love the Lord My sinnes are many which I have bewailed and my sighes and sobs I have put up to heaven and at last the Lord hath given mee a gracious answer O how may I love the Lord my strength dearly Lord thou hast looked downe from heaven in love and mercy upon me and therefore my soule shall ever looke up to heaven to thee in love If it be thus with thee thy love is sound and will never faile thee but if any mans love comes from himselfe and therefore loves God that love will onely bring all to himselfe and there is the end of it A man hath a love to his parts and abilities and prayer and preaching and reading and conference and understanding and policy hee loveth these and therefore he would fain be beholden to Iesus Christ to helpe him to honour and to glorifie these parts of his This love was from his parts and brought to his parts and in the meane time the Lord Iesus lay in the dust and his glory was not regarded whereas the love that is wrought by God it alwayes doth draw the love of the soule againe to God and so love from him draws love to him This is the excellencie of this love and this is love of the right kind But if the love of parts and profits draw me to honour and glorifie parts and profits then I love my profits and not Christ Thinke of this often this is certaine this will bee the mainest difference betweene all the love of carnall hypocrites and of the Saints of God I would expresse my selfe to you thus As it is with meat which a man takes downe inwardly and digests it this breeds good bloud but that meate which a man eates and spits out againe and tarries not long with him this breeds no bloud at all So it is in the heart of a poore humbled sinner truely wrought upon to receive Christ in the worth of him and with the hypocrite A heart truely wrought upon by Gods Spirit it takes downe the promise and feeds upon it and it breeds good bloud and complexion True love is like this good bloud and true joy is like this complexion Marke this the promise of God settled upon the heart nourisheth and feedeth the heart and it breeds good bloud but the foolish hypocrite that hath a kind of flattering sweetnes this tickles the heart with vaine conceits but they never goe downe And hence it is that that love which comes from hence it is but a fading love and there is no good bloud nor no good complexion comes from it but rather corruptions and overture Secondly 2. Triall as the root of this love must be from the kindling of the Spirit so if thou entertaine thy Saviour as it beseemes him True love of Christ entertains him as a King thou must entertaine him as a King and that is thus give up all to him and entertaine none with him upon termes of honour but such as retaine to him or be attendants unto him this is the manner of receiving great Princes Love all in a Christ and for a Christ but expresse thy love and thy joy to a Christ above all he is as the King and all the rest are but as retainers and all his servants are as servants to him He that loves any thing equall with a Christ it is certaine he did never love a Christ but he that sets up any thing cheeke by joll with Christ he despiseth him and never receives him It is all one as if a man did put a slave into the same chamber with the King which is all one as to drive him away So if thou dost set up any thing with Christ thou dost drive him away with such base behaviour As in Iames 4.4 O yee adulterers and adulteresses know yee not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is an enemy of God A man cannot retaine fellowship with Christ Iesus and with the world too upon point of honour Simile As the woman that loves her husband she loveth other men as friends and neighbours and will give them very courteous entertainment and welcome them kindly but if they come to claime the love of a wife she abhorres and detests them So a loving heart that loves Iesus Christ as the Bridegroome he loves Christ onely and all for Christ and the rest as friends c. The soule wil love honors or profits or credit or parts and priviledges that they may be friends to speake for a man and to give a man occasion to speake with a Saviour as the wife loves the husband firstly and all the rest she regards onely as they may further the match this way so the Lord Christ and his grace is chiefe to the soule but the world and ease and credit these are meerely as friends to leade him to a Saviour and make him acquainted with a Saviour The soule loves the word and prayer and all Gods ordinances to speake a good word to a Saviour for him but all the rest are despised by him and if any of them come to claime the love of a soule from a Christ it hates them deadly as Luke 14.26 If any man come to mee and hate not father and mother in comparison of me he is not worthy of mee that is if father and mother stand betweene thee and Christ and would have thy soule married to them again the soule hates them This is a plaine difference betweene a sound heart and a false heart in the receiving of Christ the sound heart receives him as a favorite receives a Prince he gives up all to him Simile and lets him have the command of all but now an Inne-keeper entertains him that comes next to him he will take any mans money and will give welcome to any man if it bee the best man
Most in the Church love not Christ First most that are in the world yea that live in the bosome of the Church have not their hearts carried in love to God but in a hatred and desperate opposition to the Lord Jesus as in Joh. 1.3 4. In him was life and the life was the light of the world The Lord Jesus was the life and light of the promise and that promise of life was a way to lead men on to eternall happinesse this light shineth to the dark world but they comprehend it not as it is in vers 11. Hee came unto his owne and his owne received him not His owne by reason of their priviledges and the badge of the ordinances his owne because they by profession took his name upon them as the Churches of the Gentiles are Gods owne by the outward not the inward covenant of Sanctification or in the aime of Election We take up the profession of his Gospel and yet we will not take up the Lord Jesus Christ that he may make us Christians His owne received him not those that were baptized and had received the Sacrament The Lord Jesus comes and knockes at each mans doore but few entertaine him Nay I would not outspeake the truth for they are the words of sobriety and it grieveth me to speake it The most men upon earth hate Christ more than sinne I had almost said it and yet I had almost thought it unfit to be spoken though they are the words of our Saviour Wicked men hate the Lord Jesus more than either sinne or the Divel himselfe Good Lord be mercifull to us what a misery is this that ever any man should be created by him and receive mercy from him and yet love the Divel and sinne more than him But some will say as Hazael did to the Prophet 2 King 8.12 Doe you thinke we are such dogges that having received such mercy from the Lord Jesus we should doe so Yes for so saith Elisha to him I know the evill that thou wilt doe to the children of Israel their strong holds wilt thou set on fire and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword and wilt dash their children and rip up their women with child So I say and the Spirit knowes it is so in the hearts of most men this day You know it not you thinke it not but your hearts are more vile than you can imagine Wee know the greatest evill of all is sinne for the Divell himselfe is not to be loathed but for sinne and for it onely This is the condemnation saith our Saviour in John 3.19 that light is come into the world and men loved darknesse rather than light because their deeds were evill That men loved darknesse more than light and more than Christ nay more than mercy and grace that was tendered the case is cleare it was so and is so will be so I say it is most certaine that they love their lusts and corruptions more then Christ and the temptations and delusions of Satan more than the good motions of the Spirit Now we have laid the indictment therefore in the second place let us plead it And the severall sorts of them 2. Secondly who are they that hate Christ We must name the men therfore we refer them to three rankes First all open enemies to Christ Secondly all glozing Neuters of the world Thirdly all fawning hypocrites 1. First the open enemies of Christ and they are many such as Saint Steven spake of Act. 7.51 saying Yee stiffe-necked and uncircumcised in heart and cares ye doe alwaies resist the holy Ghost as your fathers did so doe yee They that set their mouthes against heaven and stand in open defiance against the Lord Jesus and the power of his grace may be referred to two heads First those whom our Saviour mentions Mat. 21.34 speaking of the Vineyard Open enemies of Christs two sorts When the time of the fruit drew neere he sent his servants to the husbandmen that they might receive the fruits of it And the husbandmen tooke his servants and beat one and killed another and stoned another But last of all he sent unto them his son saying They will reverence my sonne But when the husbandmen saw the sonne they said among themselves This is the heire come let us kill him This is an intimation of the Scribes and Pharisees The Church was the vineyard the servants sent out were the Ministers and Prophets and the Sonne is Christ Jesus now when Christ came they said with one consent and voice This is the heire come let us kill him Doe you thinke that these kind of men are all dead that have such a kind of spirit Surely no there are many Leaders of the Divels camp aswell Ministers as others But if you aske me what entertainement their lusts have I say they have all the welcome that can be occasions come not corruptions within their hearts stirre not and the Divels temptations allure not so soone but these miserable sinfull wretches give all the kinde welcome that can be unto them nay they invite their villanies they provide for them yea and seeke for all occasions that they may sinne the Adulterer loves the twilight and the coveteous man his money their mindes are ever puffing and their affections labouring to contrive all occasions that may give all possible contentment to their vile corruptions and it is no marvell though they have so long continued in their sins seeing they give such good entertainment to them But if you aske mee how they entertaine Christ Enmity against Christ shewed three wayes let me shew it by two things you shall see them up in armes and at deadly hate with him For first they oppose the word of God the ministry of the word is the ministery of the truth it would open the eyes and come home to the conscience and take away their sinnes but they contemne it and marke upon this what an uproare there is they take up armes striving to put out the light that would shew them their sinnes beating backe the truth and labouring that it may not rule their lives They are such as our Saviour speaks of Luk. 19.27 Bring hither those mine enemies that would not have me rule over them and slay them before my face They oppose themselves against that truth that would plucke the cup from the Drunkards mouth and the whore from the Adulterers armes their hearts swell for anger and they scorne to bee under the power thereof Nay they not onely withdraw themselves from yeelding obedience to the holinesse of the word but they will not so much as acknowledge the truth of it which the Divels themselves did Act. 16.16 17. when Paul and Silas were preaching the word of truth the Divels sayd These men are the servants of the most high God which shew unto us the way of salvation The Divels could doe all this yet these men will neither be informed
hee may doe that which hee hath purposed Let there bee but some frothy Minister or some foolish man or woman that will commend fashionablenesse the fashion-monger will hugge him in his armes and say Hee spake marvellous wisely to the point and very judiciously though he had not one argument whatsoever is spoken to the contrary he will not believe it but the Scripture hath no such thing for where are those words of yellow starch bands and the like Well it is sufficient that he is fashionable to the world the issue is this hee is contented to give himselfe honour and ease and liberty but hee will not content the Lord Jesus Christ and therefore I say he never had this love of God nor this saving grace in his heart Rom. 2.8 But unto them that are contentious and doe not obey the truth but obey unrighteousnesse not those that are contentious with their neighbours but against Gods truth What of them why to them shall be indignation and wrath Such were they 1 Tim. 6.4 Hee is proud knowing nothing When a man should come and joyne side with the word of truth hee is puft up in his vaine minde and hath no sound worke of grace in his heart He that wrangles against truth never loved Christ I doe not say that hee which is ignorant in any truth of Christ but hee that thus wrangles with any truth of Christ that man cannot have any sound evidence of Gods love in this blessed worke of grace and this I prove thus 2. arguments First hee that will have this evidence of Gods love must entertaine the truth aright that is in the love of it not for his own private ends aimes not because it is profitable or honourable but because it is true and he that entertaines one truth in the love of it will entertaine every truth so far as it is revealed but this hypocrite doth not entertain the truth in the love of it and therefore hee cannot have any sound evidence of Gods love Secondly never any man had as yet this worke of true grace that is not yet come from under the power of sinne and Satan for no man is come from under the power of sinne or the dominion of Satan that will joyne side with sinne and Satan against the truth but this man doth joyne side with sinne and Satan against the truth of God and therfore was never come from under the power of sin and so consequently never had this worke of grace I compare this wrangling wretch to the Merchant that will trade with other Princes but not submit to them as King so this man will trade with the Gospel but not subject himselfe unto it and therfore he is but a hang by and a retainer and one that makes a booty of the Gospel Thus much of the wrangling hypocrite The second sort is the whining hypocrite who will continue daily to abuse the Gospel and to grieve the Lord Christ and he thinkes to make up his wrongs by laying open his sorrow that he hath done so and thus he thinkes to be friends with him againe As it is with some servant whom the Master will neither let goe nor yet use as a servant so it is with these whining hypocrites they have great need of the power of the Gospel and yet they are not willing to bee under the power of it however they keepe it in and fawningly flatter it and if they come and say they are sorry for this and that then all shall be well and they entreat the Lord not to take it ill at their hands they will mend it c. so that in truth they love not the power of the Gospel but onely to make gaine of it to themselves Simile As it is with some whining debtor that partly out of covetousnesse would not and partly through indigencie cannot pay hee will come and complaine of his hard peny-worth and desire some respite not that he may give content to the Creditor but to himselfe So it is with this whining hypocrite hee will ever bee complaining but never amending I speake not against sorrow and complaining as though they should be altogether quit of the body of death and of distempers and of their cursed lusts and corruptions for if a man love Jesus Christ as much as ever any mortall man did yet he shall never be quit of this body of death so long as hee is here but I speake against those that are still complaining and vexing themselves in the outward appearance who have teares at command because of some violent passion or for some discredit to the Gospel or some disgrace to themselves and yet stand just at the same stay Oh varlets that confesse their sin to Christ and yet forsake it not that they may love him that thus they may fawne upon Christ making their sorrowes a plea for their sin and think to cry and whine it out and yet returne to their old courses againe Thus it was with Ahab 1 King 21.15 who killed Naboth for the vineyard and in the 27 verse hearing Eliah denounce such heavie threatnings against him knowing himselfe to be guilty of that sin he fasted and prayed and rent his clothes yea prayed in print as the proverbe is but yet hee returnes to his old byas again for in the next chapter he hated Michaiah still This is but the bathing of a mans sins not the drowning of them he thinks to please Christ and to keepe Christ with him because hee cannot be without him and though he sinne against him yet he thinkes to make all whole with complaining This is too ordinary in the world The rebellious hearted sinner that is crosse and peevish and froward he will be a professor in a high strain and pretend great love to the Lord Jesus Christ and complaine of his froward heart but yet he falls into passion upon every occasion and hee to by his complaints thinkes to make all whole againe This is base false hypocriticall love and not the love of the Father that will enable a man to give content in those things that he may easily doe I can hire these men from their passion for money and scare them from it by the Magistrate And shall a reward hire thee or a Magistrate scare thee and shall the Lord Jesus have no power over thee to cause thee to doe it Goe thy way thy heart is naught if thy love were sound it would worke more than all this comes to that is not love at all that is not able to doe so much as this for Jesus Christ the like I may say of the untoward doggednesse of some husbands and masters it is their life to fret and talke like mad-men and thus the cunning chapman will cheat you to day and whine to morrow and hee thinkes this pleaseth the Lord Jesus very well Shee is not accounted a loving wife but an adulteresse that when shee hath played the harlot
doth Luke 19.27 Those mine enemies which would not that I should raigne over them bring hither and slay them before me He will say Bring hither that enemy of mine he hath opposed mee and grieved my spirit and sleighted my mercy bring my enemies hither not the Heathens or Pagans I regard not them so much but him that hath beene a hater of me and of my Gospel and then shalt thou see the intolerablenesse and unavoydablenesse of thy punishment Oh poore soule what wilt thou say or doe when thou art put to such a plunge as Josephs bowels did earne within him when hee talked with his brethren that he could forbeare no longer I wish that I had a heart to mourne in secret for thee I say what will become of thee poore wretch Happely thou wilt say there is mercy It 's true but thou hast hated that mercy which should save thee or wilt thou thinke that the blood and merits of the Lord Jesus will save thee thou hast trodden upon them Wilt thou say The good spirit of the Lord will prevaile with this wretched heart of mine with what heart canst thou crave aide from the spirit when thy owne conscience can say I have hated that good spirit of the Lord and that mercy which should save mee And when all is done and thou art come to the period goe your way home to your husbands and wives and mourn for them for there is neither mercy nor Christ for them for they also have hated him And when this is done imagine thou didst see the heavens opened and the fire melting round about thee and the Lord Christ coming in flaming fire rendering vengeance to all that obey not the Gospel lay thy hand upon thy breast say that 's I Lord that 's my husband or my childe he is come against us to render vengeance to them that have lived with mee and have opposed the Gospel and the riches of grace and of mercy in Jesus Christ Thinke of these in Gods name and labour to prevent them here that thou mayest bee freed from the punishment of them hereafter Love the Lord Jesus in sinceritie Use 4. The last use is for Exhortation Oh that God would please to worke our soules to this duty which the Saints take up and all of us ought to labour after You heare how the Lord works in the hearts of his and how they which are truely called of God have this love kindled in their hearts Oh therefore what remaines but onely this bee exhorted since you see the way to walke in it and since we see what the Saints of God have and doe let us labour to expresse this frame of heart that so the Lord Jesus may make us partakers of their hapnesse I say let us labour after it and when we have it expresse our loves to the Lord Jesus Christ as wee ought It was that which tooke up the heart of David Psal 18.1 when hee saith I will love thee deerely O Lord my strength As it is with a woman with child though the infant in the wombe have life yet the mothers love is not so great towards it till it bee borne but then she clasps her armes about it with much tendernesse so hee saith I will embrace the Lord with much love I will love him as if hee had said All the world shall not hinder mee but I will love him though I love not my selfe and hee perswades all the Saints of God to do the like Psa 31. 23. saying Love the Lord all ye his Saints who will you love if you love not him Oh you poore ones love you the Lord for you have need of him and all you rich ones love you the Lord for you have cause to doe it and you little ones too if there be any such in the congregation he knockes at every mans doore and perswades every mans heart and he deales faithfully with his Saints therefore if you have but this grace it is an undoubted argument that you are the Saints of God nay though out of thy blindnesse thou couldst never know the way to Christ and out of thy weakenesse thou couldst never close with Christ yet if thou wilt but love him thou shalt know him and be with him for ever 1 Joh. 4 12.16 No man hath seene God at any time God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him If thy heart be perswaded to continue in God and to be with God for ever then love him and he will dwell in thee for he is love it selfe for so saith the Apostle Love is of God Ob. Oh but some will say it is true we know it is fitting and we ought to doe it but it is a difficult thing and we are unable to doe it though we know it is requisite to be done To love the Lord Jesus we find is a difficult worke and hard although the world thinke it not so Ans I would to God you did finde it difficult and marke what I say that man never loved Christ aright who found it not difficult He that saith Oh such an one as will not love the Lord Jesus it is pitty he should live it is to be feared he did never love Jesus Christ aright Poore silly deluded creature it will cost thee hot water before that day yet when thou hast it it will quit all thy cost and labour Oh but some will say Means to love Christ what are the meanes to prevaile with us and how may wee draw our sturdy rebellious waiward hearts to this love of Jesus Christ I referre the meanes to these three heads 1. First there are some hinderances to be removed 2. Secondly labour to see the beauty and excellencie of Jesus Christ in the promise 3. Thirdly when the promise is come neere and the heart made empty then learne the skill to make the soule and the promise meet Meanes 1. First that you may love the Lord Christ there are some hinderances which lye upon the heart which are marvellous causes of dissention between Jesus Christ and the soule and these must be taken away Now the hinderances of this sort are these three Hinderance 1. The first is this To take off the soule from the love of these base things here below I beseech you observe it be marvellous wise that you lavish not out your soules upon these lying vanities for as it is with a streame Simile if the banke be cut and all the streame run that way then the proper chanell must needs lie dry because all the streame runs another way so is it with the streame of a mans affections if the stream of love joy be let out upon profits or pleasures or honours you cannot have spend you cannot have your affections still when you have spent them upon other things therefore bee sure to knocke them off from the world that you may give them wholly to the Lord.