soule worthy of him though not through its owne worthinesse and suitable for him 2. It implies That the Lord Jesus Christ shall love such a soule discovering in it a suitable excellency he shall love it his heart will be ravished with it Cant. 4. 9. Thou hast ravished my heart my sister my spouse thou hast ravished my heart Christs affections will be drawne out to a soule that so forgets it selfe his heart will bee melting towards it and on fire for it there must first bee a love in the soule to the object before the heart bee drawne forth to covet an union with it 3. It implies That the Lord Christ will in his heart preferre such a soule when a mans desire is towards a particular woman to make her his wife he preferres her above other women his desire is not to her sex but to her to her rather than ten thousand others The Lords desire shall bee towards such a soule As you have heard described to you that hee will preferre her above ten thousand of his creatures though the Lord sees thousands of his creatures hundreds in a congregation that the world dotes upon some for their faire faces and on others for their brave parts this Eliab and the other Shammah yet the Lord that sees all and can judge best lets Eliab and Shammah passe and fixeth his eye upon this selfe denying in the world despised creature and upon it hee fixeth his heart and prizeth such a soule above all the other trumperies and kickshawes of beauty The Lord culs out such a soule his desire is towards her shee is the Esther hee picks out and such a soul is more preferred in Christs eye than this witty man or woman or that gallant this Lord or that Lady Christ hath no desire to them but to this soule his desire is 4. It implies That Jesus Christ will indeavour and effect an union and enjoy such a soule what is the meaning of that phrase the man's desire shall be to his wife but he shall desire to be joyned in marriage to her that they may bee no longer twaine but one flesh and if his desire be towards her and it be a feasible thing he will effect it if shee consent and friends consent c. The Lords desire shall be to the soule that is the Lord Jesus Christ shall indeavour yea and unite himselfe to effect an union with such a soul he shall wooe it yea and shee shall yield for when hee works who can let him Christ will marry himselfe to such a soule make a marriage covenant and tie himselfe in a marriage bond to it for though in man desire may bee frustrated so that desire and enjoyment are two things yet it is necessarily to be understood in Christs desiring whose power is such that hee shall not need starve his desire longer than he pleaseth 5. It implies That the Lord Jesus Christ will court neare communion with such a soule mark how he speaks to the Spouse Cant 2. 14. O my Dove that art in the clefts of the rocks in the secret places of the staires let me heare thy voice for sweet is thy voice and thy countenance comely hee will not onely have communion but hee will covet communion with such a soule hee will desire to have it draw nigh and dwell in his presence to have it come neare him in a duty in an ordinance c. 6. Lastly Hee will love such a soule with a constant and inseparable love it is said The King shall desire thy beauty he shall desire it and never cease desiring of it hee shall for ever desire thy beauty And thus I have opened to you all the three termes now I come to the second taske As I have gone along in opening the generals in severall particulars I have proved the Doctrine that it is so But may some say what ground is there that the Lord Jesus Christ should desire this of every soule that hee will love and marry and have communion with that it should thus forsake its owne people and its fathers house why should Christ hold the soule to this hard meat I shal therefore in the next place shew you the reasons of it And there is a very great deale of Reason for it 1. Because it is the very law of marriage Gen. 2. 24. Therefore shall a man forsake father and mother and cleave to his wife The Lord Christ marries himselfe to the soule It is written I will betroth thee unto mee yea I will betroth thee unto mee for this cause the soule shall forsake its owne people and its fathers house and shall cleave to its Christ for this cause because the soule is married or about to marry to the Lord Jesus Christ and therefore must look to doe as married persons use to doe leave all for their husband 2. A second reason is because while the soule lives at home with its owne people and at its fathers house it cannot be beautifull nor desirable Our owne people are a filthie people our fathers house a nastie house the soule while it hath left that cannot be beautifull nor desirable The most beautifull creature you know if shee bee brought up by sluttish people as wee say and goes in a filthy habit there is a cloud cast over her beauty So it is with a soule while it hath left its sins and vaine company and pride and ambition and pleasures and riches and selfe-righteousnesse it cannot be beautifull in Christs eyes Now beauty is the attractive of the soule the soule must see a beauty in that which it lets out it selfe to in desiring let that be a second reason 3. Because there cannot bee a cleaving to Christ unlesse there be a parting with these Christ requires the highest love of our soules it is the first commandement you know with our Saviours glosse upon it Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy soule Hence Christ tels us no man can serve two masters you cannot serve God and Mammon that soule that will hug sin must hate God that soule that will be a companion of Jesus Christ and a companion of Saints must not be a companion of sinners for what fellowship hath Christ with Belial righteousnesse with unrighteousnesse light with darknesse the temple of God with Idols and so the rest Your soule cannot love two thengs with an highest love 2. You cannot in heart truly cleave to two contraries There is a third reason especially if you consider 4. That God is a jealous God you meet with the phrase often and given as a reason why they should doe this or that For the Lord thy God is a jealous God Jealousie is a passion in the soule non patiens consortium in re amatà saith Aquinas that will not indure or that makes the soule that it will not indure any sharing in the object beloved The woman that hath a jealous husband must leave all her old
dawbed with some uncomelinesse or other Will not the colours that look'd so sweetly afarre off stink if you bring them neere your nose Let that bee the first piece of advice Dir. 2 While you enjoy these things take heed of letting out your heart to them rejoyce as if you rejoyced not and use the world as if you used it not be not too much intent upon your fathers house converse not too much with any thing there things of the world have a glutinous quality the heart will cleave to them if you let it lie very long amongst them and if it once cleaves there will bee no wayes but either your heart must be soundly rent upon the severing or hell-fire must part them Dir. 3 Thirdly Ah Learne to live from your fathers house betimes take the wise mans counsell it was after a large survey and discourse of every roome and the vanity of every roome in our fathers house Eccl. 12. 1. Remember thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth if rottennesse enter into the bones it will hardly ever out You that are young for the Lords sake think of this Ah come off your youthfull vanities before they can plead custome with your soules live from home betimes believe it there will bee more weeping else when you come to part Dir. 4 Lastly Crie crie mightily unto God that he would take off your heart Believe it it must be his work you will be wearied else in the multitude of your owne indeavours if the Lord draw off the heart it will be drawne indeed Be much in publique prayer but especially be much in secret prayer I must conclude 2. Br. Lastly you that have been taught of the Lord to forget your fathers house that so the King might desire your beauty Let mee plead with you still to forget it more Selfe-deniall is a long and hard lesson a Christian must be learning it from his cradle to his grave and every time hee studies it hee shall find something to be done that is yet behind and all that he hath done to bee done better you have learned in part how to doe it I need not direct you you need no other directions then 1. To study every day more and more the vanitie of the creature Read over the book of Ecclesiastes well it is enough to teach you that lesson 2. Converse little with your fathers house have as little to doe with the world the pleasures or profits or riches or companie or manners of it as you can the lesser the better 3. Be more acquainted with Jesus Christ get neerer to him bee more in communion with him get more tasts of Heaven Earth will relish the worse for it I might presse upon you the same motives I urged before and I should doe it with advantages you know what this King is how much to bee desired how much to bee odored you know what a difference there is betwixt the worlds comelinesse and the comelinesse which hee putteth upon his Saints Let mee onely urge one word or rather name it Some read the words quia concupivit Because the King hath desired thy beauty here 's an argument an engaging argument to a Saint The Lord hath effectually made it knowne in your soules that hee desires your beauty more than tenne thousands of others Hee hath whispered not onely in your eares but in your heart his desire to you Ah now Christians be you humble self-denying ones because the King hath desired your beauty Let the love of Christ constraine you to order your hearts and conversations as becommeth the Gospell of the Lord Jesus Christ According to the lawes of this King that hath so passionately desired and so effecaciously declared his desire to your beauty I must have done The Lord adde his blessing FINIS
also see Hearing is not enough He that beleeveth not is damned already Seeing may bee of experience As wee have heard so have we seene in the City of our God The soule that heares well shall see Iohn 1. 50. Because I said unto thee I saw thee under the Fig-tree beleevest thou thou shalt see greater things than these Faith must goe before Sight but Sight shall succeed faith yet Faith is a Sight though not of experience And incline thine eare Expositors make this Phrase to containe three things 1. A Repetition of the first Branch Hearken It is a difficult duty the word is doubled that it may bee inforced the Psalmist speaks twice considering our deafnesse yet he speaks louder in this than in the other phrase Secondly therefore To incline the eare is more than to heare it doth argue a notable stirring of Attention Hee that inclines his eare affert alâ—quem animi motum propensionem quickens up his minde and brings with him to the duty a readinesse of Spirit and an intentnesse of minde 3. Inclining the Eare say some is Nota demissionis a Note of that subjection and obedience which should bee found in the Spouse of the Lord Jesus Christ toward him It followeth in the Text And forget thine owne people and thy Fathers house Here are two things to be enquired into 1. What is meant by her owne People and her Fathers House 2. What is meant by forgetting of them For the first we must be guided by the Knowledge of the Spouse to whom these words are spoken if you look upon 1. The Church of the Jewes as the Spouse meant here to be married to Christ without question it is meant of the Jewish Worship the Ceremoniall Law and Worship and their Traditions they were to bee forgotten and the Gospell-worship to be embraced the worship of Christs Institution consonant to that of Christ to the Woman of Samarta John 4. 21 22 23. 2. If you understond by the Spouse the Church of the Gentiles then the Fathers house is all the Gentile worship and Paganish Idolatry which must all be left upon their turning to Christ 3. If you understand by the Spouse the particular beleeving soule the Fathers house is old Adams house all sinnne and wickednesse all traditionall worshipping Renounce the Per patris domum intelligo quicquid corruptionis ex utero afferimus aut quaecunque ex prava institutione nobis adhaerent quasi ad nos haereditario jure aut educatione transfusa Rivet ad loc World saith Deodate and cleave to Christ It is a Lesson of Selfe-Denyall consonant to that of Christ Matth. 10. 37. By Fathers house saith Doctor Rivet wee may understand whatever corruption wee either brought out of the wombe with us or have contracted by ill education or custome so that they cleave to us as our inheritance And by People saith he I understand ea quae ex mala consuetudine conversatione cum impiis acquisita nos a Deo abducunt quae omnia nobis sunt deponenda all those Corruptions and whatever they be which we have contracted by ill acquaintance and conversing amongst the wicked which estrange us from God these must all bee laid downe Luke 9. 23. Luke 14. 26. I shall anon in the opening of the Doctrine open this tearm more fully I now proceed So shall the King desire thy Beauty Some read it Quia concupivit because the King hath desired thy beauty making it a motive to induce her to forget her fathers house So August Cyprian c. Others read it according to our Translation The King The King of Glory the King of Peace Christ that King I have set my King upon my holy Hill of Zion Hee is the King Greatly desire Out of his love to thee his great love to thee he shall desire it not onely love thee but desire thee yea not onely desire thee but greatly desire thee He speaks after the manner of men whose desire is to the women they love Gen. 4. 7. Vnto thee shall be his desire And so Deut. 21. 11. If thou seest amongst the Captives a beautifull woman and thou hast a desire to her to make her thy wife Christs Love is such to the soule that he hath a desire to her yea not a desire barely but a passionate desire he shall greatly desire he shall be in love with the soule He shall greatly desire thy Beauty What Beauty Pulchritudo est in mente credentium saith Musculus it is meant not of a face Beauty but an heart Beauty Decor Ecclesiae saith Mollerus est in fide obedientia dilectione In the graces of the soule it is a Beauty that the Lord Christ puts upon the soule it is not a Beauty of nature but of grace that is the Saints Beauty Sanctitas Ecclesiae est pulchritudo Ecclesia saith Piscator the holinesse of the Church is the Churches beauty and so the holines of the soul is the souls beauty This is the fairenes this the Beauty that is meant in those places of Solomons Song Cant. 1. 10 11. Cant. 4. 1. Cant. 6. 1. Cant. 7. 1. This is the Beauty that the Lord Jesus Christ the great King shall so desire in the soule this is the comelinesse that shall make any poore soule desireable in the eyes of the Lord Jesus Christ This is the Beauty which will make the King of Glory rest and content himselfe in his Love to the soule that hath it and make him bee delighted with the acquaintance of the soule and in conversing and having Communion with the soule This is it that which where it is found will so ravish Christs heart that he will never part from the soule as Mollerus expounds that phrase greatly desire Thus as shortly as I could dispatch it you have the sense of the Text. Now in it there lyes these truths 1. That the gracious soule by marriage to Jesus Christ becomes his Daughter as well as his Spouse Hee will not onely love her as a Wife but care for her as a Daughter 2 Cor. 6. 16. 2 That it is a great piece of the Daughters worke to hearken to Christ in his Word It is no height of Saintship to be beyond Ordinances if wee be out of Heaven It is a note of a Reprobate being once enlightned to fall back but it is a new degree of Saintship they are deafe Adders that have lived thus long no Saints Children of the Devill not of God his Daughters must hearken Hearken O Daughter 3. Christs Daughter must and shall see as well as heare Hearing is not enough the soule must be open to receive Christ as well as the eare to heare his voice and if they will heare they shall see Hearken O Daughter and see 4. Christs Daughters must incline their eare as well as heare and see Obedience must bee joyn'd to Faith and Worship Inward affection and intention of minde must bee joyned with outward hearing 5. Which is the
the way those that glory in riches and worldly greatnesse are out of the way the carelesse daughters of Sion that stretch out their necks and mince it as they goe are out of the way the selfe-righteous men are out of the way Ah Lord who are in it Heaven is a difficult journey it is an hard way to find it is hard to flesh and blood to doe these things It was the Martyrs speech that the crosse way was the way to heaven The way to heaven is astrait way no dancing way dancers must have the elbowroome of hell-road they that will walke in this strait way must croud they must not thinke to walk thither in state no they must croud and never bee afraid of wrimpling a neat handkerchiefe or cuffe it is not opus pulvinaris said one but pulveris you shall be sure to meet with all the opposition that nature can make all the forces of flesh and bloud and all the forces the devill can adde who then shall be saved even those that God hath appointed to life those to whom the Lord shall give such an heart as I have told you strait is the way and few there be that find If you will have a broader way you may Mat. 7. 13 14. but then you must not look for the same journies end The Lord give you hearts to consider it and feare to tremble at it 3. And from hence thirdly you may bee instructed that it must bee something more than nature that must make a poore soule beautifull and desirably beautifull in Jesus Christs eyes It must neither bee naturall beauty will doe it nor yet naturall parts no nor natures glory nor the best of nature naturall righteousnesse Matth. 5. 20. It must be something more than flesh and bloud yea something more than flesh and bloud can helpe us with But I passe over this 4. From hence fourthly you may be instructed What an infinit love the Lord Jesus Christ hath loved his Saints with 1 Joh. 3. 1. Behold saith the Apostle with what manner of love the father hath loved you with that you should be call'd the sonnes of God Here hee sayes hearken O Daughter the Daughter of a King is honourable but the daughter of the King of Kings is much more honourable But if I may say it here seemes to be a degree of love beyond it the Kings wife is more honourable than the Kings daughter Behold therefore O yee upright in heart with what manner of love the Lord Jesus Christ hath loved you that hee should desire your beauty not only love you but if uncomely poor wretches make you beautifull according to that Ezech. 16. 13 14. nay not only so but desire your beauty not onely like it but desire it O love infinit love when David sent his servants to let Abigail know that hee desired her beauty marke how she admires at it 1 Sam. 25. 41. shee arose and bowed her selfe on the earth and said Behold let thine handmaid bee a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my Lord Doe you heare this newes O yee daughters of men doe you heare this newes that the King of glory the Lord Jesus Christ that hath no need of you that is infinitly above you hath sent me this day to tell you that hee desires your beauty Rise up O yee Saints bow your selves and say Let us be servants to wash his feet c. Let us bee the doore-keepers of his house his meanest servants No Christians you shall be his sons and daughters Nay hearken O daughters here 's more for you The King desires your beauty Spell this love at leisure and now wâ—sh your soules follow after Jesus Christ study it with your most serious thoughts live to it with strictest lives What conversation becommeth the gospell what manner of persons should you be Follow on make haste and rise and follow him singing crying as you goe O the heighth and depth the incomprehensible heighth the unfadomable depth of love wherewith the Lord Jesus Christ hath loved sinners before the beginning of the world c. And lastly 5. Can you learn a lesse result from hence than this that Saints selfe-denying despised Saints are happy creatures Terque quaterque beati blessed againe and againe Surely you have not heard mee all this while but you are preventing me in the words of the Psalmist Happy are the people that are in such a case yea blessed are the people that have the Lord for their God we may say of them O nimium dilectis Deo creatures strangely beloved of their God strangely happy in this that the King should desire their beauty Let the world scorne one let them put out the finger and barke at the moone let them mock puritanisme let the way of holinesse be every where spoken against pro hominum arbitrio let them talke so long as you gaine you dance before the ark though Michal mock out at the window You shall be more beautifull the more vile they think you it is for the Kings sake that hath desired your beauty and scornd theirs for the Kings sake that hath chosen you to obtaine everlasting life through Jesus Christ but hath ordained them to wrath and neglected their beauty One would not think now that these creatures that ravish Christs heart should offend worldlings eyes so much surely Christ should have no judgement if these were the contemptible ones of the earth the unlovely creatures Well well Christians let them mocke on after the way which they call simplicity and foolery moping c. worship thou the God of thy fathers thou shalt have thy pleasures when they shall have torments thou shalt have thy crowne and honour when the pride of their glory shall bee stained and that shall lie in the dust These children of vanity forget what Abraham though something too late to doe him good advised their brother to remember Luk. 16. 25. That in their life time they received good things and those precious Lazarus'es evill things but yet a little while and you shall be comforted and they tormented yet a little while and you shall be honoured and they shall be cursing the wombe that bare them and the paps that gave them suck cursing the honour that ruin'd them the pleasures that damned them the worldly glory which hath made them inglorious for ever yet a little while and instead of their sweet smels they shall have the stinkes of fire and brimstone and instead of their girdles rentings of heart for ever instead of their well-set haire they shall have baldnesse they shall spend more time in rending and tearing their haire than ever they did in curling or powdring it Yet a little while and instead of their stomachers they shall have girdings with sackcloth everlasting burnings instead of their present beauty But blessed shall you bee for you shall shine like the Sun in the firmament of the father for the King hath desired your beauty
hee hath put upon you Secondly 2. Here 's comfort against all the dirt the world casts upon you all the uncomelinesse they conceit in you who so despicable creatures in the eyes of the world as those men and women whom the Lord delights to honour these are the despised ones upon the backs of these it is that the Plowers plow and make long furrowes they are the upright in heart that they privily bend their bow to shoot at against these are the puttings out of the fingers and the liftings up of the hands upon these are laid all the scoffes of the ungodly and through their weaknesse the barkings of these dogges sometimes trouble them But Christians hath not the King desired your beauty the beauty that these wretches are so blind they cannot see Hath not the King desired it Is it desireable in Christs eyes and despised in their eyes which is the best judge think you is it not enough for you that you please your husband 3. Here 's comfort for you not only against all their scoffes but against all their low esteeme of you David saith I am small and of no reputation Christ was accounted the least in the kingdome of Heaven hee was the stone which the builders refused A man of no fashion in the world who cared for him did any of the Pharisees believe on him The wife you know takes her honour from her husband and usually if hee be accounted one of no fashion shee is not valued at a very high rate Saints though they be indeed the worlds pillars yet in the vulgar estimate they are the worlds burthens and where ever they live they usually live at a low rate in worldlings desires if any of note before turne puritane hee loseth his rate in the worlds thoughts presently the Gentleman loseth his honour the Lady her repute but it is because their prizers have lost their wit and their eyes and it need not much trouble a Saint for Christ desires their beauty still They have put themselves out of the worlds reckoning and heightend themselves in Christ's esteem Despise on fooles the King hath desired these soules beauty Ah! but will a poore misdoubting Christian say I am afraid they have a true object of laughter in me I am afraid I have not that desireable beauty but am a painted sepulchre were I but convinced that I had indeed truly forgot my fathers house and that the Lord Christ had indeed desired my beauty I could naile their scoffes to my heeles and mourne over their gallant follies But I feare 1 Obj. Alas I am going home to my fathers house ever and anon I am ready to yield to temptations ready to fall into sinne yea and the Lord pardon mee I fall seven times a day If I had forgot my fathers house should I have such inclinations to goe home would my heart draw so hard for vanity as it doth sometimes should I sinne so often c. I answ 1. Which way stands your affection your heart you say bends that way but which way stands your affection doe you take pleasure in such inclinations have you a good mind to sinne if you durst to returne to your old vanities if you durst only you durst not that 's an ill signe But upon such inclinations doth there presently arise a loathing in your soules doe you say Get thee behind mee Sathan that 's a good signe that though you be invited by a temptation of vaine company or the Devill c. yet you have truly forgotten your fathers house 2. You goe home sometimes you say it may be you fall into some of your former vaine courses and are with some of your vaine companions But I pray What doe you when you are in your fathers house are you pleased with your vanities or with the vanities of your friends or doe you spend your time in chiding It may be your heart sometimes declines to some vanity or you are sometimes in converse with vain persons Are you one with vanity one with sinners or doe your spirits rise against your selves and against the vanities of those with whom you are What indignation is wrought if any you may have forgot your fathers house for all this going home 3. You goe home sometimes you say But I pray How long doe you stay there Is sinne your trade Doe you live in knowne sinnes this indeed will argue your profession but hypocrisie But on the contrary though you fall through weaknesse yet doe you rise through grace though you sinne sometimes yet is sinne as Davids concupiscence call'd a stranger in the Parable Thus the best Saints have sinn'd yea and may sinne not of wilfulnesse but of weaknesse not trading in sinne nor lying in it but falling into it and rising by repentance 2. Obj. Ah! but will another Christian say I cannot deny my selfe in the company of my fathers house wretch that I am I got acquaintance when I was young with vaine persons or I am related to such and I dare not say but I love their company and oft times leave better for them neither can I deny my selfe in my relations My heart is excessively let out after them 1. Thou saiest thou art oft times yet a companion of vaine persons but consider Christian are they thy invited ghests or accidentall meerly are they intruders or are they the welcome crmpanions of thy life are they thy pickt company or no thy intimates or meerly companions in respect of thy trade and converse with the world If thou delightest not in them they indeed are sometimes thy companions but thou art not theirs 2. Art thou a companion with them in sinne or onely in civill actions or for discourse c. sometimes if the first indeed it is a signe thou hast not left thy fathers house but if the latter onely it is no such signe thou keepest thy course they come to thee and it may be disturbe thee but thou doest not goe to them 3. Thou sayest thou lovest them But it would be considered Whether thy love be meerly naturall or more It may be thou lovest them because they are witty people or of ingenuous dispositions Thus Christ loved the young man Matth. 19. and thus thou mayest love them It is an ill signe if thou lovest them because they will drinke or sweare or bee vain and wanton in their discourse or carriages 4. Thou sayest thou lovest thy relations and thou canst not deny thy selfe in them thy heart is so glued to them c. and God forbid but thou shouldst love them 1. with a naturall affection it s a signe of a wretch Rom. 1. 31. to be without naturall affection and 2. with a providentiall love and care hee that provides not for his family saith the Apostle is worse than an infidell But 1. Suppose Christ should call thee to suffer for him and thou hadst a good mind to it and they should plead hard for thee to spare thy selfe wouldst thou with
Hierom shake off thy father and mother and children and runne to Christ this would bee a signe thou hadst for-got them Though thou lovest them 2. Notwithstanding that thou lovest them wouldst thou favour them in any sinne against God and onely luke-warmely reprove them like old Elie It is not well done of you O my sons because thou lovest them wilt thou rather let them dishonour God damn their owne soules doe any thing rather than reprove or smite them this love indeed is a reall hatred and will argue little love to God in thy soule But on the contrary though thou lovest them with the tenderest love wilt provide for them with the most providential care yet is thy love so truly tempered that it shall not in the least hinder thee from doing thy duty to Christ no nor yet from doing thy duty to them from reproving sharply admonishing severely is thy love such that it shall not blind thy eyes so as thou wilt wink at the least neglect of duty in them not at the least sin-in them Love them then as wel as thou canst it shall be no sad evidence against thy soule otherwise Parents look to it your children will curse you another day for your love to them you have heard of killing with kindnesse let the kind of death be never so sweet yet the death will be bitter Take heed not of killing the bodies alas that were nothing but of damning your childrens soules and your owne too with miscalled kindnesse 3 Obj. But wil another Christian say I have not forgot my honour and glory I am not low enough I feare to get in at heavens gate I answer first 1. This is like the melancholy conceit of her that a Divine of our owne speaks of of a woman that conceited she was so fat shee could not get to heaven it is the lownesse of mind that God looks at Lords and Ladies if their hearts be not as high as their titles may sit in heaven as well as meaner persons I doe not say they shall have chaires of state set for them but they may have a roome there it may be one or two may sit above them if there bee degrees in glory that gave them place here but as Master Rutherford sayes the least place in Heaven is Heaven though it bee behind the doore But secondly 2. Is not thy outward Pompe and glory that which thou affectest and delightest in it and huntest after Does not thy title tickle thy eare nor swell thy heart if not it can doe thee no hurt all the feare of those swelling things is lest they should breed tympanies in the soule 3. Doe you look upon the title of the servant of Jesus Christ the title of Christian as the farre more honourable title Are you of Theodosius his temper which would you rather chuse to be call'd my Lord or Madam or to be called the servant of Christ which doe you preferre if the latter it is a signe you have forgot the former though you retaine it 4. Is your outward greatnesse and pompe no snare to your soule in the wayes of God Great persons are too ready to think they are above prayers above hearing above meane Saints should such ones as they pray in their families no let their boy do it should they pray in secret and runne up and downe to lectures O no forsooth it is a dishononour to them Heaven was made I confesse for the most part for people of lesser quality 1 Cor. 1. 26 27. James 2. 5. should such as they go to private meetings no better go to a taverne there they shall only foule their soules but keep their clothes cleane But now hath the Lord given thee another spirit it is true thou art great but thy greatnesse is no such snare to thy soule thou canst pray for all thy greatnesse and heare sermons and kneele in a duty for all thy silk stockings and entertain communion with the meanest Saint yea and for a need preferre a lether dublet in honour before thy selfe Though thou beest great it seemes thou hast forgot it 4 Obj. Ah but will a Christian say I am so addicted to mirth and pleasure I must have my vagary and tickle my sense sometimes c. 1 Answ Christian dost thou love thy pleasures more than thy God that indeed were something art thou more pleased with hearing a song than hearing a sermon this sounds high But love God best and for ought I know thy eye for thy recreation may bee delighted in seeing and thy eare with hearing too 2 Answ Wilt thou baulk an opportunity of communion with Christ or with his Saints for a vaine pleasure Wilt thou bee a loser in thy heart to gaine a little pleasure for thine eye or eare or any sense wilt thou misse a family duty an opportunity of hearing Gods word privatly or publiquely thy time of secret duty a time of communion with the Saints to wait upon thy pleasure In such a case I would have thee suspect thy heart otherwise thou mayest recreate thy selfe with them and yet have forgotten them 3 Answ Suppose thy pleasures have been such and are such as are in themselves sinfull as wantonnesse drunkennesse c. Dost thou love them so that thou wilt have them whether God will or no thou wilt break with God to enjoy thy lust this is an ill and a very ill signe But possibly thy pleasures are such as God allowes thee temperately used if such thou mayest so use them and yet the King desire thy beauty I have finished this branch of application I have but one word more to adde It shall be of Use 4 Exhortation Let mee now perswade with you Christians And oh that the Lord would help mee to perswade 1. with you who have not at all yet forgate your fathers house and so consequently your beauty is not at all desirable to Christ 2. With you that have begun to doe well I have a word to both sorts 1 Br. Is there alas is there any poore soule before me this day whose heart smites him and tells him that his soule is not at all yet desirable in the eyes of Jesus Christ is there any poore creature so sadly miserable possibly the world dotes on you for beauty wit parts behaviour c. but in the meane time doe your soules tell you in plaine English that you are despised in Christs eyes As though God did beseech you by mee I pray you in Christs stead be reconciled to God Ah poore soule wouldst thou be desired of Jesus Christ Hearken then O daughter and consider and incline your care forget thy owne people and thy fathers house I know I am pleading with you for an hard thing especially for you that have all the world at will But I beseech you by the love you bear to your precious soules which shall last for ever doe it ah doe it I had need now have the Rhethorick of an Angell yea if I