there he findes nothing but happinesse and holinesse as in hell there is nothing but sin and misery As no good can goe to hell so he sees no bad no sinfull and uncleane thing can get entrance into heaven Revel 21.27 saving grace tels him and he beleeves it that without holinesse he shall not see Gods face in heaven Heb. 12.14 and therfore he followes it with such earnestnesse of desire and endeavour and prizeth Christ in whom all holinesse is stored up for us above all things whatsoever Fourthly saving grace taketh a mans heart off from his own ends in all things and teacheth him to seek Christ not so much for selfe-ends as Christs ends When the Lord doth convert a soule to him and workes saving grace in his heart as he gives him a new principle to worke by so he gives him new ends to worke for Before conversion Selfe is all in all to a man Selfe sets him at worke and he workes altogether by selfe principles and to selfe ends God is not in all his thoughts Psa 10.4 for indeed selfe is his God But when God comes to take his place againe in the heart and to be God to a soule then he becomes the utmost end of that soule also so that as he will do nothing but by him commanding and strengthning so he does all to him and for him the soule is now lifted up above it selfe it soares aloft at greater matters then belong to selfe Selfematters are but as flies in his Eagle eye he stoops not to them but as the ponderous flesh makes him his alme is altogether at the glory of God magnifying Christ forwarding the Kingdome of the Lord Jesus building up his Church and repairing the breaches thereof c. Like as good and true Statesmen looke not so much at their owne profits as the common good so the true Christian aimes at the publike good of Christ the advancing of his Kingdome here more then at their owne advancement by him He doth not desire Christ so much to be saved by him as that Christ may be served by him The soul that prizeth Christ above al only for justification seeks him for selfe ends that is for happinesse and salvation by him and thus a soule doth before he hath saving grace But to desire him above all for sanctification is to prize and desire Christ for Christ's owne ends that we may be made holy by him and so become zealous of good workes Titus 2.14 and that we may serve him all the dayes of our life in holinesse and righteousnesse Luke 1.7 4 75. And thus to desire Christ for Christ saving grace teacheth the soule and to doe all for him because such a soule makes Christ its Master and self must be his servant so that selfe must now wait till his Master is served Selfe may attend at the doore of the heart but Christ as Master beares all the sway there and as he will so the heart saith he shall be served whosoever goes unserved and as for selfe such a soule as is principled with saving grace looks at selfe as best served when his Master is most served There is a sweet and holy emulation betweet such a soule and Christ that as Christ takes all that is done to that soule as done to himselfe so that soule takes all done to Christ as done to himselfe and therfore is of opinion that he serves himself best when he serves Christ most Yea he leaves selfe to Christ's disposall and good will knowing that he is a good loving and free master indeed that will suffer his servant to want no good thing Psal 84.11 Fifthly saving grace frames the heart to a conjugall affection of Christ to such a love of him as is between husband and wife so that the soule loves the person of Christ as well as his portion yea and desires him more for his persons sake then for his portions sake all the note of such a soule is that with the Spouse in Cant. 2.16 My beloved is mine and I am his this heart is enamoured with Christ because of that exceeding beauty of holinesse in him he is to her the fairest of ten thousand This soule loves not Christ so much for that which comes by him as for that shee sees in him when God married us as he saith he hath married us Jer. 3.14 his free grace had respect only to our persons and not for any portion of ours whereby he might be enriched and benefited Hence we find a love of mankind for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies ascribed to him Titus 3.4 Job 14.15 which Job's words doe well interpret to us saying Thou O Lord hast a desire to the worke of thine hands Wherein is hinted the reason of Gods affection to us not any worth in us but his right to us it is his free grace which makes him owne that his right and the same free grace in the heart of a man reflects on God the same work that soule affects more Christ's person then any or all the things that come by him It is but a kind of whorish spirit to love him onely for what he hath and to get by him that Spouse that loves her Husband's person as shee ought will love him when he is poore as well as rich when sick as well will cleave to him in his necessity content to live in prison with him to goe a begging and be banished with him so where saving grace is the heart loves Christs person so impotently as shee will cleave to him in all his necessities when naked and poore shee will love him as well as when rich and bravely attired with outward pompe if he goe to prison shee will goe too rather then part with her best beloved shee will go a begging with him into banishment with him into the midst of fire any faggot yea into hell too rather then leave him for shee knowes hell would be no hell to her if he be with her and that a heaven would be a hell if he be not in it or shee find him not therein A sixth Reason why such a heart as hath saving grace doth prize Christ above all in matter of Sanctification is because it knowes and feeles as great a want of Gods free grace therein as in matter of Justification For we are as unable to sanctifie our selves as to justifie our selves yea we can doe more to procure sanctification to our selves then to obtaine justification wherefore as we find the good work of sanctification in us ascribed to the Lord both for the beginning and perfecting of it in Phil. 1.6 so we find it attributed to his good pleasure that is his free grace Phil. 2.13 and indeed if we doe seriously weigh things Gods free grace seems to abound more in the sanctification of a soule then in his justification of it for by justification he doth onely acquit it of the guilt of sinne committed but by sanctification he doth not onely
by the meanes of some common hear-say Nâ—tions of Christ in thesa knowing times yea a soule may so strongly desire Christ as to be willing to part with very much for him and yet not truly desire Christ because he may all this while seek Christ not out of a love to Christ so much as to himselfe A Merchant that heares there is such a rich Commodity such a precious Jewell to be had whereby he may greatly get will part with much of his gold and silver for it yet cannot he be said to love that Commodity and Jewell so much as himselfe because he seeks it onely for his owne gaine and profit by it Mat. 13.45 46. So a man that heares of that precious Pearle of great price Christ Jesus and that there is much to be gotten by him no lesse then salvation which is a sure enjoyment of all good and a freedome from all evill may be willing to bid pretty faire for Christ and lay downe much for him and yet not truly love Christ for Christ's owne sake he desires but to serve himselfe of Christ and not that Christ should be served by him Self-love will perswade men to prize Christ highly for Justification to get happinesse by Christ but onely saving grace teaches a soule to stt up Christ also above all for Saictification to get holinesse whereby he may serve Christ that hath saved him The more cleerly to prove this truth and to help your memories to carry the proofe thereof away with you we will take it asundâ—r into two parts and shew you 1. Why saving grace teacheth a poor soule to prize the Lord Jesus above all things 2. Why saving grace makes the heart to esteem Christ above not onely in Justification but also in Sanctification For the first there are three Reasons Reas 1 The first ariseth from the Operations of the holy Spirit which worketh saving grace in the heart of any man the Operations of the Spirit in this way is two-fold whence the Spirit hath in Scripture a double Epithite and is called a Spirit of Bondage and a Spirit of Adoption these names of Bondage and Adoption imply not a double Spirit but a double and severall Act of the same holy Spirit which is wrought in every soule when it is savingly wrought upon Rom. 8.15 for then 1. The holy Spirit doth discover to the soule its forlorne condition in regard of sinne and the punishment therefore it makes him sensible of the spirituall bondage under sinue and satan it makes him see and feele how he lyes bound and fettered hand and foot with the Cart-ropes of his iniquities and withall the Spirit set before them the terrible countenance of an angry God and so fils the soule with stinging and deep piercing feares that the just Judge of Heaven and Earth will plague it according to its deserts both in the world and that to come thus were Peters Auditors pricked to the heart and as men afrighted with the strange and fearfull sight of their sinne and God's wrath they cried out Men and brethren what shall we doe Acts 2.37 which outcry of such soules is the greater because this Spirit shews them withall the helplesnesse that is in themselves and the creature to remedy their present misery it makes them know the vanity and insufficiency of all that is in them or can come from them to work their deliverance It blasteth all their hopes from their owne righteousnesse which before smelt as sweet as a Rose in their Nostrils but now savours worse to them then the noysome dunghill In briefe the Spirit certifies them that all they have done or whatever they can doe with the help of all the Creatures cannot give them one lift out of their sad condition but here the good Spirit of God leaves not his children for then they would fall into that Gulfe of despaire whereinto Came Judas and such like have fallen to their utter ruine 2. The holy Spirit therefore having wounded the soule so deep as he pleaseth for all are not broken in a like measure he begins the cure thereof by setting Christ before the soule and laying open to it that fulnesse of supplies which is in him that he can yea onely can help that there is no Saviour but he and withall lets him see that there is some hope of his having Christ yea that God hath given him the rich and full Christ that by beleeving in him he might have everlasting life and hereupon the soule begins to long after Christ all the affections of it runne after Christ prizing and seeking Christ above all now doth the soule cry Oh give me Christ and take all like as a man ready to be drowned would give all the world if he had it to save his life and to find some safe footing so a soule that is enlightned with the eye-salve of the holy Spirit to see its sinking condition with a glimpse of hope of getting Christ will gladly part with all it hath for this Pearl of great price any vertue Reas 2 A second Reason why that soule that hath saving grace doth prize Christ above all is drawne from the contrarieties that is between grace and sin these two are no better friends then fire and water light and darknesse hell and heaven yea then God and the Devill and their manner of working is as contrary and crosse to each other they walke opposite to one another undoing if they can the worke the other hath done Sinne works the heart when it beares the sway there to preferre all things yea every thing before Christ but grace when it takes place in the heart brings the heart to prize Christ above all things in generall much more above every thing in particular If we well weigh the matter the first step of our aversion from God is an undervaluing of him when Adam first fell off from God did not he preferre himselfe and his Wife before God doth not the Lord plainly point out the cause of his peoples forsaking him to be an overweening conceit they had in the creature above him though that were indeed but a broken Cistern and he a living Fountaine Jer. 2.11 13. Now the way of our arising must be contrary to that of our falling and therefore the first step of our conversion to our God is an overvaluing of him that is such a high esteem of him as all things with their fulnesse of beauty are not thought comparable with him in a degree that is even lesse then the least This is the work of that saving grace Faith 1 Pet. 2.7 As the former was of that vice infidelity as this carries the heart off from God so this new byasses it and turnes it round about to him againe like as a skilfull School-master when a child is brought to him that hath been ill taught is faine first to unteach him what he hath ill learned and afterwards to set him forth So saving grace when it comes to
makes him see that he is not able to answer one of a thousand Job 9.3 much lesse to cleer his scores with him and therefore he must get him a Surety to discharge the debt for him or else he must be committed to the Goaler and he finds no creature worth any thing neere the matter to be able to pay off for him the least farthing of his debt so that the poor soul is followed with fears and terrours as it is even ready to give up all hope but then the Lord reveales Christ to the soule and his fulnesse of riches whereby he is able to discharge all his debts and make him not onely a free man but also a rich man that Christ hath sufficient to set him out of debt and to set him up again yea to keep him from being a bankrupt with his God again and withall the Lord seems to whisper in the eare of the soule that this rich Christ may be his he doth not say aloud and openly at the first I will give thee my Christ for thy Surety though he be fully and really minded so to doe but Christ is offered more hiddenly at the first by way of an overture as we say and this glimpse of Christ sets the heart on longing for him and his desire of Christ makes him labour for Christ and the more he seeks him the more he sees him and the abundancy in him which still sharpens his affection and quickens his endeavours The more he feels Christ comming the more he hales and puls at Christ faine would he now have his fill of this full Christ and when once he layes hold on him by faith with what greedinesse sucks he him in when a man that is so thirsty as that he thinks his heart will cone for dright and he shall be choakt doth take the bottle wich what greedinesse doth he swallow downe as if he could never have enough So doth the soule take down Christ that hunger and thirsts after him it seems insatiable of Christ and that he can never have enough of Christ and therefore he layes aside all to get Christ For the purpose consider the carriage of the Samaritane woman in Johâ— 4. Christ who went about doing good with his continuall travaile had wearied his weak flesh which was subject to the same infirmities that ours is excepting sinne and therefore he sate downe on the Well anâ— was thirsty yet he was not so weary but he would be doing good as opportunity was offered and therefore when the woman came to whom he meant to give himselfe to awaken her and let her see her sinnes he examines her yea and tels her of her Adulteries and of living waters which he had to give yea he reveals himself to her and then shee presently left her water-pots So when any soule receivâ—s Christ all the affections thereof seeme to runne altogether as in one full streame to him Water-pots outward and worldly imployments must stand by a while the soule hath no leizure as yet to mind them As if all things then were to the soul as indeed they are nothing in comparison of Christ profit pleasure credit and such like worldly friends must stand aside now the soule hath do leizure to talk with them for giving Christ entertainment nothing will goe downe with this soule but Christ he takes up all his thoughts and affections he cannot but think of his Christ all the talk he loves is of and with his Christ In Deut. 24.5 the new married man was freed to stay at home the first yeere from going forth to warre or bearing any publike office that he might rejoyce himselfe with his wife knowing that all the Jewish ceremonies were types I have often considered what this ceremony might signifie and truly I can find nothing that answers thereto more fitly then the freedome a poore soule new married to Christ must and will have from all worldly imployments for to enjoy her Christ and to solace herselfe with him and if the indigent flesh necessitate her to earthly affaires shee goes about them as one deep in love scarce minding the worke he is about his heart is elswhere and he cannot follow his work he must goe see his Beloved And in her absence will sit down and think on her if friends come he will talk of her to them was it not just so with Paul there was no sooner the match made between Christ and him but he was wholy taken up with Christ he minded nothing but Christ breathed nothing but Christ all his discourse was of Christ How full of Christ are all his Epistles How much was he delighted even with the very name of Christ Jesus that in so few leaves he repeats it many hundred times It was sugar in his mouth and he loved the sweet relish it had Nothing so sweet to him as Christ nay in comparison of him all things else were more bitter then wormwood to him his very best and most gainfull commodities which were so precious once to him are now but losse and dung too Christ is the onely sweet and profitable Thus also Mary Magdalen when shee knew Christ as her Christ with what aflection received shee him shee loved him exceeding much shee thought nothing too much for him he shall have her box of precious Oyntment shee washes his feet with her teares which shee wept for joy of him The soule that hath Christ is even overjoyed as I may say when but come to touch his very feet so strong is her desires of him So when the Merchant had found the Pearle of great price the strength of his affection thereto took him off from all other things and carried him with an earnestnesse thereto So then the soule that prizeth Christ hath received him with such greedinesse as to think he can never have enough of him and therefore he can neither take too much paines nor be at too much cost for Christ such a soule will run through thick and thin for Christ and leap over all hinderances to get more of him and this is the first signe of our prizing of Christ The second mark shall be the temper of our soules when we have lost the sight and sense of Christ after we have received him for so it comes to passe very often that the soule seems to have lost his Christ and to say truth Christ hath just cause many times to hide himselfe from a soule as when the soule begins to set loose from him which the soule is apt to doe after the heat of its first love is over like as hungry and thirsty men set light by victuals when their hunger and thirst is killed and they filled in such a case Christ doth like a tender Parent that finds his child regardlesse of him leaving him to runne after this and that flower in the field will hide himselfe and put his child in a feare that he hath left him to himselfe and he must shift for
himselfe which he cannot doe So dealt the Lord with David in Psal 30.6 7. The Sunne of God's favour was risen to a great hight and shined so hot on him as it warmed him to his very heart so that he grew frolicke againe and dreamt that this his merry world would last ever He thought this Heaven would be alwayes cleere to him without clouds but his Sunne set even at noon-day to him His frolicknesse was but against a storme which was at hand for in the next words he addes But thou didst bids thy face Againe we doe often make great clouds which doe eclipse the Sunne of righteousnesse to us that we neither see him nor feele any heat and warmth from him These clouds are our iniquities which make a seperation between him and us Isa 59.2 Now in this case when Christ hath given us the slip and on the sudden hath conveyed himselfe from us let us consider how our soules behave themselves and by their behaviour now we may know whether they prize Christ as they ought David tels you he was troubled think not Beloved that he was troubled but a little for he was fore troubled as the word is translated in 1 Sam. 28.21 It is a terrible trouble as the Word indeed fully signifies for then it is with the soule as it is with a man that hath lost a Jewell wherein all his wealth consisted O how is the poore man troubled how doth terrour and feare seize on him that he quivers and shakes againe how doth he hunt up and downe and seek every corner for it he turnes all upside downe and cannot be quiet till he hath it for he knowes he is utterly undone if he find it not againe so the soule that hath lost her Christ her Pearle is exceedingly troubled and doth not rest contented with any thing till shee hath found him againe shee must have Christ or else shee is undone for ever See this cleared by the example of the Spouse in Cant. 5.4 5. you may see her rejoycing in Christ O how sweet is he to her but in the sixt Verse you find her at a losse Her wel-beloved hath withdrawn himselfe and is gone from her and mark I pray you how heavily shee takes it Her heart went with him shee faints shee laments shee seeks him shee cals him shee enquires after him shee goes to the Watch-men the Ministers of the Gospell and to her Sisters common Christians to ask after him shee cryes him in the streets Did you see my beloved O when you see him tell him I am sicke of love so strong was her love to him that shee was sicke for him and shee never left seeking him till shee found him in chap. 6. ver 7. where shee embraceth him againe Thus it is with every poore soule that hath once had Christ and Union and Communion with him when he doth hide himselfe therefrom all the rattles and tinkling comforts of this world will not quiet him he must have his Christ or else he cryes Undone Undone As Rachel said give me children or else I dye so he cryes O if you love me give me Christ Christ or else I dye I dye eternally If he meet not Christ in prayer at a Sermon at a Sacrament in an Ordinance how doth he hunt after his Christ He seeks not for Christs but for Christ himselfe and therefore he could be content to goe a begging for Christ if Christ were in the fiery furnace yea in hell this soule that hath once had him will be content to goe thither for him so much is he troubled for Christ as he thinks himselfe in hell already without him Let us now Beloved look home and see whether we have at any time been thus troubled for our Christ alas have we not been much more troubled and terrified with the losse of a kind Husband a loving Wife a good child a neere and deere friend then for the losse of Christ Have we not been more troubled at outward crosses when the world hath frowned on us then when our Christ hath turned away his face from us Have we not been more inquisitive after our Gold and Silver and tooke more paines to regaine the same then ever we did for a lost Christ Thus if it have been with us then Christ is not precious in our eyes for to such a soule as prizeth Christ truly the losse of Christ is more to him then the losse of all Husbands wives children friends gold silver and what else is in the world of any worth and value in the eyes of men and so you have a second marke to try your selves by A third Token of our prizing Christ above all is taken from the affection of such a soule to Christ after shee hath lost him and sought him but he will not be found for this you must know Beloved that when Christ is gone he will stay his owne time like as the Father which hath hid himselfe from his child will stay so long as he sees good though his child cry never so loud and call Father father never so often so Christ when he hath withdrawne himselfe will stay so long as he pleaseth though the poor soule cry for him and to him never so much Now in this sad condition when Christ seems not to love the poor soul in any the lest measure when he will not accept of any of her love tokens but flings back prayers and performances and will none of them that soule which prizeth Christ above all loves Christ still for all this though Christ seem to forsake her yet shee will not forsake Christ shee will not let her hold goe of him shee will owne Christ though Christ will not owne her shee will tell Christ I will love thee Christ though thou wilt not love me I see worth in thee that thou shouldest be beloved though thou seest no worth in me thou art the fairest of ten thousand the most beautiful that ever I laid mine eye on I cannot but love thee though I am so black and deformed in thy sight as thou wilt not love me thou art a good Husband and blessed is that soule that getteth thee for her Husband Ah my Christ make me but as one of thy hired servants if thou wilt not make me thy Spouse or one of thy children Such a soule will say to Christ tell me my Christ why thou hast thus withdrawne thy selfe from me let me know mine offence which I have committed against thee and made thee thus to leave me and if thou wilt have me I will goe to Hell to avenge my selfe on my selfe on my selfe for it I take it as a great favour that thou sufferest me to board with thy children though thou wilt not owne me as one of thine it glads my heart to see the feast of fat things the banquet of thy Ordinances which thou providest for thy people though I taste not the sweetnesse of them I will not raile on thee in