and that God hath accepted the attonement for thee in him thou canst never love him as a brother or friend but rather feare him as an enemy or Judge pray therefore with the Desciples Lord encrease our faith and therefore ply the ministery of the word one* else I say againe thou canst never truely love him but as thou dost another man which thou knowest not whether hee love thee againe or no and so thou mayst hate him againe at some time or other for all that but labour for faith and that will breede love and then if thou love him he will surely love thee yea indeede thou couldst neither love nor beleeve in him were it not but hee loves thee first But thou wilt say how shall I know that I answer It is the Apostle Saint Iohns owne words or rather his words by that his Apostle wee love him because hee loved us first And besides his word though that were enough thou hast his seale he hath given thee his Sonne who hath given his life for thee and shed his most precious blood for thy salvation and would he have done this for thee thinkest thou if he had not loved thee no but herein is love not that wee loved God but that God loved us and sent his Sonne to die for us us* and even yet by his spirit hee still sues unto us for our love as a further testimony thereof Oh but thou wilt say I am not worthy of so great love for I am a sinner disobedient and rebellious But I answer what dost thou tell him of that what if thou wert the chiefe of sinners he knew that before he gave thee his Sonne and he gave him unto thee the rather because he knew thou wast so for he justifies the ungodly that is those that condemne and judge themselves to be so so that if thou wilt but beleeve in him and imbrace him it is as much as he desires of thee But thou wilt say it may be he is affected to this or that person and not to me to which I answer againe That his commission is generall Goe preach unto all nations baptizing them c. And so is his invitation too Come unto mee all you that labour c. so that if thou wilt but beleeve and come in unto him thou shalt be saved for he casts out none that come in unto him as you heard before Ioh. 6. 37. And when thou hast considered this then begin to argue and reason thus with thy selfe sith the promise is made to all I know I am one of that number and then thou wilt begin to love him for all thou art a sinner yea thou wilt love him so much the more for that to consider that for all that he loved thee Oh but thou wilt say I see I sinne dayly and hourely and that againe and againe against many vowes and promises against many mercies and meanes of better obedience But I answer what though thou dost remember that as there 's a spring of sinne and corruption in thee so there 's a spring of mercy and compassion in God and that spring is set open for sinne and for uncleanesse to wash and purge thee from the same so that still I say if thou wilt but love and beleeve in him he will love thee for notwithstanding all this hee still woes and sues unto thee for thy love and therefore stand no longer out with him but come in with all the speede thou canst make which that thou mayst the better doe thou must remove these two hinderances out of the way Strangenesse Worldly mindednesse First Strangenesse for strangenesse begets coldnesse of love whereas familiarity as I told you procures boldnesse in the day of judgment But thou wilt say how shall I come to be acquainted with God How why be much in his praise in hearing of the word and receiving of the Sacrament there is a communion of Saints you know and so there 's a communion of God with the Saints let us therefore be carefull to maintaine this communion betwixt us by having recourse unto him in his ordinances and seeking unto him for comfort in all our troubles and adversities Secondly Worldly mindednesse that also begets coldnesse of affection and want of love to the Lord Christ and therefore hee circumcises the heart that is he puts off all carnall and worldly affections from it that so thou mayst not love the world nor the things of the world but may love him with all the heart and with all c. for the love of the world is enmity with God so that if any man love the world the love of the father is not in him for you cannot serve God and Mammon and therefore our Saviour saith That we must not onely forsake but hate father and mother and wife and children and house and lands for his sake and the Gospells or else we cannot be his Disciples so did the Apostles we have forsaken all and followed thee Wherefore let us not set these things too neere our hearts but considering what it is that keepes us asunder as vaine hopes worldly feares fantasticke pride pleasures profits and the like let us cashiere them and cast them from us for what are all these and all such as these are but vaine things that cannot profit in the evill day And therefore as Samuel exhorts the people of Israel Turne not aside from the Lord unto them either to the right hand or to the left for they cannot profit because they are vaine But thou wilt say will God then be content with any love I answer no truely that he will not neither what then Answer First thou must love him withall thy strength and with all thy power with all the parts and faculties of soule and body Now it may be thou art a Magistrate a master of a family a Minister a Tutor or any other governour and then thou must doe God more service then another private and inferiour person thou mayst compell them that are under thee to love the Lord by thy authority and example God lookes for this I say at thy hands for to whom much is given of them much shall be required thou art but as a servant sent to market which must give an account for what hee hath received and the more money hee hath given him to bestow and lay out the more commodities his master lookes he should bring home with him for it so the more wit or understanding or learning or knowledge or authority and power thou hast the more love must thou beare unto Christ and shew it by thy bringing forth more fruits thereof unto him then others that have none of all these oportunities or not in so great a measure as thou hast this is the first thing Secondly thou must love him above all things in the world besides whether it be pleasure or honour
MOVNT EBAL OR A HEAVENLY TREATISE OF DIVINE LOVE Shewing the Equity and Necessity of his being accursed that loves not the Lord Iesus Christ. Together with the Motives Meanes Markes of our love towards him By that late Faithfull and worthy Divine JOHN PRESTON Doctor in Divinitie Chaplaine in Ordinary to his Majestie Master of Emmanuel Colledge in Cambridge and sometimes Preacher of Lincolnes Inne PSAL. 31. 26. Love the Lord O all yee his Saints c. PSAL. 145. 20. The Lord preserveth all them that love him and scattereth abroad all the ungodly LONDON Printed by M. P for Iohn Safford and are to be sold at his house in Black horse Alley in Fleet-street 1638. A HEAVENLY TREATISE OF Divine Love 1 CORINTH 16. 22. If any man love not the Lord Iesus Christ let him be accursed yea let him be had in execration even to the death or let him be Anathema Maranatha THESE words have little or no dependance on the words before going which are these The salutation of me Paul by mine owne hand and the reason why he thus writes is because there were many false Apostles and counterfeit Epistles went abroad in the world if not under his name but hereby saith he you shall know me from them all even by this my salutation and subscription as by mine owne hand for in all my Epistles so I write The grace of our Lord Iesus Christ be with you all Amen Wherefore to consider them in themselves St. Paul hating those as we use to doe who speake evill of them we love doth here pronounce a curse against them that love not the Lord Iesus Christ and the reason why he doth so is because he cannot endure to heare him evill spoken of by any blasphemous tongue So that this then is the scope and drift of the Apostle in this place namely to commend Love unto us and above all other the love of the Lord Iesus Christ and to exhort us by all meanes thereunto in which exhortation let me desire you to observe with me these two reasons why we should thus love him Whereof the first is taken from the Necessity of it he is accursed that loves him not second is taken from the Equity or object of his love the Lord Iesus Christ. If any man love not the Lord Iesus Christ let him be c. There is not much difficulty in the words yet fome there is for clearing whereof I will shew you what is meant by these two termes Anathema Maranatha and so proceede for the first Anathema it is a Greeke word and it is as much as elevari suspendi to be lift up or be hanged and it signifies accursed by way of allusion to that opprobrious and cursed kinde of death which was inflicted upon notorious and hainous Malefactors who for their offence were hanged up upon a tree gibbet or any such engine according as it is said cursed is every one that hangeth c. which place is againe alledged by this our Apostle St. Paul to prove that Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us for it is written cursed is c. Secondly for the word Maranatha it is an Assyrian word taken from an Hebrew root which signifies execration or cursing and therefore I so rendered it in the reading of it unto you now in that the Apostle useth two words of diverse Languages for the fuller expression of this his so fearefull a malediction and curse as if one word were not enough or that out of his zealous affection he could not so content himselfe with it we may note that by how much the more the curse is greater by so much the more grievous is the duty omitted from which premisses we may make this conclusion or draw this point of Doctrine viz. That he is worthy to be curst yea to bee curst â—ith all execration that loves not the Lord Iesus â—â—rist For the further unfolding and opening whereof consider with me these three things following to wit First what Love is in generall Secondly what love to the Lord Iesus Christ is Thirdly some reasons why he is worthy to be accursed that loves him not of each of these in their order and first of the first What Love is in generall and for that take this briefe description of it viz. Love is an inclination of the will whereby it inclines to some good thing agreable to it selfe First I say its an inclination of the will where we may take notice of two things both of the subject or seate which is not any inferior part or faculty of the soule but the will one of the most supreme and potentest of all the rest And what is the nature and property the quality and condition of it it is elicita non coacta not forced but free inclined not constrained for voluntas as say the Phylosophers est libera the will is of a most absolute and free power so that though a man may be compelled to doe something against his liking yet he can never be forced to doe any thing against his will at lest his will cannot be forced that like a Queene in her Throwne is alwayes free Secondly I say its an inclination of the will unto good aut verum aut apparens either for that it is so indeede or at least for the present appeareâ— and seemes so to be unto it according to 〈◊〉 trite and true axiome of the Schooles too bonum est objectum voluntatis the Adequate object of the will is onely good yet not every good neither but bonum sibi conveniens such a good as is agreeable to it selfe that onely is the object of love Now by this you conceive the second thing what love to the Lord Iesus Christ is and it is nothing else but an intensive bending of the mind unto Christ as the most necessary and suitablest thing for it that may be the Summum bonum the chiefest good of all that it can desire so that it desires and loves nothing like him Now the properties whereby we shall know whether our love to the Lord Iesus Christ be such or not are especially these three First it alwayes desires to have the thing it loves cannot be contented with any thing else but him as being the proper Center of the soule which is never at quiet so long as it is out of his place agreeable to that of a Father Fecistinos Domine ad te inquietum est cor nostrum donec requiescit in te Thou hast made us O Lord and our heart is never at rest till it rest in thee it is his fruition that gives it satisfaction againe as it desires the fruition of him so it desires as much Secondly the conjunction and union with him to be one with him and he with us and therefore it hates whatsoever may hinder it and seekes whatsoever may helpe it therein and being thus once conjoyned and enjoying it it
finally Thirdly seekes and endeavours the protection and preservation of the thing it loves as it on the other side shunnes and avoids ought that might endanger the destruction thereof and if notwithstanding it meete with it interposeth it selfe betwixt it and that to defend it as the arme wards the blow from the head albeit it be to the wounding of it selfe And when these three concurre together when our love hath these three concommitants and is attended with these fruits and effects as you heard before that it thus desires the fruition conjunction preservation of Christ. Then may we distinguish it from all sensuall and carnall love for there be many sorts of love in the world but it is all but worldly love not spirituall and Heavenly love First ther 's a love of pitty as when we bewaile a mans case but hate his deeds so are Malefactors beloved Secondly ther 's a love of desire as when the stomacke desires sweete meates the eare delightsome sounds and the eye fine sights c. Thirdly ther 's a love of complusment when one lusts or longs after a thing with the whole heart or soule so as he cannot subsist without it as a woman with child lusteth and longeth after a thing she hath a minde to which she cannot fafely goe without Fourthly ther 's love of friendship when one man loves another for some courtesie or kindenesse he hath received from him Fiftly and lastly ther 's a love of dependance when a man loves God more then himselfe more then his life and depends upon him for all good things belonging to body or soule Or to be more briefe ther 's a naturall sinfull spirituall Love The first is betwixt parents and children and in it selfe is neither good nor evill The second ariseth from evill habits bred in the soule and it is most hatefull to God and makes us worse then the brute beasts The third is that divine gift and grace of God which the Holy Ghost puts into our hearts whereby we are more then men and desire Holy things for themselves and this is that love which the Apostle here calls for in this place Now if our love to the Lord Iesus Christ be such we shall further know it by these two things which alwayes proceede and goe before it as the former followed after it viz. humiliation for sinne past and faith in Christ for the time to come First humiliation for sinne past for till a man come to have a sight and sense of himselfe by reason of his sinnes he will never care for Christ and when he hath beene thus cast downe yet Secondly without faith in Christ whereby he applies him to himselfe and is perswaded that he is reconciled unto him he will not yet love him but rather hate him of the twaine Now the manner or meanes of getting of both these and so consequently of love into our hearts is by the preaching of the word of God by prayer and taking him when he is offered and given unto us in the same for that end But now we must take Christ as an husband takes a wife or a wife an husband out of love to their persons not to their portions and then shall we be the better subject unto him but except we be first humbled as was before said for our sinnes and consider in what neede thou standest of him how that without him thou must perish till then I say thou canst not sufficiently set by him nor love him aright but when thou knowest how necessary he is for thee how alsufficient and affectionate he is towards thee then thou beginnest to looke at Christ as a condemned person doth at him that brings a pardon for him whom he loves and longs after joyes and rejoyceth in And yet all this is but a preparative to our love of him it is faith that is the first fountaine whereby we so love him as that we can cleave unto him with purpose of heart to serve and please him in all things and this love which thus ariseth from faith doth not onely beleeve that Christ is mercifull and will forgive thee thy sinnes upon thy supplication and repentance unto him for the same but also that he is most fit and conformable for thee so that thou couldst finde in thy heart to be anathaematized for his sake and to be divorced from all things in the world for love of him And so much for the second thing also I come now to the last to wit Thirdly to the reasons why he is worthy to be had in execration and to be cursed even to the death that loves not the Lord Iesus Christ and they are chiefly these five First because when Christ shall come and be a Sutor unto us to love him and we refuse to doe it and to be reconciled unto him and receive him then he growes angry to the death you may see this in the Parable of the Marriage of the Kings sonne how wroth he was when he heard they had abused and beaten his servants which he sent to call them to the wedding and therefore the Prophet David bids us kisse the Sonne lest he bee angry and so c. that is as if he should say when he offers himselfe to kisse you with the kisses of his mouth be not too coy and curious but imbrace his offer returne his curtesie with the like kindnesse and kisse him againe lest he take it in great indignation at your hands and be so angry with you that you die for it Indeede when we knew not the Gospell he was content though we were froward and fruitlesse but now that he sends his Desciples to preach unto all Nations then if they bring not forth fruits worthy amendment of life he tells them the axe is laid unto the rootes c. Secondly because he that in old time brake the law was accursed now this was the Lords Commandement that we love him But you will say we are not able to fulfill the law of our selves and how then shall we doe it I answer ther 's a two-fold obedience Legall and Evangelicall that requires exact obedience in our owne persons but this requires no more but onely our endeavour and faith in Christ. Thirdly because he loves something else more then God and so commits Adultery now shee that in the old law did commit Adultery had a drinke of bitter water given her which made her belly swell c. so that shee died how much more worthy of death is he then that thus deales with God and going a whoring after it commits spirituall fornication Fourthly because that commonly belongs to Hypocrites they are a cursed crew to whom Christ shall say at the last day goe ye cursed c. Now all such as love him not are no better nor worse but wretched and damnable Hypocrites Fiftly because love governes the whole man it s as the Rudder of a ship which turnes
they all which was an argument that he loved much because he was in labour much and so when our Saviour asked Peter whether he loved him he puts him to worke and sets him his taske saying feede my sheepe and last of all Eighthly whether thou wouldest not onely doe but suffer much for his sake as David when his wife Michal laughed at him for dancing before the Arke he was contented to beare it because he did it to the Lord and so the Apostles rejoyced because they werâ— counted worthy to suffer for his name And Saint Paul likewise when the people intreated him with teares not to goe up to Ierusalem because he should be bound as Agabus had signified by the spirit unto him answered them Why doe yee rent my heart I am ready not onely to be bound but also to dye for c. But thou wilt say I have no such occasions now adayes if I had I know not what I should doe But I answer is it so hast thou no such occasions yes thou hast occasions enough as when he takes away thy wife thy child thy friends thy goods thy good name c. if then I say thou canst beare it patiently with Iob and say it is the Lord giveth and the Lord c. or with Ely it is the Lord let him doe what seemeth him good then thou lovest him and yet thou must doe more then that thou must not onely beare it patiently but ioyfully too as you heard before the Apostles did lay thy selfe to these rules then and try impartially whether thou love the Lord Iesus Christ or not and forthy further helpe and more infallible notice thereof to know whether thy love to him be pure and unfained or whether it be false and counterfeit take these more particular proofes of it for assure thy selfe if thou love him aright as we touched before that then First thou wilt be content with nothing but love againe so that as Absolon though in hypocrisie said when as David had fetch'd him out of banishment and confined him to his owne house that he might not see the Kings face what doe I here seeing I may not see the Kings face so wouldest thou say out of love to the love of God what doe I here since I cannot behold the faire beauty of the Lord Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon mee or else what good will my life doe me but if thou doe so then thou shalt make my heart more joyfull and more glad then they that have had their Corne and Wine and Oyle increased Secondly thou wilt love the brethren for they are like him though he exceede them in the degrees and measures of goodnesse as the Ocean doth a drop of a bucket this is a pregnant proofe hereof and therefore deale squarely with thy selfe herein And the reason why thou canst not love the Lord if thou love not the Brethren is because its an easier matter to love man whom thou hast seene then it is to love God whom thou hast not seene for use we know makes them comlier and hansomer wherefore Saint Iohn saith If any man say he loves God and yet hates his Brother he is a lyer he deceives himselfe and there is no truth in him But thou wilt say thou lovest them well enough Dost thou so then thou wilt love their company for what we love and delight in we are never well without it nor cannot endure it out of our sight and therefore when the Psalmist had said That all his delight was in the Saints and upon such as excell in vertue if you would know how to know it was so he afterwards tells us That he was a companion of them that feare him c. Psal. 119. But thou wilt say againe though thou dost not love them yet God forbid thou shouldst be so bad but that thou shouldst love the Lord Iesus Christ. But I answer thee againe to that too If thou dost so then thou wilt love his appearing for if thou wish in thy heart there were no generall iudgement thou lovest him not say what thou wilt to the contrary as a loving and loyall wife cannot love her husband but shee will reioyce at his comming home when he is abroad and the neerer the time approacheth by so much the more ioyfull and glad will shee be Thirdly if thou love him thou wilt speake well of him upon all occasions and in every place where thou commest for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh so that if thou speake well of God but for fashion sake not out of any true affection but of feare thou lovest him not for he that loves him will be much in his praise as we have an instance in David so that if the heart be inflamed the mouth will be open thou wilt not be tongue-tied nor ashamed of him no not before Princes But thou wilt say I am no scholler I cannot speake eloquently if I could then indeede I should not be so afraid nor ashamed to doe it as now I am because I can doe it no better nor Rhetorically then now I can But let me tell thee for thy comfort let that never trouble thee speake as well as thou canst and thou needst care for no more for that will beget more and more love in thee and love that will make thee eloquent we have a notable presedent for this in the Spouse who because shee loved Christ see how shee sets him forth my beloved is all beautifull c* and it is most sure it will be so with thee if thou love the Lord thou wilt shew it by thy speeches for thou canst not well speake well of him whom thou lovest not but if thou hast no good thought of him thy words will bewray thee yea thou wilt not onely speake well of him and of his wayes but thou wilt also walke in the same nor wilt thou stand pausing upon it to consider whether thou wert best doe it or no but if it be about a good duty as suppose keeping of the Lords day hearing of the word c. thou wilt doe it without any more adoe yea though there were no promise nor profit to be got by it for else thou dost no more but as a servant not as sonne in hope of wages and not out of love looking for nothing for thy paines so did Saint Paul he would preach the Gospell though he had nothing but chaines and imprisonment for his labour and why will he so why because God commands it and its a good duty so that if thou make a question of it whether thou wert best to doe this or that good duty or wilt doe no more then thou must needs thou lovest not the Lord for he that loves him will doe whatsoever he can for him and yet thinke all too little when he hath done too Fourthly as thou wilt speake well
or pride or profit or what else thou wilt or canst name besides yea thou must love him above thy selfe and thine owne salvation so that if his glory and any or all of these come in competition together thou canst be content to be accursed for his sake to have thy name razed out of the booke of life and to be Anathema for Christ then is thy love such as God will accept of for this is that selfe-deniall which Christ himselfe speakes of and calls for of us But thou wilt say durus est hic sermo this is an hard saying how shall I be able to doe this to which I answer Thou shalt doe it the better by considering that he is better then all things and that the whole world is not to be compared with him I count that all the afflictions of this life are not worthy the glory that shall be revealed saith the Apostle and that made him endure such persecutions for the Gospell as he did with joy and patience and so if thou be once come to that passe as to know and be perswaded in thy conscience of the incomparable worth and excellency of Christ thou wilt make more reckoning of him then of all the world besides for as he himselfe said of himselfe He that will not deny himselfe and take up his crosse and follow mee is not worthy of mee so he that loves any thing else above or equall with Christ is not worthy of him no thou must be wholly his as he is as he is wholly thine and hath betroathed thee unto himselfe so that as a Virgin that hath betaken her selfe to an husband must forsake all other and cleave or keepe her constantly unto him so long as they both shall live so wee being married unto Christ must not play the Harlot and goe a whooring after other Gods but must be wholly his as he is wholly thine But thou wilt say he is not wholly mine for he is the Saints too To which I answer he is indivisible hee is not divided but is wholly thine as wel as theirs so then if thou wilt love the Lord Christ truely and purely as he would thou shouldst thou must love him so as that all that is within thee be set upon him But thou wilt say againe yet further what must wee love nothing else but him then to which I answer Yes that thou mayst so as it be with a subordinate and not with an adulterous love as a woman may love another man besides her husband but it must not be with such a love as she loves her husband withall she may not love his bed it must be onely with a neighbourly and civill but not with a conjugall or matrimoniall love and so thou mayst love thy lands thy life thy friends c. but so as thou art ready to part with all for love of Christ so that hereby shalt thou know whether thy love be an adulterous love or not if when he bids us follow the duties of our callings and we suffer our selves to be drawne away by vaine delights and doe not therein abide with God as the Apostle speakes that is use it not to the glory of God and the good of the Church and Common-wealth wherein we live and so for any other matter if we cannot be content it should give place to Christ then is our love unlawfull and adulterous yea if our lives lay upon it if we doe not yet preferre him before them wee are not worthy of him we love our selves more then him it is no true love of Christ. But thou wilt say this is impossible that a man should thus love God more then himselfe more then his soule I answer I deny not but that it may seeme so to flesh and blood but yet thou must know that to a man truely regenerate it is not so for as Saint Paul saith I am able to doe all things through Christ that strengthens me those things that to the eyes of carnall reason seeme hard and difficult to them that are spiritually enlightened are facile and easie to be done and so is this Thirdly If thou wouldst have thy love pleasing to God thou must have it grounded on him and that requires two things First It must be grounded on faith in his promises revealed unto thee in his word for without faith it is impossible to please God neither is it so much love as presumption that hath not this foundation Secondly it must be grounded on his person not on his prerogatives or priviledges which thou shalt get thereby for if we love him onely for his Kingdome and not for his person as we doe when we cannot be content to suffer temptation and persecution for his sake then he cares not for thy love because it is selfe love and not love of the Lord Iesus Christ for then if it were thou wouldst respect nothing else but him Fourthly thy love must be a diligent love ready to reforme any thing that is amisse in thee or which may dislike him which whether it be so or no thou mayst try it by these three markes or tokens following First it will cause thee to put on new apparrell a woman that loves her husband will attire her selfe according as she thinkes it will please him best and give him most content especially when shee is to be married unto him then she will have a wedding garment that may set her forth so as he may take the better liking in her so thou if thou hast put off the old man which is corrupt according to the deceiveable lusts of the flesh and hast put on the new man which after God is created in knowledge righteousnesse and true holinesse if thou be cloathed with the wedding garment of Christs righteousnesse and givest diligence thereunto to make thy calling and election sure then mayst thou be sure thou lovest him and that he accepts of that thy love from thee Secondly It will open and enlarge thy heart towards him so as thou wilt dayly love him more and more so saith the Apostle Saint Paul my heart is enlarged towards you ô yee Corintheans it is not any scanty or niggardly kinde of love that hee will like of but a full free and liberall one so that if thou canst not be content to be at some cost and charges for the maintenance of the Gospell and the enjoyment of his love thou lovest him not or at least he regards not thy love whosoever thou art Thirdly it cleanseth thy heart what is said of hope is as true of love he that hath this love in him purifies himselfe as he is pure and of faith it purifies the heart and so doth love therefore saith the Apostle againe Ye were thus and thus but yee are washed but yee are sanctified but yee are justified c. so that if you would not lose your labour if you would have Christ
accept of your love and you would know that he doth so suffer not any sluttishnesse any sinne and filthinesse to rest in your hearts but sweepe and cleanse them with the beesome of repentance from all such things And so hitherto of the necessity of your loving the Lord Iesus Christ together with the meanes motives and markes thereof and in all these the equity and justice of God how worthy hee is to bee accursed that loves him not now Secondly followes the object of this our love which is the Lord Iesus Christ who may be considered three wayes as being our Lord Saviour Messiah First as our Lord to whom of due we doe owe our love and obedience now as he that runnes away from his earthly Lord is worthy to be hanged for it so he that runnes away from the Lord Christ and will not love and serve him is most worthy to be accursed but I have spoken of this sufficiently in the former part of our text and therefore because I have beene so large therein I will now be more briefe in this and therefore so much for the first consideration we must love him also Secondly as our Saviour or Jesus and Redeemer who hath bought and chosen us unto himselfe a peculiar people zealous of good workes and therefore let us not deferre it for now are the last times the end of all things is at hand so that if yee doe not love him now it will bee too late hereafter to doe it if we would never so faine and its a fearefull thing to fall into the hands of the living God Thirdly he is the Messiah the annoynted of the Lord the light that should come into the world the high Priest of the new Covenant ordained and consecrated of God to offer sacrifice for us even a peace offering of his precious body and blood to bee a reconciliation for us unto the Father and to set us at one againe with him who before were utter enemies one to the other haters of God and hated of him therefore is he also called our peace our Mediator and Advocate and the like but yet he is not onely made and appointed to be a Priest unto us to reconcile us unto his Father but withall a King too to rule over us and subdue us if so bee wee will not bee reconciled and come in unto him therefore these two words Lord and Iesus are here and in diverse other places elsewhere joyned together And so Saint Peter gives him two the like titles saying that he is a Prince and a Saviour not a Saviour onely but also a Prince to them that would not that hee should raigne over them So that wee must marke this then wee doe not preach Christ in the Gospell a Saviour onely but a Prince and a Lord also and they that love him must be content to take him as both aswell a Lord and King as a Iesus and Saviour as a wife takes her husband to honour and obey him aswell as to love him or have him keepe and cherish her in sicknesse and in health and thus if wee bee content to take Christ upon these conditions then wee shall have him with all his influences all the fruits and benefits of his passion but otherwise thou hast no part nor portion therein Christ shall profit thee nothing but thou art and shalt bee accursed to the death notwithstanding hee died It may be thou wilt say thou carest not for that But let me aske thee one question dost thou know what it is to bee so accursed if thou dost consider more seriously of it if thou dost not know it is this First he curseth thy soule and that in a double respect of Grace Glory First hee curseth it from the excellency of grace that is from the effectuall and powerfull working of it so that thou shalt bee never the better but rather the worse for all the meanes of grace and salvation and shalt goe on in thine impenitency and hardnesse of heart which cannot repent c. But thou wilt still say that 's nothing Is it not so then Secondly hee curseth thee from his presence in whose presence is the fullnesse of joyes and at whose right hand c. so hee did Caine the text saith hee went out from the presence of the Lord* that hee cast off all care of him as it were in this life so as let what would befall him hee would never pitty nor protect him But it may be thou wilt say that is nothing neither Is it not so is it not a great griefe for a man to be confind to his house so that hee must never come to the Court nor see the Kings face any more much more griefe then is it and a farre greater judgment must it bee for any poore soule to be excluded from the presence of the King of Kings And however for the present thou dost not now thinke it so much yet the time will come thou shalt finde it to bee one of the most fearefullest things that can bee when thou shalt behold Abraham Isaac and Iacob in the Kingdome of God and thou thy selfe out to have thy portion with the Devill and his Angels and therefore the Schoolemen are not afraid to say that the punishment of losse is greater then the punishment of sense But thou wilt say these are all spirituall things wee feele not these curses and so as wee have no crosses nor curses in our outward man our estates our goods and good name wee care not a straw for these wee neither feele nor feare them To this therefore I answer that you shall not escape so but even in your outward man in your body and goods shall you be cursed also for the earth shall not yeild her increase unto thee but the Heavens shall bee as brasse and the Earth as iron thou shalt sow much and reape little and thou shalt bee a vagabond and a runnagate upon the face of the earth all the dayes of thy life and whosoever meeteth thee shall slay thee as the Lord also said to Caine. But thou wilt say yet againe wee see no such matter as I speake of for you know them that love him as little as your selves and yet they thrive and doe well enough yea better then many other that love him a great deale better To which I answer it is true it may bee so they may proser a while but they shall be plagued at the last either here or hereafter in hell fire for evermore And now doe but consider seriously of Eternity what a lamentable thing it is that when thou hast beene there ten thousand times ten thousand yeares thou shalt yet be as farre from ever comming out or having of any end of thy torments as thou wast at the very first moment thou wentest thither and therefore remember for this purpose these two places of Scripture which here I desire thee