is ventrous it will hazard any thing for the thing beloved Christ gives an evidence of it he doth not only venture his life but lay down his life greater love then this hath no man that a man lay down his life for his friend Joh. 15. 13. Abishai out of his intire love to David when there came Ishbi-benob a gyant whose staff was like a Weavers beam and struck at David thinking to have killed him he interposes receives the blow and slew the Philistine 2 Sam. 21. 16. Love is ventrous it will put life in hazard for the thing beloved t is that which the people of God speak as a testimony of their love to God The reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me Psal 69. 9. and they do it to choose as it was a gracious speech of that Ancient Mallem in me sit murmur quam in Deum Bonum est quod dignetur Deus me uti pro clypeo If the Lord will be pleased to make use of me to keep off reproaches from himself truly I shall look upon it as a very great priviledge and honour Now pray tell me where your hazards are where is the man that for the truths of God and the interests of Christ wâ—ll hazard the loss of his estate the loss of friends the spoiling of his goods where be the men that be apt thus to hazard any thing The truth is love turns cowardize into Courage you may see it the Hen though a feeble creature how far out of love to her young will hazard her self against the most ravenous Bird the mother though a weak and fearfull creature yet how far and with how little consideration will put her self in hazard if her childe be in danger what is that for which you venture Take a man whose love is set upon a lust what will that man hazard he will lose his friends spend his estate blast his reputation nay he will venture his soul all this out of that cursed love and indeed what is it else that makes men despise the judgements of God and mock at fear what is it that men are so couragious for t is their love to sin makes them so Now pray tell me where are your ventures certainly there is your love Sixâ—hly Love is zealous I do not mean that of suspition a zeal of suspition that we commonly call jealousie suspicio est amicitiae venenum t is the poison of love that suspition of evil in the party beloved no the property of love is the contrary for love thinks no evil 1 Cor. 13. 4. But when I say love is zealous my meaning is it is full of sollicitude fearing least any injury or wrong should be offered to the person and thing beloved this love is zealous against any injury offered to the thing or person beloved Consider Moses was the meekest man upon earth yet Moses meekness is turned into anger when an injury is done to the God of his love as well as of his life Moses by and by breaks the Tables so likewise the Lord Jesus Christ out of love to his Father the Zeal of thy house hath eaten me up Joh. 2. 17. Zeal in the heart is like boyling water that wastes in the seething just so the Lord Jesus the Zeal of thine house hath eaten me up It makes a man overlook all interests concerning himself in the world and be intent only upon the interest of the person beloved so it is in Gods love I am zealous for my sanctuary with a very great jealousie Zach. 1 14. What is zeal It is a mixt affection it s nothing else but love provoked that is zeal Esther speaks the language of love Esth 6. 8. How can I indure to see the destruction that shall come upon my kindred the evil that shall come upon my people how can I indure this is the proper language of love Now pray tell me what are you zealous for Where is your zeal touch one man in his reputation and you arm his zeal against you touch another in point of goods and you will quickly see where his love is so on the contrary touch God in hâ—s Name Christ in his truth To whom I gave place no not for an hour saith Paul Gal. 2. 5. presently zeal is up and love is provoked I remember it is Bernards exhortation to Eugenius Ignescat Zelus when any thing came contrary to the interest of Christ he would have his zeal turn into fire and so it will be where love is examine therefore what makes you hot upon every occasion sure thats an injury done to the thing beloved this is that which provokes thy zeal therefore where thy zeal is there is thy love Seventhly Love is fearfull of separation from the thing beloved it desires nothing more then union it fears nothing more then separation the Spouse gives an instance of that in the Canticles I charge you awake not my love till he please Austin gives that as the difference between true and unclean love between the love of a wife and the love of an harlot so he puts it both fear the husband true Haec ne veniat illa ne discedat the one fears least the husband should come the other fears least he should depart this love wherever it is fears separation the intirest affection of the soul in this world is unto the body next to God and Christ and heavenly things there is the greatest indeerment between the body and the soul Now why is death called the King of terrors because death is the separation of the soul from the body which especially the soul fears because union it loves and as Neriemberg saith A mans moritur sibi vivit in amato he that loves dies in himself but lives in the thing beloved for if a man die in himself how loth were he to part with the thing beloved for that were a double death for this cause the great consolation of the Saints is let some men of our times talk what they will that the Doctrine of falling from Grace is a Doctrine of great Consolation but the Scripture and Experience tells us who shall separate us from the love of God Rom. 8. ult for in the absence of the thing beloved the heart languishes but in the separation from the thing beloved the heart dies for this cause as this is the greatest cordial to the Saints there is no separation they love that from which they shall never be separated so it s the greatest corrosive to wicked men they love that from which there shall be a separation and therefore the Lord continually tels us Riches betake themselves to their wings Prov. 23. 5. Thou fool this night I will take away thy soul and then whose shall these things be Luke 12. 20. I will take thy cup from thy mouth I will take you away with hooks and your posterity with fish-hooks Amos 4. 2 3. This I say the greatest corrosive to an ungodly man is
moment First because a mans love is his greatest gift there is nothing else is a gift indeed without love but amor per se donum love is a gift of it self though there be nothing else Consider the love of God though the Lord had never given you any thing but set his love upon you it had been the greatest gift more then if he had given you all the creatures in heaven and earth and if God had given you an inheritance among all the creatures yet there is no gift indeed without love so likewise the Lord Jesus Christ if he had never given you an interest in his Sonship in his victories in the promises in his priviledges if he had given you but his love there is the great gift all these are so far gifts as they flow from love so it is true in you 1 Cor. 13. 3. If I give all my goods to feed the poor and have not charity that is Love it profiteth me not Then a man may give great gifts without love so hypocrites do many times give God great gifts but reserve their love so God deals with them gives many of of them great gifts but reserves his love for his Saints therefore it is love only is the greatest gift that a man hath there is no man giveth more then his love God gives no more man can give no more a great matter therefore where a man sets his love Secondly it is a great matter to inquire where a mans love is because he that gives his love gives himself gives all things else whatsoever he hath this is liberal free love indeed to give all things to the person beloved yea he gives himself and all things else I remember t is Clopenburgs observation Satis liberalis amor omnia amato dans seipsum so the Lord set his love upon his people from eternity and then purposed to give himself yea therein lay his love first himself and then all things else so the people of God they love the Lord and therefore they give themselves unto the Lord 2 Cor. 8. 5. 1. Love gives it self and then all things else whatever is in its power so you finde Rev. 21. 7. He shall inherit all things I will be his God he shall have an interest in God and then all things that God hath shall be his thus as it is with God so likewise it is with men Qui amorem dat omnia dat he that giveth his love giveth all for a mans love commands all that he hath therefore a man inherits all that is Gods why because God sets his love upon his people a mighty thing therefore to consider where a man sets his love Thirdly a mans love is that which makes the thing beloved his it s an excellent observation of a learned man Qui nos super omnes amat super omnes noster est Deus God is ours above all because he loves us more then all we call our estates ours and our friends ours Why God is ours above all things faith and love give us an interest in God so when do we become God's that the Lord saith they be mine and they shall be mine when I make up my jewels why truly by the love of God we become his he loves us and by this means he hath a title to us as we love God and have a title to him It is our love that makes our beloved ours of how great consequence must it be then where a man sets his love for thou canst call nothing thine but what thou lovest for it is a mans love that makes it his Lastly consider it is a mans love that sets the price upon all things as one observes Amor imponit pretium rebus Love sets the price on things and truly great things are of small value where love is wanting t is so with God t is so with men if the Lord give an ungodly man the greatest gifts in the world as He sometimes gives Kingdoms to the basest of men how do the Saints value this this is without love and therefore it is but as a scrap cast to a Dog he values it no more as he said of the Turkish Empire Crustulam canibus projectam so likewise let a godly man give to God but a small thing there is love in it and love raises the price That poor woman the widow that cast in two mites gave more then they all Luke 21. 12. how did she give more then they all why they gave of their abundance It was more in love and affection and therefore more in worth and acceptation Now if such things as these be true and you will finde them great truths how doth it concern every man therefore to consider where he sets his love But what should a man set his love upon that by this means he may know where his heart is Omne bonum est amabile etiam naturale Why truly all good is lovely wherever it is and to be beloved even natural good We have the example of the Lord for it we have the example of God for it God loves all his creatures and of the Lord Jesus Christ himself Mark 10. 21. He beheld the young man and loved him then all good is lovely but the question is not whether we may not love any thing that is good but quid primum amatur but as the Schoolmen put a great question all truth is to be known but what is that as the first truth that the understanding closes withal so what is first to be beloved is the great question for where the love is first set there is the love and there is the heart Consider I pray what is the meaning of al those Scriptures Mark 10. 37. He that loves father and mother more then me to love father and mother is a duty therefore not here reproved But what is the first thing to be loved what hath the chief place in your love so Joh. 12. 35. He that loves his life shall lose it every man is bound to love his life and out of that love to preserve it but he that loves his life more then me more then my truth and my honor c. 1 Joh. 2. 15. Love not the world and the things of the world it is lawfull to love the world and the things of the world but still the question is more then me remember still that God have the priority to love the creature more then God it is that which makes it lust as Austin speaks of it but to love the creature in subordination to God that is Charity Hic amor est charitas ille cupiditas true love love of the right kinde therefore all the things that I shall propose in this particular I desire to be understood according to this Rule What is it that you love most not whether you love this more then that but whether you love these more then me and what is your first love According to this
we shall inquire where a mans love is that by this means we may know where his heart is and I am perswaded if you take these following Rules and observe them carefully that you will not miscarry in your Judgement First Would a man know where his love is what is that he especially desires union with For amor est affectus unionis love is an affection that carries a tendency to union Now this will appear if you observe the love of God the pattern union with God was first in Gods intention because this is last in his execution the people of God in glory are brought into immediate vision of him and into the closest union with him But this being last in execution I say this was first in intention He loved them with an everlasting love that is he had intention from eâ—ernity of union with them Pray observe it there is indeed a double union with God 1. Of Dependence one is general of all the creatures and that 's a Union of dependency In him we live move and have our being Yea all the creatures have so they cannot live separate from God one moment The Angels in heaven did not this union continue they would fall to nothing immediatly there is a union of dependency but that is general and belongs to all the Creatures But there is a special Union that is peculiar to the Saints by the indwelling of God in them they dwell in God and God in them such a union as no creature in the world but a Saint hath by the elapses of God into the soul Now God loves the Saints and his love carries a tendency to union So Jesus Christ loved his people what for that he might become one with them That he that sanctifies and they that are sanctified might become one why so you will finde that the love of the people of God carries them unto union with God and Christ as the love of God and Christ carries them to union with the Saints there is indeed a natural union that is by constitution but there is a moral union by inclination by sympathy and that 's double there is a union of likeness and there is a union of fruition and enjoyment for the union that the Saints of God shall have hâ—reafter is far different from what they have here here it is of similitude there it is of enjoyment where a mans love is there is a tendency to union an inclination to union 1 Cor. 6. 17. He that is joyned to the Lord is one spirit and the man that is glewed to the Lord so the word doth signifie then the man that loveth God is a man glewed to God he is united to him for union is the tendency of the heart so Sichem loved Iacobs daughter Dinah and the text saith His soul clave to her or as the Septuagint uses the same word his soul was glewed so that where a man loveth the soul goeth out to be united to that which is beloved Now if a man love God then my heart follows hard after God the soul goeth out in the pursuit of the thing beloved and all is that it may be made one with God and to this end you have two Metaphors very remarkable in the Scripture one is that of a hunter Gen. 10. 9. Nimrod was a mighty hunter Ier. 16. 16. I will bring hunters among you Prov. 23. 27. The wicked rosteth not that which he taketh in hunting What is the meaning of these expressions why they are all to set forth the pursuit of the soul after that which it loveth just as the hunter pursues the poor creature that flies so the soul what it loves it pursues and is in continual pursuit of take men that love riches and honours their souls are continually going out to union with them so a man that loves God his soul is in pursuit of God as that Hermite in a story that sometime I have read finding a great Gallant hunting in a desolate wilderness Askt him what he did there he told him He came a hunting there Et ego Deum venor meum And I said he came hither to hunt after my God t is in pursuit of my God There is another Metaphor and that is a merchandize Prov. 3. 15. the merchandize of wisdom it s spoken of trading for Christ and grace and the things of eternity he that Trades for Christ is called a Merchant man Matth. 13. 45. and so also they that trade for any earthly thing are said to be Merchants Romes merchandise you read of Rev. 18. 11. Make merchandise of souls 2. Pet. 2. 3. and of Ephraim Hos 12 7. He is a merchant what is that why the meaning is this they wholly trade for things below for as Merchant men go forth to make themselves possessors of riches make it their business so to do so it is with the soul of a man the heart is a merchant it goeth out to what it loves and never leavs till it hath possest it now I pray do you consider what is it your souls desire most what do you hunt for what do you trade in there is thy love whoever thou art if it be Jesus Christ and Communion with God and the things of eternal life if thou art in the pursuit of these constantly there is thy heart if it he after wealth and honour these thou huntest for as prey assuredly there is thy love and thy heart and thy treasure that 's the first Rule Secondly would a man know where his love is the nearer love comes to the thing beloved the swifter it moves the nearer a mans love comes to possess the thing he loves the swifter it moves yea it stretches after it then see it in worldly things or else what means that expression Psal 62. 10. If riches increase set not your hearts upon them if you want riches set not your hearts upon them take heed of that for the nearer a man comes to enjoy them the more his heart goeth out unto them and therefore covetous men the richer they are the more miserably they scrape and gape after riches and the reason is this because the nearer a mans love comes to the thing beloved the swifter it moves after it and with the greater earnestness Hab. 1. 6. There is a man that loads himself with thick clay the man hath already too much for his graces for his parts for his comforts and already too much for his accompt but yet notwithstanding the more he hath the more his heart grasps after it still thus it is with every mans love the nearer it comes to possess its object the swifter it moves after it so the Apostle speaks of spirituals Phil. 3. 13 14. Not that I have already obtained but I press hard to the mark I am in a vehement pursuit as if you could take a stone from the earth and place it in the Orb of the Sun yet the stone having a tendency downward still moves
your souls and by them doth God keep a people in his ways they are the Instruments used by God to keep a people upright and stedfast in walking before him And this is a peoples strength and safety Gods ways and none but his are ways of safety while a people walks in his ways he will be their sun and shield their rock and strength their God and their salvation 4. They are of singular use and benefit to the Leaders of a people if they will receive such among them the faithful Prophets of God have been a means to convert wicked Governors and to keep others of them right in the ways of God you read of Jehoash that he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord all his days wherein Jehoiada the 2 Kin. 12. 2. Priest instructed him See of what excellent use that good man was unto Jehoash There are none who will deal with the Governors of a people so plainly so conscientiously so seriously so earnestly as the faithful Prophets of God they will speak to them when none else dare speak to them they will tell them of their sins as well as their inferiors they will make known unto them all the minde and will of God concerning them they will put them upon the power practice of godlines as wel as others nay more then others they will stir up their hearts to be zealous for God and his truth and his ways and not to suffer any provocation of God in the Land Now this comes to be of great strength and safety to a people as a peoples misery lies very much in the iniquity of Rulers so a peoples happiness lies much in the godliness of their Rulers if the Judgements of Rulers are right in the things of God if their hearts do indeed love God if they themselves do make conscience to walk in the ways of God if they once come to be tender of the honour of God and will own and encourage the power and practise of godliness why such Rulers are a singular blessing unto a people and they are a means of manifold blessings unto them And therefore faithful and zealous Prophets are an eminent strength and safety to a Nation who are special helps for all those gracious qualities in such as do govern a Nation 5. I might add one thing more to demonstrate the assertion and that is this faithful Prophets are much in prayer for a Civil State and their prayers are very prevailing with God Said Samuel Gather 1 Sam. 7. 5. 9. 2. all Israel together to Mizpeh and I will pray for you unto the Lord and he cried unto the Lord for Israel and the Lord heard him His prayer was a means to discomfit the Host of the Philistims so when there was a great drought in the Land of Israel that it was like to perish Elijah prayed Iam. 5. 18. and the heavens gave rain and the earth brought forth her fruits his prayer was a means to preserve the Land many more instances might be given but I must hasten to the application of all this unto our selves Is the death and loss of any Vse 1 one faithful and zealous Prophet of God a just cause of grief and lamentation Then what sad thoughts and melting affections should take us up for the death and loss of many eminently faithful and zealous Prophets of God Dr. Hill Mr. Wilson Master Whitaker c. We have of late lost many precious Servants of Christ many faithful Laborers in his Vine-yard I fear that we have not laid those losses to heart that may be affirmed of most of us which is spoken in Isa 57. 1. The righteous perisheth no man layeth it to heart merciful men are taken away and no man considereth that the righteous are taken away from the evil to come There are unto me yet four sad presages of some future evil and they are 1. The great indifferency about the great truths of Christ 2. The great want of the power of godliness in the Land superstition and prophaness still abounding 3. The great contempt of the Ministers of the Gospel 4. The great inconsideration of the death of so many choice Prophets Servants of God To many persons their life is a burden and their death is a rejoycing When Mctellus heard of the death of Scipio Africanus he ran out into the publick Forum or Market place and cryed out O Citizens come ye forth Concurrite cives urbis vestrae moenia corruerunt and consult what is to be done for the walls of your City are fallen down Surely there is matter of deep thoughts and sad afflictions in these solemn dispensations of God of late For an Husband man to pull out the weeds in the garden this is nothing but for him to pluck up the Flowers and the choice Plants there is something in this for him to take away the rotten Hedge this is nothing but to break down the wals about the Vineyard there is something in this To take off a tile from the top of the house it is nothing O but to take away the Pillars there is some great change now indeed We read that when Noah that Preacher of righteousness was taken into the Ark then the flood followed seldom doth God gather his Prophets by clusters as it were but there is some great evil neer unto a people nevertheless people generally are secure and stupid and foolish though God smites them in one of the choicest blessings which he vouchsafes to the Sons of men They see loss upon loss and death upon death here a Minister dead and there a Minister carried to his grave and usually this is all the fruits of it Is such a one dead and I pray you how long was he sick and whereof did he die and what hath he left his poor wife and children It is great pitty the man was an honest man and preacht well and here is all Now to such careless and cold and dull persons especially if any such have had any reference unto faithful and laborious Ministers who can thus slightly pass over the death of their Pastors I have four things to say 1. It is a sign that you never truly loved their persons no no for all your complements and for all your pretences yet you never truly loved them of all affections love is most apprehensive and sensible If it enjoys there is much delight If it loseth there is much sorrow love is very sensible of what it enjoyes and of what it loses 2. It is a sign that you never prized them in their Ministry if you make no more of them being dead certainly you made little of them being living affections do most appear and discover themselves upon death absense and difficulties and oppositions and death these are tryals and discoveries of true love and therefore if you can so slightly bear the loss of your faithful Ministers assuredly you never knew the