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
carnal confidence in himselfe and he seeth himself miserable because of sin and utterly unable to succour himselfe and is content to part with wit or parts or gifts and all that hee hath for the Lord Iesus Christ then suddenly he hath the Pearle If it be so saith the Lord that nothing will quiet thee but the Lord Christ and mercy from him then take mercy If chapmen bid roundly you shall not need to stand higling for it Would you have Christ to comfort you and pardon you then lay away all your lusts and corruptions and the world and all the haunts of your hearts and all the distempers that are in them Do this and the Lord will give you the Pearle he will giue you Christ and mercy from him The Reasons why the Lord will not delay to come to the humbled soule are three Reason 1. The Lord Iesus Christ was sent for this very end by God the Father as Mat. 15.24 I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel And not onely so but Christ came for that end as Luke 19.10 The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost the end of God the fathers sending of him and the maine scope of his comming was to seek and saue that which was lost that is that is lost in the sight and sense of his own misery and lost in regard of his owne insufficiency to helpe himselfe for the lost man is willing to be guided by another If you should find a man in the wildernesse and say Friend this is not the way would not he be contented to heare and to yeeld to it So if thou be lost if thou seest thy owne misery for sin and that if thou lie in this estate thou art a damned man and if thou see thy selfe lost in regard of thy owne insufficiency to help thy selfe and that thou art not able to get out of this condition and misery wherein thou art willing to be reformed and to bee disposed of then know that the Sonne of man the Lord Christ Iesus came to seeke and save such lost sinners and when he hath found them he will not leave them in this lost estate but will save them If this be then the end of God the Fathers sending him and the scope of Christs comming to save the lost sinner then certainly above all hee will bee faithfull in that for which hee came hee will undoubtedly save those that are lost Reason 2. Because the humbled broken hearted sinner is the fittest subiect to set out these praises of this glorious work of our redemption he is the fittest for God to work upon and for the Lord Christ to dwell in and he is the fittest to set out the praise of that rich grace in Christ as the Apostle saith Ephes 1.11 Who worketh all things according to the counsell of his owne will Why That we should bee to the praise of his glorious grace Therefore now consider it there is no soule so fitting to set forth the glorious grace of Christ and the great worke of our redempption as the poore humbled selfe-denying heart for the humbled soule waites for all grace from God and is willing to returne all to God againe and hee saith I am not worthy of the least mercy I need and therfore he is contented that God deny him any thing This man is the fittest to set forth the great worke of God and to further the aime of God in setting forth the riches of his glorious grace it is all grace from the beginning to the end as Zechariah hath it chap. 4.7 Grace laid the first stone and grace laid the last stone and all the people cried saying Grace Grace so the humbled soule sets forth the praise of God and saith I deserue nothing but hell and whatsoever I have more than hell it is all from the Lord and all glory is due to him it is grace that I live and it is grace that I persevere it is all grace from election to glorification whereas the proud heart spoiles all the work of God And it is no wonder though God will not dwell with a proud heart The proud heart for what he hath and for what he can doe gives all to himselfe where is grace now The humble heart is like a great shop where the great frame of mans saluation may best be seen for there are many dark shops that deceive the buyer and marre the wares too for the humbled heart saith The worke of the Lord is marvellous in our eyes and ought to be marvellous in our hearts No man will dwell in a house but where his credit may bee maintained and for his conveniency if either of these may be hindred by it he will not dwell in that house It s no wonder then though the Lord Iesus come to dwell in the heart of an humbled soule Christ would work and the humbled soule is contented with it and Christ would have all the glory from the humbled soule and he is well contented to give all the glory to God We use to say in the schooles If any man have disposed of his dwelling and framed the building and fitted it he wil set it up except he either want wisedome and knows not how to doe it or else power and is not able to perfect that worke which he hath begun These cannot befall God A wise efficient cause never framed any matter but he brings in the frame and sets it up Hee that hath fitted and framed all the materials of his building if he will not make up the frame for himselfe it is either because hee wants power and cannot doe it or else wants wisedome and knowes not how to doe it but the Lord that hath fitted the heart for himselfe that all may be done by him and all the glory of the worke come to him againe he neither wants power nor wisedome to finish the worke hee hath begun and therefore he will not deferre but will come suddenly and take possession of him Reason 3. Lastly the Lord will not deferre to come to dwell in an humbled heart because all hinderances are now taken away and therefore the place is ready to receive him and he ready to come certainly he will come without delay If there be any hindderances to keepe out Christ it must be either on Christs part or on our parts but in the humble heart there is nothing to hinder it If any thing keepe us off from Christ it is either because we loue our selues or our corruptions Now the humble heart hath renounced both of these and the humble soule saith My sin shall not rule me and my selfe cannot save me therefore let the Lord Iesus Christ come and take possession of my heart The humble heart hath renounced sin and himselfe and now he would have the Lord Iesus Christ to be his King and Saviour Now all the hinderances must bee on Christs part and 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
be understood is cleere Mat. 3.12 In those dayes saith the Text came Iohn preaching and saying Repent yee for the kingdome of God is at hand Here Iohn proclaimeth the comming of Christ and laboureth to prepare all things fitting for him so then the heart of a poore sinner is the high-way wherein Christ walketh This way of it selfe is unfitting for Christ but this preaching of the Gospell doth fit and prepare it and then the Lord Christ commeth and takes possession of and ruleth in that soule to whom hee commeth In the materiall Temple when it was to be built there was a caveat given that there must be no hammer heard but that all the stones should be fitted and hewen ere they were brought thither When Christ came into his Temple hee found money changers John 2.15 and the Text saith hee made a whip and whipped them out and flung downe their provision As it was with the materiall Temple so it is with the spirituall Temple The soule of a poore sinner is like unto this materiall Temple whereof this was a type 1 Cor. 3.16 for saith the Apostle You are the Temple of the living God You are that which the Temple signified that is as God did shew himselfe marvellously in his Temple so he will in the soules of his people he will dwell with them and assist them in every good worke Now before we can bee fitted to be the Temple of the Lord before Christ will come into our soules hee will whip out all distempered affections and when these are removed hee will make himselfe knowne to be the King of his servants and provide all things for their comfort and consolation And thus wee see the truth of the point that the soule of a sinner must bee prepared for Christ before it can receive and entertaine him For the opening of the point two things must be considered first how we may conceive and understand the compasse of this preparation that wee may see how farre it reacheth and know wherein this preparation of the soule discovereth it selfe and then secondly we must know the reason why the heart must be prepared for the Lord Iesus before hee will take possession of it And when these two things be opened the point will be plaine First wee must see the compasse of this preparation and wherein it consists Preparation of the heart for Christ standeth in three things which makes it selfe knowne in three particulars We will speake of preparation only in generall here for we shall come to the particulars of it hereafter The first of the three passages wherein this generall preparation consists is this 1. In breaking off the league with old sinnes The soule of a sinner breakes that league which sometime it had with former lusts and corruptions there is a separation made betweene the soule and those darling sinnes which it before so much delighted in and the heart begins to rebell against those base tyrants which before usurped authority over it whether they be corruptions or profits or pleasures that before bore a great sway in the soule the league is broken there is a secret kind of mutinie which the soule setteth up against those distempers in so much that the separation being made and the soule having cast off the yoke of her corruptions the heart reserves it selfe for the Lord Christ Iesus And observe it alwaies there is a separation of the soule from sinne before there bee a reservation made for Christ It is with the soule as it is with a wife that is an adulteresse and hath gotten her selfe a base name and an evill report by her lewd and wicked courses after the Lord hath opened her eyes and discovered to her the basenesse of her practice then shee commeth to detest all her former courses and abandoneth all her former wicked companions and though shee be laid at continually by them and importuned upon every occasion yet shee never hearkeneth unto them but looketh onely unto her husband and if he will but receive her and entertaine her againe then shee will keepe close unto him and shew more love unto him than ever shee did before so the soule of a poore sinner was created for God and it ought to have beene married to God the end of our creation and redemption was that we might have communion with God but all of us have played the adulteresses wee have had our wicked lovers The heart that will have the world the profits and pleasures and vanities thereof will be married to lusts and corruptions every man doth bestow his soule upon these wicked practices But then the eyes of the soule are opened when the Lord discovereth unto it that loose practices will bring the soule to everlasting confusion and destruction the soule then doth stand at a maze it trades no more with those beloved lusts and corruptions it breakes the league with all former sinnes and distempers with pride and covetousnesse with malice and envie with the world with the profits and pleasures thereof and sits as a widow divorced from all these and waiteth for the Lord Christ Iesus alone then the soule saith to her selfe Oh if Christ would come to me and speake to me againe then I will give him better entertainment than ever I did before The ungracious heart however it hath gone from the Lord yet if it hath got any hope to receive Christ againe then the soule will say I was not borne to sinne sinne shall bee my husband no more but if the Lord will shew any favour towards mee then I will reserve my selfe for him alone for it was better with mee formerly than now And this the Scripture speaketh of Hos 14 3.8 see what the Church saith there in the third verse Ashur shall not save us wee will not ride upon horses neither will we say any more to the worke of our hands Yee are our gods for with thee the fatherlesse findeth mercy And in the eighth verse Ephraim shall say What have I to doe with Idols Every man naturally hath his gods his god pride his god covetousnesse his god malice his god envie now when the soule is divorced from these then it returneth this answer We will pray no more to our gods we will not submit our selves to any as unto a god but onely unto the Father of lights Ephraim shall say What have I to doe with Idols He was before addicted to Idolatry yet now his eyes being opened and his soule converted he saith What have I to doe with Idols any more and the drunkard saith What have I to doe with drunkennesse any more and the proud man saith What have I to doe with pride any more nay What have I to doe with any unlawfull practice but I will reserve my selfe wholly for the Lord Iesus Christ so in Psal 45 10 11. there is a mariage betweene Christ and his Church for the Text saith Hearken O daughter and consider and incline thine eare
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
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
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
liberty For the first I told you that the maine which wee aimed at is to take notice how the soule may come to have an interest and a title to Christ and how to come to be possessed of him and of all that great redemption which he hath wrought Now the application of this discovers it selfe in two things first there must be a preparation secondly there must be an ingrafting of the soule into Christ before the heart can come to be partaker of that sap or of that saving grace which is in Christ and which will flow from him to all that have any interest in him through faith There must be a preparation before the sinner can come to receive Christ For as before conversion he wanted grace so hee is not capable in the next passive power to receive grace For as the Apostle saith the carnall man is not subject to the law of God nor indeed can be for the naturall man perceives not the things of the Spirit of God nay 1 Cor. 2 14. he cannot receive them because they are foolishnesse to him So that there must be a preparation of the soule before Christ will come and take possession of it and an emptying of the soule before Christ will fill it Now this preparation made it selfe known Preparation for Christ stands in two things as you remember in two particulars first in the dispensation of the worke on Gods part that is the Lord drawes the sinner from himselfe and his corruption and breakes that cursed league and combination that is between sin the soule he rends the heart from it for as our Saviour Christ saith No man can come to the Son except the Father draw him Iohn 6.44 Secondly as the dispensation on Gods part so there is something for the disposition which God workes upon the hearts of all that he will prepare for Christ and that is known in two workes contrition and humiliation which we have already handled Two things keepe from Christ These were not things of meere complement but of necessity required as wee haue disputed and it is requisite that the soule have both the workes of contrition and of humilation For there are two maine hinderances which keepe the soule off from Christ as first security in his owne estate whereby the heart is blinded and deluded and sets up his stand and is at rest and quiet in his condition and hee seeth no need of any better and from hence naturall men thinke it needlesse for Ministers to disquiet them and they say What would you have done by us And they thinke it a matter of curiositie either to have their hearts changed or their lives reformed Now therefore the Lord sends in this worke of contrition and pierceth the heart thorow and lets in the horrour of his vengeance and makes the soule see that if he will have his sin he must have his damnation too and by this time the soule comes to see need of a change and hee seeth if he continue thus he is an undone man and shall be damned for ever Thus the Lord pluckes away the soule from that securitie wherein naturally it is setled The second thing which keeps him off from Christ is carnall confidence for when the sinner seeth his misery by reason of his sin that lodgeth in his heart and that hath been committed by him then he begins to seeke succour and to scramble for his owne comfort Well he seeth that sin is dangerous and he will mend now and reforme all that God condemnes him in and he thinkes ovt of his owne power to save his owne soule and to give God content and to make amends for all that he hath done amisse This is his carnall confidence which he hath in his owne selfe-sufficiency and here many thousands of soules perish resting meerly in the huske and shell of their prayers and hearing which in themselves are good and commendable but they are no Mediatours or Saviours to us Therefore that the Lord may plucke the soule from this carnall confidence he sends out another great worke of humiliation and makes the soule see the weaknesse and emptinesse of its duties and that there is enough in its best services to condemne him and for which the Lords wrath may confound him for ever And now the soule seeth that notwithstanding all his prayers and hearings yet his sin remaines yea remaines unpardoned his corruptions are not subdued his conscience not quieted and therefore despairing of all help in himselfe or in the creature he falls down at the foot of the Lord and is content to be at Gods dispose and when the soule is thus fitted then it is prepared to goe out of it selfe and to lay hold upon the Lord Iesus Christ and upon the fountain of all that good that works all good in him This humiliation works and this is the fitting of the soule for Christ Thus farre we have gone all this while the poore sinner is like the children of Israel travelling in the wildernesse partly in the valley of teares and partly in the vast wildernesse they did not immediately come into the Land of Canaan but were wandring under the hands of Moses which was a type of the Law and Ioshua a type of Iesus Christ and Egypt the resemblance of a mans misery under sin and Sathan and their wandring in the wildernesse was like the humbling and breaking of the soule that the Lord may doe it good Now wee are just upon the coasts of Canaan and hard by all those spirituall good things that Christ hath purchased for us and when the soule is thus fitted and prepared there is nothing to bee done but to goe into the good land and take possession I meane when the heart is thus rent from himselfe and his corruption then he must lay hold upon Christ and enter into the good Land but before we goe we must haue the command of our spiritual Ioshua to set us in possession of it Thus you see the soule is like a graft cut off from the old stock by contrition and also pared and fitted by humiliation in regard of any selfe-sufficiency Now the nex part that we are to handle is the ingraffing of the soule into Christ and I will doe two things in the handling of this great work of ingraffing First I will discover the generall nature of this worke leaving all the difficulties and particulars of it till afterward See it in the 2. Doctrine if God give liberty secondly I will shew you how the soule is ingraffed into Christ 1. What this ingraffing is What ingraffing into Christ is This being in Christ may be thus described to you It is a worke of the Spirit of God whereby the humbled sinner stands possessed of Christ and all the good that is in Christ In this description you may take notice of three things which are the speciall guides to you for the vnderstanding of that which we will
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
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
overtaken with some grosse sin this builds up the partition wall that Christ cannot be discerned as it was with David Psal 51.10 where hee saith Create in mee a cleane heart O God and renew a right spirit within me hee was even to begin the world new againe And it is Gods wise dealing with his owne servants for God will not brooke sinne in his owne servants and they must know if they will have him to dwell in them they must not give way to any base sinne if they doe hee will withdraw himselfe from them not that God forsakes finally whom hee loved once but hee will take away the sense and apprehension of his presence that though he is there yet the soule shall not see it And also when they give way to some secret distemper and are at truce with some infirmitie and they will be parlying with it and meddle too much with it it is just with the Lord and ordinary to withdraw the presence of his grace from such a mans soule If a Christian be overtaken somewhat more than ordinary with a peevish spirit or if he be something too eager for the world so that hee grow cold in holy duties and is in danger to lie and dissemble for his gaine it is just with God that this man should scramble for his comfort and welter up and downe without any evidence of Gods love And also though a Christian commit not sinne outwardly yet if hee give leave to any sinne and beat truce with it though they seeme to hate it and yet let their meditations runne upon it and parley with some secret imagination c. it is just with God to hide himselfe from them And others there are that live with men and see their evils and yet will not reprove them I have knowne many of those to have gone out all their dayes without any comfort And it is no marvell though they cannot see Christ because they themselves build up the partition-wall betweene Christ and them the Lord Iesus Christ is not able to brooke it that hee is thus sleighted and neglected and that any sinfull base distemper should bee attended to to keepe company with it rather than with Christ Christ Iesus distastes it infinitely and therefore withdrawes the apprehension of his presence from such a person The second cause why the Lord hides himselfe is when the faithfull servants of God begin to grow carelesse and luskish to holy duties and because God hath made knowne his good will to them therefore they begin to grow carelesse and secure When the Lord seeth this that they doe abuse his favour so that now they begin to grow secure and heartlesse and to slag and to grow sluggish it is just with the Lord to eâ—strange himselfe from that soule and it is just that that soule should find himselfe lost that hee may quicken up himselfe When Christians grow cold in prayer and carelesse in holy duties the Lord taketh away the light of his favour and hee leaves those sluggish hearts to themselves nay God is forced even against his will and mind even for the good of those Christians to take away the comfort of his presence so that now they begin to thinke they never had grace If the Lord did not thus they would never mend their pace nor quicken up themselves to any holy duties And this is the reason why many lie downe in sorrow and thinke they never had any grace at all the Lord seeth it and perceives it that unlesse he should bring them to this extreme hazzard they would never be drawne out from that desperate securitie but by this meanes in the end God makes them find their hearts and tongues againe and makes them consider from whence they are fallen Oh saith the Lord mercy is as good when you have it as when you want it the time was when you filled heaven and earth with your prayers and you could pray earnestly and you could give the Lord no rest you prized opportunities and now you have many opportunities and slight them It is just with God when we begin to be thus tongue-tied and to be secure and to thinke all is wel now the Lord hath humbled our soules and pardoned our sinnes and shewed us his favour for a time to leave those soules of yours though he save you in the end to send you a hell upon earth that so you may strive to receive that mercy and comfort which formerly you had and now have sleighted Thus hee dealt with the Church in Cant. 5.2 3. when Christ knocked at the doore and said Open to mee my sister my love my dove my undefiled for my head is filled with dew and my lockes with the drops of the night she made answer in this manner I have put off my coat how shall I put it on I have washed my feet how shall I defile them Now when Christ withdrew himselfe then shee found her feet againe and followed Christ with much labour from place to place and could not be content till she had found him And so it was with the holy Prophet Psal 30.6 I said in my prosperitie I shal never be removed but when he saw God going away from him see how he bestirres himselfe 2 Sam. 22.7 Oh saith hee I cried to thee O Lord in the time of my trouble Then he could pray and heare againe and recount Gods former goodnesse and performe his former duties Simile I have seene the father deale so with the child when the father is going on in his journey if the child will not go on but stands gaping upon vanitie and when the father calls he comes not the onely way is this the father steps aside behind a bush and then the child runnes and cries and if he gets his father againe hee forsakes all his trifles and walkes on faster and more cheerefully with his father than ever So when the Lord Iesus Christ sometimes makes knowne himselfe to us and would carry us on in a Christian course cheerefully we are playing with trifles and grow carelesse and cold and worldly and remisse in prayer and dead-hearted the onely way to quicken us up is to hide himselfe and to make us give our selves for lost and then they that could scarcely pray once a weeke now will pray three or foure times aday Thirdly and lastly the Lord doth hide himselfe in his infinite wisedome and fatherly care by way of prevention that his servants and children might not fall into some evill Hee will not bestow the sense and sweetnesse of his favour upon them lest they should bee proud thereof and pranke up themselves in regard of their priviledges and bee carried with contempt of the weaknesse of their fellow brethren nay if they had that which they desired there were no living with them therefore the Lord in his care and goodnesse is faine to hold them to hard-meat and to keepe them to a spare diet Hee seeth it
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
he sets a stampe upon him but in all see and consider there is possession so that this worke of possessing the soule is generall to all and so is fit for this place See how fitly it suits to the worke of preparation the sinner resignes himselfe into the hands of the Lord and he falls downe before his footstoole and lets the Lord doe what hee will with him and when the soule is come to this the Lord Christ comes immediately and takes possession of him and doth ingage himselfe to provide for him This is the scope of that place Ezek. 16.8 the Lord Christ saw the Church in her blood and tooke charge of her and saith Thou becamest mine and then follow all the workes of justification as in the 9.10.11 Verses where the Lord entred into a covenant with the Church and tooke a charge of her as if hee should haue said Art thou content to be at my dispose then I will take thee to my selfe and dispose of thee as may be for my owne glory Rom. 11.28 speaking of the Gentiles that were ingraffed into Christ and the Iewes that were cut off that hee might crush the proud hearts of the Gentiles that they might not bee high minded there he saith Thou bearest not the roote but the root beareth thee the roote is the Lord Iesus Christ For so it followes Verse 17. If some of the branches be broken off and thou being a wild Olive tree art graffed in amongst them Every man naturally is a branch of the wild Olive tree and the roote that he must be planted into is the Lord Iesus and this plant must grow no more upon the old roote therefore the Lord Iesus must in mercy take that soule and by the power of his might beare up the soule and as the roote feedeth the branches and giveth fatnesse and strength to them so whensoever the soule is truely severed from sinne the Lord Christ takes it to himselfe and beares it up and provides for it as his owne Quest But some will say Wherein doth this possession stand Ans This supreame possession of the soul doth discover it selfe in two particulars and those will giue the reason of it First the Lord Iesus undertakes for the soule truely humbled secondly hee disposeth of the soule so farre as may make for his owne glory Reason 1 First the Lord takes upon him to shield the heart from evill whereunto it was subject and from which it could not be freed by any strength of its owne what it could do not for it self the Lord Iesus Christ takes in hand to doe for it I told you formerly that when God opened the sinners eyes and hee hath seene his sinne truly and throughly and is pierced with horror in the apprehension of his sinne and he finds it to be the greatest vexation that can befall him the sinner is weary of his corruptions and desires to be freed from them but hee hath no power of himselfe as from himself and therefore the soule in this horrour of heart dares not meddle with sinne yet hee cannot free himselfe from the power of it Hereupon hee sues out a sequestration and stands waiting if any man will take possession of him It will not submit to sin and yet cannot save it selfe Now the soule being in this case the Lord Iesus steps in as the Umpire and saith I will take all and pay all and stand betweene all the hazzard that can befall the soule in this case as if a house be sequestred the man stands to see if any will take possession of it and be the Protector of it so Christ takes it upon him and resolves to stand betweene the soule and all the misery that can befall the soule Simile And as it is in other countries and as it hath beene the state of the Low-Countries if they be oppressed with some potent enemy that is too great and mighty for them they seeke to some forraine Prince and yeeld to him that hee may lay what tribute he will upon them provided that he will take the protection of them When they had rebelled from under the King of Spaine Queene Elizabeth tooke the protection of them So it is in the heart that is thus oppressed and besieged with the sinne that lyeth heavy upon it and with many plagues that are set so close against him What doth the heart doe in this case it falls at the feete of Iesus Christ and is content that he shall doe what he will with it only he beseecheth the Lord Christ that he would become Lord Protector of his poore broken battered soule Now the Lord Christ becomes Protector of him and takes a charge of him and will free and deliver him from that evill which it is oppressed withall and from which it cannot save it selfe In Num. 25.11.12.13 when any person had slaine a man unawares he might flye to the City of Refuge that he might be free from the hand of the Avenger the Lord Iesus Christ is this City of Refuge and the manslayer is every poore sinner that is beset with his sin and burthened with misery by reason of it hee submits to the Lord Iesus Christ and the mercy of Christ gives entertainement to him and rescueth him from the evill which he feared There are three dangers upon which the broken heart lies and from which the Lord Iesus Christ vndertaketh to free him Against 3. dangers Christ undertaks for us First the justice of God the Father is provoked and the poore sinner seeth his divine justice incensed and that he is not able to beare it and secondly Sathan lays heavie things against him and layes claime to him and thirdly sinne is powerfull and tyranous and would still domineere over him Now the soule groanes under all these and saith Oh who will deliver me Then the Lord Iesus comes into rescue him and when the heart is content to bee freed from sinne Christ makes answer saying Be thou comforted thou poore broken hearted sinner I will undertake for thee and I will satisfie Gods divine justice that it shall not execute wrath upon thee and I will answer Sathans accusations against thee and I will subdue all thy sinnes that they shall not prevaile against thee to thy destruction but thou shalt bee delivered First for divine justice the soule seeth a holy God that will not put up the wrong that hath beene done against him but will have his glory here in his humiliation or else in his confusion hereafter Now when divine justice makes out against a poore sinner the Lord Iesus Christ comes in and puts in baile for him Simile As it is with a man that is arrested by the Sergeant he may haue this liberty to put in a baile so when the wrath of the Almighty drinkes up a mans spirits and dragges downe his soule to hell in his owne apprehension then the Lord promiseth the poore soule to see all satisfied Comfort your selves you broken
is mine is it not lawfull for mee to doe what I will with them This tongue shall praise my name and shall never speake vainly and foolishly and this heart shall love me and this hand shall worke for mee I will dispose of all for the advantage of my great name Three wayes Christ disposeth the heart to himselfe This the Lord makes knowne in three particulars for wee keepe our selves to the generall that wee may not incroach upon those particular workes which are to follow I say there are three particular acts upon the soule First the Lord Iesus fits the soule for his seruice which otherwise is altogether unfit for any spirituall service the Lord Iesus puts those spirituall abilities into the soule which may make it fit for Gods turne so that it is now a fit patterne to expresse the riches of his grace in Christ Iesus As it is with a man that hath passed over some part of his possession into the hands of some prodigall sonne Simile or some naughty tenant and the land is out of heart when he taketh possession of it againe he will be sure to order it that it may be fit for use he will digge and dung and manure it that so hee may expect some fruit from it just so it is with every sinner he lies lay and that wretched heart of his never desired any good and his loose tongue never spake any good it lay fallow and it brought forth nothing but base practices but when sinne and Sathan hath driven the soule out of heart that it hath no power to doe any good then the Lord Christ comes and takes possession of the heart hee taketh it in from the common of the world and he manureth it with the grace of his spirit as it is in that phrase Rom. 11.16 Thou art partaker of the roote and fatnesse of the Olive tree Though it were a barren minde and a sinfull and corrupt heart and a wanton eye the Lord hath taken these parts of the body and soule and mannured them and convaieth such fatnes and grace that the soule becomes fit to doe him honour and to receiue comfort from him Secondly as the Lord fits the soule for his service so he maintains that fitnesse and that gracious disposition of soule and spirit wheresoever he hath bestowed it so that the soule if it be not negligent of its owne salvation cannot lose that fitnesse altogether and the Lord Iesus cannot lose that glory which hee expects from it as in Psal 16.5 The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup thou maintainest my lot The Lord Iesus allowes a portion of grace to every soule that hee comes in and he maintaines that grace Lastly he doth improue that fitnesse for the praise of his great name the Lord Christ ever receives some in-come of service and obedience and that soule ever receives some comfort and consolation from him This is the difference betweene the first and second Adam the first Adam had grace but hee neither kept it nor improved it aright he did not improve that wisedome which God had given him to repell the temptations of Satan and he did not improue his strength and ability to keepe him from falling from God but when the Lord Iesus comes to take possession of a poore soule he will not onely keepe and maintaine the grace that hee hath given him but he will quicken it and provoke that soule to doe what hee should doe in all obedience and to receive what comfort the Lord hath in store for him See this in some passages of Scripture Ioh. 15. 1 2. I am the true vine and my Father is the husbandman Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away and every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit Every poor Christian every poor woman and every poore Apprentice and little childe whom God hath called shall beare fruit hee purgeth them and so the Lord receives some improvement of his graces that he gives to those that he takes possession of So then let us gather up all If the Lord Iesus undertakes for the soule so that justice cannot proceed against him and if he doth dispose of the soule and fit it for his service and maintain that fitnesse and improue it for his glory then certainely hee doth take supreme possession of the soule and he that undertakes for the soule takes possession of the heart Vse 1 Vse 1. Reproofe of them that keepe Christ out of possession I cannot tell whether wee haue matter of lamentation or reproofe How few have given entertainment to the Lord Iesus Christ have we not cause to lament our condition that the Lord Iesus hath passed by all our coasts and is not regarded How often hath hee come to thy bed-side and besought thee to receive favour and to be reconciled to God and receive pardon from him how often hath he entreated thee to consider of that which was for thy peace how often hath he said Come to mee you rebellious children and Ah every one that will come and take of the water of life freely and live for ever Where is the man that can say Christ is come and that hee hath given entertainement to him as the man when hee had found the evidence of Gods love after much doubting Mr. Gloveâ— Martyr said He is come He is come Where shall a man finde the Lord Iesus Christ If a man should goe from house to house and from heart to heart who keepes possession doth Christ dwell in that heart and doth he rule in that soule Oh woe to us that we have suffered the Lord Iesus Christ to desire entertainement and yet would not receive him we have taken notice of him but wee would none of him Who rules in that heart The old Tyrant the old lust and corruption as pride and covetousnesse these beare rule every where both in the closet and at the table the husband and the wife and all are proud these will not out but retaine their hold there still And profanenes and contempt of God and his ordinances this is the tyrant that rules in many families and in every coast in our land The father swears and the child sweares the master reviles Gods Ministers and the servant knows the length of his Masters foot and hee railes too and the child heares it and followes the same course If these beare rule in you the Lord Iesus Christ is farre from you May I not complaine as sometime Ieremiah did Ier. 17.13 when the Lord was going from the people the holy prophet looks longly after him and saith O Lord the hope of Israel why art thou as a waifairing man So may wee not iustly complain and say Oh that Christ should come and offer himselfe and not be regarded When the Divell shall drag downe your soules to hell and destruction then you will cry after him and say Oh
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
I have taken up armes against Almightie God If I had but gone to the top of Hell it had beene infinite mercy and if I had been in a dungeon all my dayes and had another world to live and lived it all in miserie it had beene infinite mercie for the Lord to send downe Christ to looke upon me a poore wretch in the dungeon and to speake to me out of the gates of hell and to tell me of this mercie oh it had beene an infinite mercie but to send a Sonne to save me it is incomparable I could not conceive to doe so much evill against him as he hath done good to me oh the breadth of that mercy beyond all limits oh the length of that mercie beyond all time oh the depth of that mercie below a mans miserie oh the height of that mercy above the height of mine understanding If mine hands were all of love that I could worke nothing but love and if mine eyes were able to see nothing but love and my mind thinke of nothing but love and if I had a thousand bodies it were all too little to love that God that hath unmeasurably loved mee a poore sinfull hel-hound Psal 18.1 I will love thee dearely O Lord my strength Oh have I gotten the Lord Iesus Christ to bee my comfort my buckler my shield If I have any good he gives it and if any good bee continued it is he that doth it and if I have any comfort in it it is hee that blesseth it to me therefore I will love thee dearely Oh Lord my strength Thus the point is cleare and stands upon his right bottome Now I come to the Application of it that wee may reape some good and comfort to our owne soules And the use of the point is fourefold for Instruction for Consolation Nature breeds no love to Christ for Reprehension for Exhortation Vse 1. First for Instruction which I desire a little to commend to you because it is seasonable Is it so that the Spirit of the Father kindles this love in the heart truly humbled and enlightned c then conclude this undeniably That there is no power in nature or in a naturall heart I say there is no sufficiencie in the power of nature to bee carried to any love towards Christ we have not this before God gives it nay wee cannot move our selves in love to God before the Lord let in the sparkes of love into our soules True it is we find it by wofull experience it is in our power to love the world and to delight in base lusts and being but naturall men it cannot be but that we should love our selves and the things of this world there is enough of these wilde fires and of this base worldly lust in every naturall soule to expresse it selfe but to love the Lord Iesus Christ and to have a heart inlarged towards him it is a worke of grace that growes not in our hearts I say there is not one sparke of holy love and of this holy fire of love in our hearts at any time neither can we buy or borrow it at the hands of any under heaven further than the Spirit of the Lord is pleased to kindle it and to inflame this grace of love to the Lord Iesus and further than the Lord by the power of his merits is pleased to feed this in our soules It is an unconceiveable misery that any man should bee so farre deluded as to thinke that he can do it by his owne strength and power Saint Paul expresseth it in discovering the vilenesse of himselfe by nature and the freenesse of Gods grace 1 Tim. 1.13 14. I was before a blasphemer and a persecutor but I obtained mercy I wronged Iesus Christ and was malicious against him and opposed against his children Paul could doe this of himselfe so thou canst be malicious against the Lord and against the power of his grace and truth this a naturall man can doe but for him to love the Lord Iesus Christ and to beleeve in him how came Saint Paul by that Why the grace of God was exceeding abundant towards mee with faith and love which is in Iesus Christ As if he had said it was abundant grace that over-powred my unfaithfull heart and made me beleeve and it was abundant grace that over-powred my injurious heart and made me love Christ But how was this it was by the grace of Christ from Christ this faith was wrought and in Christ this love was kindled As if hee had said I thought to cast off the Lord and his grace I was a persecuter and a villaine indeed but that I should beleeve the Lord and love him this was from Christ it was in grace and not in Paul The ball must first fall to the ground before it can rebound backe againe so the Lord Iesus must first dart in his love into the soule before the soule can rebound in love and joy to him againe wee must receive from grace before wee can rebound backe any love to God as 1 Tim. 1.7 God hath not given us the spirit of bondage but of power of love and of a sound minde See what the Lord spake in some case of the Iewes Iohn 5.40 42. speaking home to their hearts hee saith I know you that yee have not the love of God in you Verse 40. he saith Yee will not come to mee and in the 42. verse I know you that yee have not the love of God in you As if hee had said I know it you know it not your selves and though you thinke you have this love to mee yet you are deceived you know not what you are nor what you know but I know and it is as true of every corrupt heart under heaven the love of God cannot bee in the heart of any naturall man whatsoever The reason why I presse this point so much is this it is for these two ends you shall see a double benefit by it Carnall men conceive no difficulty to love Christ First this confutes and overthrowes the conceits of a company of carnal Gospellers that say they fast not nor pray not nor professe not so much as such and such but for the truth of their love to Christ they defie all the world they find no difficulty in the matter and they make no doubt therof and therefore if any Christian man or any faithfull Minister of God shall begin to challenge them with the want of love to Christ and grace they will answer What not loue the Lord Iesus it is pitty that euer that man should live they have loved him and will loue him for ever and all the world shall not perswade them to the contrary Oh poore deluded creatures it is an undoubted argument that thou never hadst the loue of God in thee because thou thinkest it such an easie matter to love him Many men make nothing of it they make it but an holy-day taske and say Who cannot
love Christ I say neither thou nor I can doe it by any power or vertue in our selues nay I say thou art as able to save thy owne soule and to redeeme thy selfe without Christ as thou art able to love Christ unlesse he by the power of his spiritenable thee to doe it Nay you that make nothing of it to loue Christ marke what I say If a man might have happinesse in hand and heaven laid downe upon the nayle if he could love the Lord Iesus of himselfe I say if he had no more but nature he would never goe to heaven nor never bee happy Nay it will cost more than so it will cost time and paines and many teares and prayers you must have the Father come downe from heaven to teach you and you must goe to another schoole than ever you were at yet before you can learne it and unlesse the Father make you able to loue Christ you can never doe it It is true if it were nothing but pratling and professing and yet to stand in open opposition to the power of grace and the spirit this cannot bee for to welcome a Saviour to receive Christ answerable to the worth of him a man cannot doe it by the meere power of nature it is the worke of the Lord as the Apostle Saint Iohn saith 1 Ioh. 1.5 God is light and in him is no darknesse and Ephes 5.8 You were darknesse God is nothing but holines and you are nothing but darknesse Now you know darknesse can oppose light and wickednesse can oppose holinesse but never give way to it nor receive it This is thy nature and condition thou hast an ignorant darke heart of thine owne but the Lord is altogether holines and light and thou canst not receive it nor wilt thou receiue him As 2 Thess 2.10 they would not receive the truth of God in the loue of it the truth of God makes love to thy carnall heart and would plucke thee from thy base lusts and corruptions and would woo and winne thy soule that it might take place in thy heart the world will not receive it Iesus Christ came into the world to save sinners but the world would not receive him so farre were they from seeking to a Saviour that they would not receiue him though he came to offer himselfe to them thou hast a heart that hatest Iesus Christ and cannot loue him and thou hast a heart that can oppose him and his grace but canst not take contentment in that grace and rich mercy of his if thou hast not grace and mercy thou hast but what thou wouldst haue and therefore it is just thou shouldest never haue it The second cause Saints Iove not as they might and should because they rely not on the promise why I presse this instruction is this To shew the disorderly proceedings of many poore Saints that labour extremely to worke their owne soules and to bring their hearts to love Christ that they even fall out with themselues and curse their base hearts that can loue the world and cannot loue Iesus Christ they labour much and would bring their hearts to loue him but they cannot doe it because they goe to worke the contrary way they would bring loue to the promise and not receive love from the promise as if a man should bring water to the sea or light to the sunne It is as if he would have a sun of his owne and yet there is but one sunne of righteousnesse that can kindle this loue of Iesus Christ to carry it selfe worthy of him Therefore be wise herein and thinke not to bring love to the promise but come to the promise for it and goe to the sea for water and looke up to the sunne of Gods loue and be under the beames of Gods mercy and looke not down into that dead frozen heart of thine own for if thou wouldst never so faine thou canst not receive one sparkle of this love from thy owne abilities See his love therein and bee thereby drawne to love him againe and see the fulnesse of those pleasures at his right hand which endure for ever Ioh. 16.14 the Lord Christ saith He shall send the Spirit the Comforter and he shall take of mine that is take of Christs All spirituall graces are Christs therefore goe thou thy way and tell the Lord thus much saying In truth Lord I have not a heart to love thee it is thine owne worke and thou hast sayd that thy spirit shall take of thine and give it to thy servants that thy servants may also give thee of thine owne againe that love and that delight is thine to give that wee may giue thee of thine owne as David spoke of the building of the Temple Thus much of the use of instruction Vse 2. Comfort to them that love Christ In the second place here is a strong consolation to sustaine and refresh the hearts of those that have received this gracious worke though they haue some small weaknesses it skills not be the worke sound it is enough thy soule may bee comforted that the Lord hath enlarged himselfe to thee in this gracious worke I say it is a ground of admirable sweet refreshing of soule to any that finde this gracious love unto Christ A man by nature cannot have this therefore hast thou this by grace Goe thy way as he that hath found a treasury and make much of it and say and know thou hast something more than all carnall wretches can have and thou hast more than all the cunning close-hearted hypocrites under heaven can have let them pretend and fain and flatter what they will Me thinks this should wonderfully refresh the hope of you poore ones for though many times other things goe not well with you yet this is enough to cheare up your hearts for ever You know a childe will loue his father though hee can doe little for him he is a child and therefore though he can doe little for his father yet if he love his father hee is contented so they that haue little meanes and small sufficiencies towards any servants of God and it may be their understandings are not so deepe as others be and their tongues runne not so glib as such and such and they cannot talke so freely of the things of grace and salvation and thou hast meaner parts and canst not enlarge thy self in holy duties and holy services though this is commendable where it is and thou canst not dispute for a Saviour and perform such duties as others can doe yet thou canst loue Iesus Christ and reioyce in him Methinkes there is many a poore soule would say I blesse the name of the Lord that 's all that I haue the Lord knowes that all the friends I have and parts and meanes and abilities in the world they are but as dung and drosse in comparison of Christ Oh it were the comfort of my soule if I might be euer with him Goe thy
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
publike affaires and they are of great force to make him do any thing and this is ever in his mouth that the generall good may goe on and if good may be done to the Church that 's all he cares for The bottome of the businesse is this there is a good living that he must keepe and a private good that he aimes at hee pretends a generall good but he aimes at his owne good Wretch that he is he labours onely to give contentment to his honours and ease and credit but hee gives no contentment to the Lord Jesus In 1 Sam. 15.21 Saul comes to meete Samuel and sayes I have performed the commandement of the Lord Hast thou No God had thee kill the Amalekites and thou hast not done it Oh saith he The people spared the best of the sheepe and of the oxen to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God he would pretend to do God a courtesie He doth not pretend his own good and benefit but the publike good the worship and service of God and therefore he saith They have saved them for to sacrifice to the Lord and in the meane time hee wrongs God and neglects his service As some great Courtier will doe with a plaine Countrey-man hee useth him very lovingly pretends great kindnesses till at last he so deludes him that he thinkes he doth him a great favour not to doe the thing which hee askes at his hands so the hypocrite thinkes with himself what great honour God may receive and what good the people of God may have from him but that is not the thing hee lookes after hee would make God and Christ believe he doth them a courtesie not to doe the duty they require of him But the Lord Jesus is wiser than to be thus couzened by a wretch and therefore Samuel saith vers 22. Obedience is better than sacrifice and to hearken then the fat of rams so when a wretch saith What great good may Gods people have by this and what glory may come to God c. the Lord Jesus will say to all such No no have I so much delight in sacrifice cannot I promote my glory without your lie take your lies and your sins and go down to hel together Discoveries of not loving Christ Secondly observe the prankes whereby he discovers himselfe to have no love to the Lord Jesus and they are three First the maine guise of the spirit is this In the multiplicities of opinions he will be sure to joyne with that side that may make for his owne ends though he know not the men that hold it he saith many men many mindes therefore I thinke as such and such thinke his meaning is this he is resolved to doe that which he thinkes may be most beneficiall to him therefore it is enough that any man doth as hee would have him because he would doe so though he had no ground for it Secondly he will be loath to be studiously carefull in the diligent search after those things which he makes doubt of and though he will not say so yet marke what I say many in the anguish of conscience have confest so much As he is loath to inquire himselfe to know those truths so hee is unwilling to come into the society of such and to continue with those that he knowes to be of a contrary opinion to himselfe that will force him to a sad and serious consideration of his wayes and hee thinkes thus with himselfe If I be there they will be every man upon my crowne for they are ever in hand with such and such things so that while he is there he stands upon thornes and saith What if they should talk of this or that Thus it was with Ahab the wretched sottish king was not willing to heare Michaiah speake for hee knew what hee would say for when Jehosaphat said Is there not here a Prophet of the Lord besides that we might enquire of him Yes saith he there is one Michaiah but I hate him for he never prophecies good to me 1 King 22.7 8. Thus the young man Matth. 19. when hee heard that which was contrary to him went away sorrowfull whereas a good heart would have come sorrowfull and said I blesse the Lord for this mercy that I may live to heare of the hypocrisie of my heart Lord I desire a better opportunity to heare more of this matter my heart is worse than I imagined This hypocrite cannot endure to heare of that eare and if he be in the company he is weary of the speech and saith There is better communication and more usefull than this but the reason is he would not be troubled in his way Thirdly the guise of this wrangling hypocrite lyes here that if he be forced to a serious consideration of his way and opinion then he will enter upon the worke but it is very tediously he will pretend a faire hearing and consult on both sides but when he comes home he makes a secret conspiracy against the Lord Jesus Is it not so conscience he saith I am thus resolved that that is true which I would have either it is so or else I will make it so therefore let us agree upon it conscience In Act. 23.15 see what those wicked people said Yee with the Councell signifie unto the chiefe Captain that he bring him down unto you to morrow as though yee would enquire some thing more perfectly concerning him we or ever he come neere are ready to kil him Here they pretended a faire equall hearing and yet they intended another matter Such a course this hypocrite takes up against the truth of Christ he will talke and inquire of this the other as if he would know more of Gods will and read this and that book enquire of this Minister and that Christian but he is resolved never to be perswaded nor convinced of the truth of it Thus they break the neck of the truth and shall break their own necks in hell too In Acts 4.16 there is a great worke done that cannot be denied but let us take heede that it goe no further It is with these hypocrites as it was with the Scribes and Pharisees who though the glory of the truth shone upon them yet would they stop it and that it might get no hold upon them knocke off the fingers of it It is admirable to observe this hypocrites guise if there bee any man that will but say any thing that may tend to his way he applauds that man and delights much in him and though hee know no reason for it in his conscience yet he contents and satisfies himselfe but if there be never so good arguments to the contrary never so many reasons that cannot be gaine-sayd yet he is not satisfied neither can he be perswaded by all these arguments The reason is he is resolved to doe whatsoever hee hath purposed for his honour and safety and therefore it must bee lawfull that
will come and whine to her husband and yet goe to it againe no if shee had a true heart to her husband and sought for peace she would not have returned to her vile courses againe So it is with the soule it is adulterous and base love and not the love of the Spouse of Christ to confesse and bewaile sinne and yet to commit it That sorrow which loosens the heart from sinne and makes it come neerer to God and so to be rid of corruption that sorrow I say gives content to Christ but that sorrow which indeed doth incourage a man and rather give way to the commission of sinne than loosen the heart from it gives no content to the Lord Jesus but to thy selfe and stands not with the allegeance of him but of sin but yet if thou canst say so and sorrow so as to be loosened from thy sinne then thou contentest the Lord Jesus but if thou thinkest thou hast a warrant or a privie seale for thy sinful practices because thou hast sorrowed this argues little love to Jesus Christ Object But some will say May not a man make his moane and expresse his griefe for sinne Expression of sorrow for sin limited Answ I answer Yes it is fitting and necessary yet consider these two rules 1. First make it not an ordinary table-talke for that smells too grossely of false hypocrisie as if a man did say Now I hope every man will take notice how I mourne for sin but rather if thy heart be full and surcharged with griefe inquire what is the danger of such and such corruptions and the cause of them and how thou mayst get power against them but keepe thy sorrow in secret 2. Or else in the second place thou shouldst make thy sorrow knowne to some godly Minister or faithfull Christian out of the burden of thy sin and not for fashion sake thus doe that thy heart may be loosened from thy sinne and thou see thy need of a Saviour A third sort is a new upstart hypocrite that is newly come up many of them are in other parts and some neere unto our owne selves they are such as are full of carnall confidence and are proud of their beleeving but faith shuts out boasting They are as full of hypocrisie as an egge is full of meat or a toad full of poyson Such an hypocrite I will discover to you thus Hee is a man that hath long professed the truth and hath seene his sinne and been awakened to his owne sense and hath had a kinde of attendance to the Gospel and a kinde of brainish acquaintance with the promise in Jesus Christ so that now he is fully perswaded that Jesus Christ is his and he is Christs And yet after all this when he is come thus farre he lookes no more after himselfe but lookes all to the Lord Jesus Christ insomuch that the Lord Jesus becomes a drudge to him Now the guise of this man is this he casts away all sorrow and reasons thus For me to see my vilenesse and to be sensible of the body of death and to bleed inwardly and mourne daily for my wickednesse I thinke is needlesse these are past with him for he sayth I have mourned before this day and now I have gotten Jesus Christ thus he thinks he needs not be afflicted with his sins nor mourne for his many failings but the Lord Jesus who he thinkes is at his command must doe all and thus he surfets on his sinnes still This is the root of the doctrine of the Familists that cursed hellish unconceiveable basenesse that is in them I have heard of many of them that after long profession and much zeale and exactnesse in a Christian course have fallen unto this straine and come to just nothing A poore sinfull deluded Sot thou art thou poore creature dost thou entertaine the Lord Christ as a Commander when thou wilt not have him so much as to dispose of thee but as thy drudge that thou mayst take what mercy thou wilt and leave what thou wilt They will have Christ to pardon their sinne but not to make them mourne for it as if in truth they meant that hee should stand at their beck They rest upon their faith and will not have themselves and their faith to rest upon Christ for this is their conceit they apprehend they doe beleeve and there they rest and so in conclusion they never goe to Christ to have their hearts humbled and brought under as if a man should goe and graspe with his hand and take no hold of the rocke he neither findes strength to himselfe nor any hold to his hand so they rest upon their faith and neither they nor their faith upon their Saviour Thou sinfull deluded hypocrite the Lord Jesus will make thee come under and stoope and force thee and thy carnall confidence to lye in the dust and begge for mercie Can any man in reason judge this to be love which in deed is nothing but a marvellous cursed distemper They say the law hath nothing to doe with them and they live by the law of love and yet they have not any love to the Lord Jesus Must the Lord Jesus Christ pardon thy sinnes and thou remaine in them Must the Lord Jesus seale to thy soule the forgivenesse of thine iniquities and thou dally with it No the Love of the Lord Christ will compell thee to doe any thing to give contentment to the Lord Jesus Esa 57.15 Psal 51.17 An humble heart is the onely house where Christ dwells and the onely sacrifice that he accepts of and the onely guise of spirit that Jesus Christ lookes to and if thou love the Lord Jesus thou must be sure to provide this dainty dish for him Ob. But some will say What need have I of this sorrow seeing Christ Jesus must doe all Ans I answer What need then hast thou of faith for Christ must in that do all for thee Though I doe not say thou hast as much need of sorrow and brokennesse of heart as of faith Continuall sorrow as needfull as continuall beleeving yet there is a kinde of proportionable need of a continuall sorrow as well as of continuall beleeving and that upon these grounds First thy sorrow helpes on thy faith that it may be more strongly carried to Jesus Christ for the more weight and burden of thy sinnes thou feelest the more need thou wilt see of Christ As it is with a sharpe sauce though it breed not a stomacke Simile yet it stirres up a stomacke so this godly sorrow though it is not the worke of beleeving yet it stirres up the stomacke of faith to go goe to the Lord Jesus for faith is the going out of the soule to Christ and hee that findes the burden of his sinne will be the more ready to goe out to Christ Againe this makes a man the more fit to receive the assurance of Gods love this I say makes
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
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.
what thou wouldst have not after thy owne unworthinesse nor the kindnesse which others doe enjoy better than thy selfe murmuring that thou art not worthy whereas thou art not fitted that God should do any thing for thee This mis-judging many times carries the heart with a speciall mistaking against the Lord as it is with a poore creature that hath had the meanes but not received the like comfort and mercy thereby that others have see how the heart reasons saying Others have such and such assistance in the meane time God leaves me and such and such have evidence of his favour but God regards not me had I but such power against corruptions and such evidence of Gods love and favour as God hath given to such and such Christians farre younger than I I seeke and pray and intreat and have not and with that the heart is carried with a secret heart-burning against the Lord this breeds a secret kinde of wrangling and quarrelling and withdrawing from the Lord. Therefore labour thou to still those distempers and to rectifie thy selfe and to judge as thou oughtest Judge not thy selfe by what others have and by what thou deservest but say Blessed be God I am not as I might have been and blessed be God I am not as I have deserved for then I had either beene upon the chaine with felons or upon the gallowes with theeves and robbers or in the Ale-house at my abominations for my nature is prone to it as well as others I confesse I am not so holy as I ought to be but blessed be that mercy in Jesus Christ that I am as I am I have not what others have and yet it is a wonder that I have any thing at all at the hands of the Lord so unthankefull and dead-hearted as I am others are meeke and patient and heavenly and painfull and therefore it is a wonder that I have any thing at all Goe thy way and bee contented with the Lords goodnesse and quarrell no more and mis-judge the Lords kindnesse no more Thus you see the hindrances removed now there is a way made that the soule may come to some termes of love with God Meanes 2. 2. When the soule hath beene thus ordered we must labour to bee throughly acquainted with the beauty and sweetnesse of Christ in the promise that this may provoke our soules to love the Lord and to rejoyce in him When these hindrances are removed there is way made for the promise to come and meet with the soule these breed-bates are sent out of towne and now there may be some possibility of love and this is the next way to worke and draw our hearts to Christ and to kindle in us these affections of love and joy The soule that is loosened from all the causes of jarres and dissentions betweene Christ and him that soule is ready to match with the promise and to bestow it selfe in love upon Christ In a marriage a man must know the party first and the portion and understand both or else he can love neither so thou must see the beauty and excellency of the promise before thou canst love the Lord Jesus As it is in the baser affections the covetous man seeth a good bargaine before hee loves it so that it is the eye that makes the bargaine as one well observes so thou must looke wisely upon the promises and be able to know them and this will make thee love them as in Psal 91.14 Because he hath set his love upon me therefore will I deliver him I will set him on high because he hath knowne my Name How came he to love the name of the Lord because he knew him as it is Cant. 1.2 when the name of our Saviour was as an ointment powred forth then did the virgins love him this name is the graces of our Saviour revealed and communicated to us and Cant. 4.9 see what our Saviour saith My sister my spouse thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes with one chaine of thy necke this is by way of comparison from the lesse to the greater the Spouse of Christ is the Church of Christ and by eye and neck is meant nothing else but the beauty of his grace in the heart truely humbled now the Lord Jesus Christ lookes upon these graces and loves them and is ravished with the fight of them Now if the worke of grace in the heart of a poore sinner ravished the heart of Christ who is the God of all grace then much more if our hearts could but see one finger of the excellency that is in Christ they would bee ravished with earnest love and kindled with violence towards him There are three things that ought mainely to bee respected in the promise that we may eye and apprehend and that our hearts may be kindled with love to the Lord and these three worke love any where First the worth of the party in himselfe Secondly the desert of the party Thirdly the readinesse of the party in himselfe to seeke our good Three things in Christ to make us love him So it is with the Lord Jesus first he is worthy of our love in himselfe considered Secondly he hath deserved it Thirdly he seekes our love Thou that dwellest in a poore cottage wilt hardly beleeve this but I say he seekes thy love First Christ is worthy in himselfe I wonder that the Lord Jesus Christ will suffer himselfe to be beloved by such wretches as wee are if wee had a thousand hearts to bestow upon him we were never able to love him sufficiently for as Nehemiah said Nehem. 9.5 The name of the Lord is above all praise and as the name of God is above all praise that wee can give him so the name of the Lord is above all the love that we can bestow upon him Will you let out your love and affections as wee use to say in the market it is a good penny worth it is worth more money than you shall pay for it so if you will lay out all the affections that you have you may lay them out here and that with good advantage too What would you have you may have enough for your money Wouldst thou have beauty then thy Saviour is beautifull Psal 45.2 Thou art fairer than the children of men yea he is full of grace nay the Spouse Cant. 5.10 saith My beloved is the cheife of ten thousand and in the 16. verse Hee is altogether lovely hee is a very beautifull husband There is no beauty in the world but it hath its blemish nor no day so faire but it hath its clouds but the Lord Jesus Christ is altogether love if beauty will please thee he is altogether excellent Would you have strength Psal 45.3 hee is all strength A wife would not have a cowardly husband therefore the Text saith Gird thy sword upon thy thigh O most mighty ride on prosperously so that Kings are slaine and people shall fall
of the next ditch must containe and content them till their dying day Yet to such as these the proposition of Habakkuk extendeth it selfe If the persons and causes be alike the joy also shall bee alike I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation If Christ be come into the house and by him salvation who shall forbid them to bee comfortable as Zacheus and the Jaylor I will rejoyce in the Lord or because of the Lord Bajehova and so in the next clause Baelohi God is left unto me when all else is taken away still I I have a God to take comfort in And First he is greater matter of comfort than any of those things can be of sorrow and dejection for those are finite evils but God an infinite good Secondly he is higher than they all my comfort lies out of the reach of all enemies and all adversities Psal 46.1 Thirdly he is nearer than any of them a very present refuge in the time of trouble Losses and crosses goe neere to the heart and to the quick but God is nearer Fourthly he is Jehova in whom I rejoyce hath his being of himselfe and gives being to all the creatures and preserves it so long as him pleaseth Therefore by his benefit I shall subsist when all the secundary meanes of maintenance are intercepted Matth. 4.4 Man lives not by bread onely but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God Fifthly he is the God of my salvation that is he saves my body and naturall life whether I have meanes or no meanes it is he that strikes the maine stroke in my preservation by an Hebraisme oft called The God of salvation and this not only temporally for the body but spiritually and eternally for the soule And then the argument is easie He that doth the greater will doe the lesse too God that saves us from hell the Divell will save us from starving and the like miseries Jehova that became the Lord Jesus to us when we had no strength will never sticke with us for trifles in comparison This sweet and blessed name meets him that reads the Text in the Originall Baelohi jishgni which Saint Jerome translates in God my Jesus or Saviour just as the Virgin sang Luke 1 47. De civit Dei l. 18. c. 32. My spirit rejoyceth in God my Saviour and Saint Austine preferres the using of this nomen amicius dulcius before the Septuagints Deo salutari meo Certaine it is that by Christ only we have interest in God and can rejoyce in him There is no salvation in any other Act. 4.12 nor any other name given under heaven by wich wee can be saved And in him doe all true Christians triumph Phil. 3.3 not in the righteousnesse of the Law nor in any legall and carnall priviledges And wee have ample cause to rejoyce in him even in the greatest failing of naturall comforts and greatest desolations that can come upon us Although the fig-tree blossome not c. Although there be another drought another and ten years one after another and a greater mortality of pestilence and the sword too with all the mischiefes that accompany it Yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation In greatest wants true Christians have cause enough to rejoyce in God Doctr. However the world goes for comforts of nature yet in Christ wee have full cause to rejoyce and so should stirre up our selves to doe See Psal 42.5 7 8 9 10 11. and 73.25 26 27 28. Dying Jacob lifted up himselfe by thinking on the salvation which God had wrought for him Gen. 49.18 Job stript of all praised God as when hee had all about him Moses seeing him that is invisible feared not the wrath of the King Micaiah having seene God in a vision was nothing daunted at the presence of two glorious Kings The three children beleeving in God regarded neither NebuchadneZZars anger nor the furnace extraordinarily heated So the Apostles Acts 4. and 5. and the Martyrs in severall histories of the Church Reason 1 Eccles 1.2 One reason whereof may be taken from the vanity of the creature Vanity of vanities vanity of vanities saith the Preacher all is vanity and vexation of spirit They are good comforts of nature where they may be had and a good man will make them so many encouragements in the way of grace But God never appointed them to be part of the Saints portion Gen. 15.1 No I am thy portion thy buckler and great reward and so the Christian makes account Lam. 3.24 The Lord is my portion saith my soule therefore will I hope in him And he sets no such high price upon wine oyle or other comforts as that without them he should not rejoyce in his God So he either parts with them the more easily or wants them the more joyfully Reason 2 The other is taken from the superabundant excellencie of the Creator Both in respect of his Attributes on which whiles a Christian meditates hee shall ever finde something to set against his particular maladie with a large over-plus of comfort And in respect of his Workes both of Creation and Providence and this both for preservation and gubernation Psal 92.4 5. Thou Lord hast made me glad through thy worke I will triumph in the workes of thy hands O Lord how great are thy workes and thy thoughts are very deepe And these very evils drought dearth warre c. are they not by Gods permission and limited how long they shall continue and ordered to a good end Rom. 8.28 And in respect of his Ordinances The Word is our song in the house of our pilgrimage and the joyfull tidings of our salvation The Sacrament is a marriage supper of the great King for his onely Sonne Eate O friends drink yea drink abundantly Cant. 5.1 Psal 84.1 O beloved And the Tabernacles of God are amiable the onely joy of David And in respect of his unspeakable benefits in and by Christ that one word Salvation is an epitome of all blessings it comprehends the causes means effects and perpetuitie of our blessednesse and absolute overthrow of the enemies and specially the immediate authour of salvation which is Christ It would aske an houres discourse and more to tell in particular what ample cause we have to rejoyce in Christ that if we had nothing left us but naked Christ in naked Christ we should have Peace and Joy enough John 16.33 Christ at the worst and poorest is a rich treasure Quod cunque Deo indignum est mihi expedit Tert. Whatsoever became him not as God is expedient and profitable unto us even his shamefull accursed death And if his death be so joyous and blissfull what shall his resurrection be his ascension session at the right hand of his Father and intercession for us with all the gracious execution of his Kingly and Propheticall