above all thankfully accept him for my Lord and Saviour is plainly required from me and upon the sincere performance of these conditions and persevering therein unto the end of my life for Christ's sake beloved and believed on I may comfortably well-groundedly hope wait for and expect through the Riches and Freeness of his Grace Everlasting Happiness In like manner I judge it a perplexing question Whether we should love Christ for himself or for the Benefits by him Lord help me to love Christ for himself and for all the good I have and hope for by him but the one subordinately the other ultimately for such love I read there was in David Psal 116.1 I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice and my supplications SECT X. The Ninth Requisite in Love to Christ NInthly Sincere Love to Jesus Christ doth respect him and is placed upon him as he is Prophet Priest and King In which respect the love of Hypocrites and carnal Gospellers doth fail and come short Most will profess love to Christ as he is Jesus a Saviour to deliver them from the Guilt of Sin and Punishment of Hell and the Wrath that is to come but will not love him nor have him as a Teacher and a Ruler As if a woman should love her husband as he makes provision for her and doth protect her from wrongs and injuries but as he is her Head to guide to rule and govern her so she cannot endure him Would you not in such a case cry out against such love and say this is but partial and pretended love And do not you see you deal as deceitfully and hypocritically with Christ when in one respect you say you like and love him but indeed in other respects you do dislike and hate him And do you think that Christ will save you from Hell if he do not save you from your sins That he will make you happy if you be never holy Or do you hope that he will bring you to Heaven without your being made meet and fit for Heaven Doth not your own Reason and Conscience if you consult them condemn such hopes of happiness that is built upon such partial Love Must Sin be loved as a Lord and Christ loved as a Saviour Do you think if Sin be your Lord Christ will be your Saviour What is the meaning then that the Object of such love that you must have if you would not be Anathema in the Text is set down the Lord Jesus Christ What meaneth then that slaughter at the last day among them that never would submit to Christ as Lord and Ruler nor love him in that relation Whom Christ looks upon not as Lovers of him but as Enemies to him and will deal with them not as Lovers but as Enemies Luk. 19.27 But those mine enemies which would not that I should reign over them bring hither and slay them before me What is the meaning then that Lord and Saviour so often in Scripture with a Conjunction Copulative are put together if as the Object of your Love they are to be parted asunder Rom. 8.39 and 7.25 1 Cor. 1.2 1 Cor. 15.57 2 Cor. 1.2 Gal. 1.3 Eph. 1.2 3. Phil. 1.2 Col. 1.2 1 Thes 1.1 and 2.1 2. 1 Tim. 1.2 and 2.1 2. Tit. 1.4 Jam. 1.1 1 Pet. 1.3 and 2 Pet. 1.1 2. In these Texts and many more Lord and Saviour Lord and Jesus Lord Jesus Christ are set together and in all these respects propounded to us to be loved and received by us if we would have Grace Mercy and Peace from God and Salvation by him And as he is offered so he must be loved and accepted or you must go without him and his benefits for ever SECT XI The Tenth Requisite to Love to Christ or the Worker of it TEnthly This Love to Christ is wrought by the Powerful Operation of the Spirit of God upon the heart For tho there is Affection of Love naturally in all men yet there is not the Grace of Love naturally in any man There is love to sin and to the world and there might be love of man to man and some common love in man to God by some common workings of the Spirit but there can be no special Saving Love to Jesus Christ but by the special Operations of the Holy Ghost It is a Flower that doth not grow in Natures Garden but is planted by the Spirit of God Therefore spiritual holy Love is said to be a fruit of the Spirit Gal. 5.22 And if any such surely is sincere and saving Love to Christ SECT XII The Eleventh Thing required in it ELeventhly This Love includes a Resignation of a man's self to Christ without reservation of any thing he is or hath unto himself A Lover of Christ doth so devote dedicate and give up himself unfeignedly to Christ as to his rightful Owner and bountiful Benefactor that he looks upon himself to be Christ's more than his own to live to Christ and not to himself and to seek Christ in all and not himself As in Conjugal Love there is a mutual giving each to other the one I give my self to thee the other and I give my self to thee so in this holy Spiritual Love between Christ and the Soul Christ gives himself unto the Soul and says I am thine my Righteousness is thine my Merits are thine and all my Benefits shall be thine So the Soul in love with Christ saith Lord I give my self to thee my Understanding shall be thine my Will my Heart my Estate my All shall be thine at thy Command at thy Disposal for me to have to use to leave or lose as thou shalt please Cant. 2.16 My beloved is mine and I am his Hos 2.23 I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy and I will say to them which were not my people Thou art my people and they shall say Thou art my God SECT XIII The Workings of this Love as it is Delighting Desiring or Mourning Love TWelfthly When all this is done the Soul doth Delight in Christ if present Desireth after him if absent or mourneth for him if it cannot find him One of these Three ways Love will discover it self There are Three sorts of Love First Delighting Love If a man finds Christ's gracious quickning Presence in his Soul discovering and manifesting himself and Love unto him he rejoiceth in it more than in all Riches and saith My Life is a Pleasure my Heart is filled with Comfor my Soul with Heavenly Delights Psal 4.6 There be many that say Who will shew us any good Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us 7. Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased Cant. 2.3 As the apple-trees among the trees of the wood so is my beloved among the sons I sate down under his shadow with great delight and his fruit was sweet unto my taste 4. He brought me
of Souls which Christ died to procure Will God be reconciled to that man that doth not love him Or can that man that loves not him be reconciled unto God Or doth not Reconciliation without Renewals of Love sound like a contradiction Or shall Remission and Salvation be vouchsafed to them that never love him Behold then the greatness of this sin in its thwarting the wonderful Undertakings of Christ for man's Redemption III. Not love Christ What is this but an opposing and withstanding all the Operations of the Spirit For do not all tend to this That you should Love the Lord Jesus What do all Convictions tend to in shewing thee thy lost estate the vanity of the world the emptiness of the creature the impossibility of Salvation by any other but that thou mightest look after him and make him the Object of thy Love What meaneth the Illumination of the Spirit in enlightning of thy mind in the knowledge of Christ to see and discern the Fulness and Sufficiency of Christ the Fitness and Suitableness of Christ the Freeness and the Willingness of Christ but that thou shouldst fix thy Love upon him What do all the Persuasions Strivings and Wooings of the Spirit-tend to but Love to Christ Was ever any more solicitous for the love of another than the Spirit hath been that Christ might have thine And shall all and thine only Answer be I cannot love him I will not love him No Why not Canst thou better place thy Love Canst thou find in Heaven or Earth a more suitable Object Yet art thou resolved to give no other answer but that in Jer. 2.25 I have loved strangers and after them will I go I have loved the world and I will love it I have loved my pleasures and I will love them I have loved my sin and so I will still Why so resolved poor sinner Why so resolute Should not the world be a stranger to thee and thou to the world Should not sin be a stranger to thee and thou to sin What though I have loved these strangers and after them my heart and love shall go Indeed then let all men judge God and Angels judge what an opposer thou art to all the Workings of the Spirit to the contrary IV. Not love Jesus What is this but fearful sinning against the most gracious Attributes of God 1. Was it not love in God to give his Son to be a Saviour And wilt thou sin against this Love in not loving him that by Love was given for thee Was it not so infinite so great so wonderful that no mortal man can comprehend it John 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son Is it not such manifest love that all the Devils in Hell cannot deny it to be love 1 John 4.9 In this was manifested the love of God towards us because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him Was it not preventing Love in God to give his Son for thee before thou gavest or couldst give thy love to him 1 John 4.10 Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins And is it not a great sin against such great love and a manifest sin against such manifest love not to love him with a following love that so far loved thee with a preventing love 2. Was it not Infinite Wisdom in God to find out such a way that Justice might be fully satisfied and free Mercy might be richly manifested That sin might be punished to the uttermost and yet the sinner saved to the uttermost Sin punished and the sinner pardoned If all the Angels in Heaven that excel in Wisdom and Knowledge had been called to Councel they could never have thought of this way for fallen man's recovery which is the product of the Infinite Wisdom of God and by the Church made known to Angels Eph. 3.10 To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God What greater folly then can there be than to sin against such Wisdom 3. Was it not Goodness in God to accept of Christ's Sufferings for thy Sinnings Of Christ's Death instead of thy Damnation if thou wouldst believe on him and love him And wilt thou slight this Goodness by withholding thy love from him 4. Was it not patience in God to wait so long for thy Love Might he not have damned thee for thy first refusal And have taken thy first denial for thy final answer And have scorned thy love after thou hadst so long given it to the world and sin and denied it unto his Son And when in thy wicked heart thou hadst once said Thou wilt not love him God in his righteous judgment might have said I have thine answer and for this Thou shalt not love him If God had been thus quick and short with thee who hast been so slow to love his Son what a deplorable condition would thy Soul have been in this day and to all Eternity But if God hath waited so many years and doth still wait if perhaps thou wilt change thy mind return unto thy wits and give a wiser answer Wilt thou still abuse his Patience by persisting in the denial of thy love to Christ Take heed lest his Patience towards thee should end before thy Love to Christ begin for then when thy Punishment for not loving of him doth once begin it shall never end The longest Patience turned into Wrath thou shalt find the longest and the hottest Wrath and most fiery Indignation V. Not love Jesus What is this but an utter subverting of the whole design of the Gospel and refusing life and salvation by the Covenant of Grace God gave to innocent man a Law and Covenant of Works but he quickly transgressed that Law and thereby by that Covenant Happiness became impossible to man After that God gave a Law and Covenant of Grace to fallen man and established the same in the Blood of his Son and will you also refuse Life and Happiness by going on in your sin of not loving Christ For hereby 1. The Conditions of the Gospel are Neglected 2. The Threatnings of the Gospel are Slighted 3. The Commands of the Gospel are Disobeyed 4. The Promises of the Gospel are Undervalued 1. The Conditions of the Gospel and Covenant of Grace are neglected The great Article the Sum and Summary whereof is I will be your God and ye shall be my people Heb. 8.10 I will love you and you shall love me my heart shall be towards you and your heart shall be towards me I will love none like you and you shall love none like me How is this done Can you love him while you do not love him Hath God and Christ your hearts while the world and sin have your hearts 2 Cor. 6.18 I will be a father unto you and ye
For 1. Love to Christ will be the sweetest Love He that loveth other things and not Christ loves nothing but Vanity and to love Vanity will prove vexation He that loveth Riches hath vexing sorrow with his love fretting fears and perplexing cutting cares When thou lovest thy Relations if they be bad the more thou lovest the more thou art Wounded If they be good the more evil befalls them the more thou art grieved There cannot be love to other things without love to Christ but it will be bitter Love for thou wilt repent of that love or thou wilt not If thou dost then thou wilt find more forrow for it more bitterness in it than ever thou didst find delight and say Oh now it doth repent me that ever I loved the World as I have done my Pleasures my Sin as I have done But thou wilt never have cause to say I repent that ever I loved Christ Never was such a Word heard from the mouth of a sincere Lover of Christ if thou dost never repent of thy Love to the World and Sin that Love will certainly end in sorrow and with bitterness of Soul be fruitlesly lamented in Hell But what content satisfaction delight comfort joy there is in loving of Christ none can tell so well as he that loves him 2. Love to Christ is the safest Love No fear of Sinning in this Love except it be in the smalness of the measure of it but that is not to Sin in loving but not loving more You might fear and tremble in loving other things and say Do not I sin in this Is there not sinning in my loving 3. Love to Christ is the surest Love to other things is often turned into hatred Love to day and hate to morrow but this remaineth firm The Object is the surest Object neither Men nor Death nor Devils can take away the Object of this Love It is surest in the Habit and Principle the Power of God the Prayer of Christ the promise of both secure the preservation of it It is surest in the Act for if we be careful our selves no Men nor Devils can hinder our acting of this Love they might keep us from hearing of his Word but not from loving of his Person 4. Love to Christ is the Noblest Love Love to Pleasures to the World to Sin is base polluted Love this most sublime and raised it hath the noblest and the highest Object it carrieth the Soul in his Thoughts and Meditations after him into the highest Heavens and hath complacency in the highest Degree and shall have for ever the highest Reward 5. Love to Christ is the longest Love that shall never end Sirs ere long you will have done loving this World even ye that love it most and have your hearts most set upon it Ye that now have your hearts full of Earth when ye shall have your mouths full too and your Corps lye rotting in the Earth you shall have done loving of it Death that ends your life in the World shall end your love to the World which Grace never did Ye shall also have done ere long loving your Relations ye shall have done loving Father and Mother Brother and Sister and Husband and Wife and Children as now in that relation but the gracious Soul the Lover of Christ shall never have done loving of Christ It is sweet to have it but this doth make it more sweet to think he shall always have it Have it in Life have it at Death and have it after Death O blessed Love that shall never be lost but ever last While I was Musing upon this it came into my mind to consider what those that never love Christ in this World can love in the next and I could not imagine any thing that Damned Souls in Hell can Love If it be that I understand not nor am acquainted with the acting of their Souls nor State God grant I never may as they do I thought can they love God Christ the holy Spirit Angels Saints Their hatred to all these is and shall be more deeply radicated that is Rooted in them than ever upon Earth Can they love the place of Hell They wish they never had come thither Can they love the pains of Hell They grieve and groan under them and are weary to bear them Can they love the Devils in Hell They curse them for tempting them to Sin that brought them to that place Can they love their Companions in Hell They are an aggravation of one anothers misery Can they love their Sin in Hell Alas all that was pleasurable in it is gone and the pain and sting only doth remain Can they love their Beings in Hell They had rather dye than live and cease to be at all than to continue to be there I know not what it is that they can love O loathsome place where there is and can be no love O lovely Heaven where Love doth Reign where Love doth Live and the Life of them therein shall be for ever a Life of Love And in this World where Love is wanting so far it looks like Hell Where Love and that which is the best which is that which is to Christ doth prevail so far it looks like Heaven Dear Lord save me from Hell because there there is no love to thee nor to any thing that is good Sweet Saviour lead me in thy way to Heaven and bring me thither where Love to thee shall live and last for ever IV. Is it not great folly to love other things and not Christ For love ye will There is such an affection as Love in all your Hearts and something it will be set upon in this World what e're it be with Damned Souls in the next Now if Christ have it not the World will If Christ hath it not Sin will And do ye act as Rational Creatures as Men endued with Reason to deny your Love to Christ and give it to the World and Sin Set one over against the other and then tell me 1. Is it not great folly to love that which is worse than your selves and not that which is infinitely better Do ye think your Silver and your Gold is better than your selves as much as ye love it That your Houses and your Lands as bad as ye are are better than your selves But ye are not yet so good nor yet so bad but I hope ye will say and ackdowledge that Christ is better 2. Is it not great folly to love that which cannot love you again and not him that would Ye love your Gold but that cannot love you again The Cloaths upon your back the Furniture in your Houses ye love but these can make no returns of Love Ye give your love to them but ye receive no love from them Are ye not vexed when ye love a Man that doth not love you again nor return love for love And why are ye so well pleased and are so well contented in placing the very
Instant Now there is hope and yet thou wilt not give me thy Love and Heart then there will be no hope and that might even break thy Heart Besides 3. Will it not be universal pain All over no part free Here if thou art pained in thy Head thy Heart may not be sick if pained in more yet not in all but then thou wilt be all over Tormented Thy Vnderstanding will torment thee when thou shalt know the God the Heaven the Happiness thou hast lost and all for want of Love to me and the misery thou hast found Thy Memory will increase the vexation of thy Heart in calling to mind thine opportunities upon Earth how Mercy did intreat thee how Grace did Wooe thee how I called my Spirit strived and Patience long waited for thy Love and yet I could not obtain it of thee Thy Conscience will sting and gnaw thee saying Did not I tell thee this would be the end of thy Refusals Did not I forewarn thee Did not I say it would be thy wisest only way to hearken unto Christ and to set thy Love upon him But thou wouldst not didst not hearken to my voice nor to the voice of Christ intreating of thee for thy Love And at the Resurrection thy Body will be sharer of punishment with thy Soul and all thy Senses be tormented with afflicting Obects Thine Ears in hearing doleful Lamentations â—hine Eyes in seeing a cursed Crew of Damnâ—d Creatures thy Smell afflicted with the stench of burning Brimstone thy Taste in continual drinking of the Cup of Wrath full of Dregs without mixture of Mercy thy Touch in feeling the Fire burning but never consuming of thee It was a Wonder unto Moses that the Bush did burn and not consume on Earth and these brambles shall burn in Hell and not consume which will be a greater Wonder Now tell me poor Sinner saith Christ what is thine Answer Hadst thou rather endure all this than love me Hadst thou rather love the World and thy present Pleasures and hereafter lye in these extream eternal and universal pains than love me and be delivered from them One of these must be be wise therefore in thy choice As Christ takes this course to gain thy Love so do thou join in with Christ by serious consideration for thine own Conviction that thou maist give thy love to him Urge thy self and work it on thy Heart that thou art under the Curse and Threatnings of God which are true terrible intolerable and eternal thou art the Man that art threatned by God with the forest Punishments Plagues Judgments in this Life and in the Life to come thou art the Man that Law and Gospel will condemn if thou finally deny thy love to Christ Think seriously with thy self that thou art under the Wrath of God which is great Wrath Jer. 21.5 Whole Treasures of it Rom. 2.5 Abiding Wrath. Joh. 3.36 Tearing and destroying Wrath. Amos 1.11 Psal 50.22 Ezek. 43.8 Intolerable Nah. 1.6 Most of it to come Mat. 3.7 And Eternal Rev. 14.10 11. Endeavour to get thine Heart affected that while thou lovest not Christ thou hast no Title to Heaven no Actual Hope no Promise no Pledge nor Earnest no Plea no Interest no Warrant to expect Salvation that Hell is thy due Torments thy desert Hell is appointed for thy Lodging Dwelling place The Place is prepared the Fire is kindled Devils are waiting and all Hell is moved to meet thee at thy coming Oh think what manner of Hell it is that thou art every moment in danger of it is hot long large dark deep a restless and remediless Hell When thou hast got a sight and sense of thy Sin and that thou art lost in thy self then II. Consider there is no help for thee in any meer Creature among all the Creation of God none such can prevent thy Damnation set thee in Gods favour bring thee to his Kingdom If thou lookest upwards Angels cannot or downwards Devils neither can nor will Look round about thee all Creatures say There is no help in us for Wrath must be pacified and that cannot be till Justice is satisfied and how shall any meer finite Creature satisfie Infinite-offended-Justice Tears Prayers Reformation cannot satisfie God so that as all other Creatures cannot give relief unto thee so thou thy self canst not help thy self Then III. By serious thoughts dwell upon thy own Mortality and on the consideration of Judgment Heaven and Hell Ponder upon the certainty and the nearness of approaching Death thou mightest dye this Year before the next this Week this Day this Hour before the next and say Oh what will become of me then Where shall I be then What shall I do Nay What shall I suffer then Am I under the Curse and Death at my back Is God angry with me and Death at my heels Have I no Title to Heaven no Reason to hope for it and yet do not know how soon Death might come Am I in danger of Hell and might drop into it any day in the Week any hour in the Day Oh woful case that I am in Wrath is over my head and Hell is under my feet Wrath is ready to fall upon me and I am in danger of falling into Hell I never thought my Heart for want of love had been so bad my danger so great my Soul so black my Self so near to Hell Torments Woe is me that all my Life I have loved loathsom Sin A very Monster Even Sin which is a provocation to the Majesty of God a contradiction to the Will of God an opposition to the Nature of God a rejection of the Son of God a vexation to the Spirit of God and Damnation to my own Soul surely this Love was blind Oh! Will God bear such slightings of his Son Such abusings of his Grace Such contemning of his Mercy Woe is me Can I live without Life And be saved without a Saviour Oh what shall I do And where must I have help By whom may I be relieved restored saved Oh in this distress that I am in if I could but hear of one that could and would relieve and save me of one that could take off the Curse and make me Blessed that could turn away Gods wrath and reconcile me unto him that would save me from Hell and bring me to Heaven then What then distressed Soul Oh then him would I love Love Yea with all my Heart with all my Soul as surely I should have cause to do Love him Did I know such a one his very Name would be precious unto my Soul it should be Engraven on my Heart and I should think I could never love such a one enough Saist thou so Sinner I will tell thee there is one and but one that can and that is full and fit and free to help thee and to save and succour thee in this distress that thou art in Oh good Sir what is his Name that I might apply my self unto him and place
man whose mind is savingly inlightned can say I see that goodness in the Saviour that far surpasseth all the goodness of the Creature tho the Stars in the coldest night might be seen yet when the Sun ariseth they all disappear so in the night of Ignorance when my Mind was blind my Heart hard and my Affections frozen I was taken with the goodness of Riches of Honours and of worldly Pleasure yet when the Sun of Righteousness with his radiant Rays did shine into my Soul and with his warming Influences did thaw my benummed frozen Heart when Christ the Day-Star arose in my Soul then O then the glory of these things that did dazle mine eyes did presently vanish and wither away then in comparison of Christ I saw an emptiness in all the Creatures fulness I saw beggery in all its bravery shame in all its glory and poverty in its riches I saw its greatest resplendent lustre to be darkness its wisdom to be folly its beauty appeared to me no better than deformity when once I had got a view of Christ's transcendent loveliness SECT IV. The Third Requisite THirdly This Love to Christ includes a discovery of the suitableness of Christ unto the Soul as the most convenient Good Appetibility is not the formal reason of goodness but rather a consequent of it for a thing is not therefore good because it is desirable but it is therefore desirable because it is good Our Desires do not make the goodness of the Object but the goodness of the Object allures our Desires and Love Suitableness is the ground of Love A thing might be good in it self yet if we apprehend no suitableness in it to us the love of our hearts is not upon it therefore in pain and sickness a man judgeth ease and health to be better for him than Gold and Silver because more suitable a man in hunger and thirst esteemeth Bread and Water to be better than Honours and Preferments because more suitable Love to Christ is grounded on the Apprehensions that the Soul hath of the suitableness of Christ unto him and saith Food is not more suitable to an hungry man nor Physick to a sick man nor Cloathing to a naked man than Christ is to me a poor sinful and by my Sins a lost man an undone perishing and distressed man For I am naked and He will give me change of Raiment I am blind and He will restore my sight I am enslaved to Sin and Satan and He will give me liberty I am lost He will save me I am guilty He will pardon me I am polluted He will purge me I am an enemy to God He will reconcile me I am ignorant He will teach me I am indebted He will be my Surety I am poor He will make me rich I am a stranger to God He will bring me into acquaintance with him What shall I say I am unfit for Heaven but He will make me meet to be Partaker of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light Though I have Riches I might be damned but if I have Christ I shall be saved Though men admire me yet God might loath me but if I have Christ the Lord will love me Though I prosper in the World in all my pomp I might be walking in the way to Everlasting Misery but if I have Christ He will lead me in the paths unto Eternal Glory Look O my Soul look round about thee and thou shalt find none so suitable to thee as the only Saviour no! then only he shall have my prevailing love Is there none for me like him then none shall have love from me like him This suitableness of Christ unto the Soul in every respect is to be more largely spoken to among the Arguments to persuade you to set and six your Love on him SECT V. The Fourth Requisite of this Love FOurthly Love includes a sight of the communicability of that good that is discerned to be so suitable to the person that should love it possibility of participation is necessary to the begetting or raising of the Affection for while we see a Good though every way suitable yet if it be impossible to be obtained we can have no hope of it but sink under despondency and despair and though Love respects its Object without the circumstances of hard or easie to be obtained but simply as good yet that which is good in it self but impossible to us is not a good to us because a good not to be possessed by us and such a Good cannot be loved with such a Love as we ought to have to Christ who is to be loved by us as good and our good or as attainable by us for good as incommunicable to us so considered may beget vexation anguish and horrour but not complacency which yet Philosophers make the formal reason of Love 1. And this I judge might be one reason why there is no love in Devils to Christ nor can be Why are not Devils under unexpressible horrour and would not deliverance be esteemed by them as a good suitable to them Do they not know that there is no Saviour but Christ why then do they hate him why the Benefits of Christ are not communicable to them The Sufferings of Christ tho sufficient to have redeemed all the Devils in Hell yet were not ordained by God nor endured by Christ for any such end or with any such intention Christ did not dye to make Salvation or Happiness possible for Devils or finally-unbelieving-impenitent Sinners Therefore though they know Christ to be good and freedom from misery would be suitable to them yet this Good being incommunicable to them they neither have nor can have sincere love unto him Hence it is they hate Christ with an implacable hatred and oppose his Kingdom and Interest with the strongest opposition Mat. 8.29 And behold they the unclean Spirits cried out saying What have we to do with thee Jesus thou Son of God art thou come to torment us before the time As if they had said There is no good that we look should come by thee to us we expect no Salvation no Deliverance from our Pain and Misery Thou art a Saviour to men but not to us Thou wilt have nothing to do with us in a way of mercy and we have nothing to do with Thee by any hopes of Redemption through thy Mediatory Undertakings men on Earth might have to do with Thee and therefore have cause to love Thee and thou art come into the World to have to do with them to seek them and to save them they may have Thee for a Redeemer and a Saviour but so may not we They are fallen and by Thee might be restored but we are fallen and must lie where we fell without hope without a possibility of recovering there is no doing betwixt Thee and us for Heaven and Salvation no dealings betwixt Thee and us for Life and Happiness none of thy Sufferings are to be for us
that come to pray and hear and not love Christ are such Deceivers All such mens Religious Duties and Services are done in deceit and hypocrisy they are Deceivers of themselves Deceivers of other men and go about to deceive God himself What is to play the Hypocrite if this be not to give God your Words but not your Hearts what is deceitful dealing if this be not to give God and Christ outward Service and deny him your Love to do the outward Action and withhold from him the inward Affection would you be paid what is owing to you in such Coyn in that which hath the colour and resemblance of Gold but underneath is base Metal Would you not cry out of such a one as a Deceiver and is this a fault in men to you and is it no fault in you to God are you ready to curse such a man and will not God curse you Read Mal. 1.14 But cursed be the deceiver which hath in his flock a male and voweth and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing For I am a great King saith the Lord of hosts and my name is dreadful among the heathen You bring him some cold Prayers have you not an Heart to give him you bring him some outward Expressions have not you inwards Affections to bring him you offer him Words and deny him your Love Are these cursed Doings and yet not you the Doers of them accursed Arg. 8. Robbers and Thieves are accursed Non-Lovers of Christ are Robbers and Thieves For whose are you God's or your own Whose by right are your Hearts the World 's or Christ's Who should have your Love as due to whom doth it belong to the World or Vanity to Self or to Christ that which you purchase do not you call your own that which you pay dear for is it not your own and would it not be robbery in another without your Consent to keep it from you Hath not Christ bought you with a price given for you more than you are worth He made your Hearts to love him and when you defaced them and sinned away the love of God did not Christ buy you hath not he paid dear to have your Love might you set your Love upon what you please might you place it upon what Object you list for are not you Body and Soul Christ's by purchase 1 Cor. 6.19 What know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you which ye have of God and ye are not your own 20. For ye are bought with a price therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's Is it not a robbing of Christ to deny him his own and is not he that is a Robber of God and Christ a cursed Wretch If thou shouldest rob thy Father or Mother or a Stranger wouldst thou not be accounted a vile Transgressor how comes it to pass that thou robbest God and Christ and makes no matter of it but God doth Mal. 3.8 Will a man rob God yet ye have robbed me But ye say wherein have we robbed thee in tithes and offerings 9. Ye are cursed with a curse for ye have robbed me even this whole nation They are said to rob God in Tithes and Offerings and you in your Hearts and Affections And what is the taking away of Tithes to the taking away of the Heart and love thereof and yet God cursed them with a Curse that is certainly accursed them how then wilt thou escape God might charge thee that thou hast played the Thief with him and hast stoln away thy Love from him and hast gone and pawned it for a little Silver or a filthy Lust and yet hast no mind nor serious thought for to get it redeemed or fetched out of pawn Arg. 9. Those that love not Christ are spiritual Adulterers and go a whoring from God Do not you profess to be married to Christ what and give your love to the World to Pleasures to the Strumpet Sin Is that a chast Woman that loveth another man more than her own Husband to love other things more than God and Christ is called in Scripture a going a Whoring from God Hos 4.12 A playing the harlot Jer. 3.1 Thou hast played the harlot with many lovers Committing adultery vers 8. and are Adulterers Jam. 4.4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses know ye not that the friendship of this world is enmity with God Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God A Lover of the World is an Enemy of God and are not those that God taketh for his Enemies in a bad and miserable condition and will be worse when the Lord comes Some please themselves with this as an Evidence of their good Condition and hope of Salvation that they are neither Whores nor Thieves but such as love not Christ above all in a Spiritual and Scriptural Sense are both Such a one is a Thief in robbing God of that Love that is his due and guilty of spiritual Whoredom in loving other things more than Christ and if you think to escape the Curse continuing in such Sins when the Lord comes and you tried at his Bar shall find you were wonderfully mistaken and meet with a Curse when you expected a Blessing Arg. 10. Such as shall be commanded to depart from Christ and be driven from his glorious presence are accursed Final Non-Lovers of Christ shall be commanded to depart from Christ and be driven from his glorious presence Your Heart that loves not Christ is not towards God and Christ and when he comes his Heart shall not be towards you your Heart is alienated from Christ and then Christ's Heart shall be alienated from you While you will not love you say in your hearts to Christ depart from us and Christ will say to you depart ye from me As he that trusteth in the Creature his heart departeth from God so he that loveth the Creature more than God his heart departeth from God and he whose heart departeth from God either by trusting to or loving of the Creature more than God is accursed Jer. 17.5 Thus saith the Lord Cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm and whose heart departeth from the Lord. And when Christ shall command you to depart from him you shall find your selves in a cursed condition Matth. 25.40 Such as do not love the Lord Jesus do not obey the Gospel for the Gospel commands your Love and they that do not obey the Gospel at Christ's coming shall be separated from him and they that shall be separated from him then shall find and feel themselves accursed 2 Thess 1.7 When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels 8. In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ 9. Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the
glory of his power Are you yet convinced of your deplorable Condition by reason of the want of love to Jesus Christ Do you not see the Curse of God hangs over your Soul Can you reply to this proof or deny it or will you still hold to your old Conclusion that you shall not be thus accursed like to what is recorded Deut. 29.19 And it shall come to pass when he heareth the words of this curse that he bless himself in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of mine heart to add drunkennese to thirst Behold a man blessing himself whom the Lord declared accursed But what then Is the Curse the further from him or the Blessing nearer to him Read on Verse 20. The Lord will not spare him but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoak ageinst that man and all the curses that are written in this hook shall lie upon him and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven 21. And the Lord shall separate him unto evil out of all the Tribes of Israel according to all the curses of the Covenant that are written in this book of the Law It is but a poor shift to Iull your Consciences asleep with groundless hopes of escaping the Curse contrary to the express word of God who will not suffer one tittle of it to fall to the ground though in the accomplishment and fulfilling of it millions of Sinners fall into Hell The Curse then being certainly to fall upon the Final-Non-Lovers of Christ the third thing in order follows to open to you what kind of Curse it shall be to be Anathema when Maran-atha accursed when the Lord shall come CHAP. IV. Ten Properties of the Curse upon Non-Lovers of Christ 1. TO be Anathema when Maran-atha will be to be cursed with a dreadful curse This is more general and the following Properties will shew it to be so dreadful so dreadful as will make your Joints to tremble your Knees to knock together your Faces gather paleness for you will be cursed by God himself and as to be blessed by God is the greatest Blessing so to be cursed of God is the sorest Curse A great Emphasis is laid upon those words where God calls a People a People of My Curse Isa 34.5 When the Church prayed against her Enemies it was a sore Petition Lam. 3.65 Give them sorrow of heart thy curse unto them If the Devil should curse you yet God may bless you if men should curse yet God might bless you as David begged in Psal 109.28 Let them curse but bless thou As if he had said If I have God's blessing I will not fear wicked mens cursings for when they curse God can turn it into a blessing Deut 23.5 Nevertheless the Lord thy God would not hearken unto Balaam but the Lord thy God turned the curse into a blessing unto thee because the Lord thy God loved thee The form of the rash and wicked Speech of ungodly men much given to cursing shews it to be a dreadful thing to be cursed of God when they say The Curse of God fall upon you The Curse of God overtake you they mean the forell the heaviest the greatest Curse by the Curse of God but though men might wish you so accursed yet you might be far from it but if you love not sincerely the Son of God then the Curse of God will overtake you light and lie upon you and then you will be accursed indeed Oh now love Christ indeed that you might then escape the Curse indeed which else will be a Curse indeed heavy indeed and indeed intolerable 2. To be Anathema when Maran-atha accursed when the Lord comes will be to be accursed totally all the Sinners shall lie under this Curse his Body shall be cursed and his Soul shall be cursed as the Curse in this world falls upon all that belong to the Disobedient and rebellious Deut. 28.15 But it shall come to pass if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day that all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee 16. Cursed shalt thou be in the city and cursed shalt thou be in the field 17. Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store 18. Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body and the fruit of thy land the increase of thy kine and the flocks of thy sheep 19. Cursed shalt thou be in thy coming in and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out So when the Lord comes thou shalt be cursed in all thou art in thy Body and all the parts thereof cursed shall be thine Eyes that were as Windows to let vanity into thy heart Cursed shall be thine Ears that hearkened to the Enticements of Sinners but not to the Commands and Calls of God Cursed shall be thy Hands and Feet that acted wickedly and carried thee on in ways of Sin Cursed shalt thou be in thy Soul and in all the Powers and Faculties thereof Cursed shall be thine Vnderstanding that never was inlightned with the saving Knowledge of Jesus Christ Cursed shall be thy Will that never made choice of him for thy Saviour and thy Lord. Cursed shall be thy Conscience that did not effectually stir thee up to look after and to hasten to Jesus Christ Cursed shall be all thine Affections that thou shalt be constrained to confess that Love that was set upon the World and Sin which should have been better placed upon Christ was cursed Love Those Desires which run out after Vanity which should have been upon the wing in moving after Christ were cursed Desires and those Delights which are fetched from the Creature and from sinful Objects were cursed Delights and that Hatred which I had to Christ and his ways which should have risen against Sin was cursed Hatred Thus as now where the Love of Christ doth not rule in the Heart Sin is spread all over so then the Sinner shall be cursed all over In this Life Spiritual Curses upon the Soul are the heaviest Curses as Blessings on the Soul are the best of Blessings When men will not be persuaded to love the Lord Jesus but will love their Cups and their Whores and their Profits and Sporting Pleasures better than Christ but after long wooings of Grace and intreaties of Mercy after many strivings of the Spirit and Calls of Conscience and waitings of patience they will love their Sin and not Christ the World and not Christ God and Christ and Holy Spirit may give them up to these vile and cursed Affections and say to them as Christ cursed the Fig-tree on which there was no Fruit Mark 11.13 14 20 21. Never fruit grow on thee more Sinner wilt thou not love me never Repentance be found in thee never Pardon be bestowed on thee Wilt thou not love me let him love his Swearing still let him
Lord Jesus Christ 3. For Examination or Trial distinguishing the Non-Lovers of Christ from such as do sincerely love him 4. By way of Entreaty or Exhortation That as you would escape this Curse be careful that you get this Love to Christ 5. For the Comfort Encouragement and Joy of such as love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity above all CHAP. VII Vnder the first Vse we might learn these Lessons or deduce these Ten Corollaries I. GOD only hath power to curse any of his Creatures He that made us can only really and effectually make us a Blessing or a Curse Sin might meritoriously subject us to the Curse but God only can inflict all the Curse that Sin doth deserve Wicked men might wish others accursed and do but their wishing them to be so doth not make them so By cursing others they might sooner bring a Curse upon themselves than upon those whom they do curse let them beware of this that cannot speak of some persons but with a Curse in their mouths Psal 109.17 As he loved cursing so let it come unto him as he delighted not in blessing so let it be far from him 18. As he clothed himself with cursing like as with a garment so let it come into his bowels like water and like oyl into his bones That Cursings as well as Blessings belong to God Balaam himself did teach Numb 23.7 And he took up his parable and said Balaak the King of Moab hath brought me from Aram out of the mountains of the East saying Come curse me Jacob and come defie Israel 8. How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed or how shall I defie whom the Lord hath not defied Therefore when we find holy men of God in Scripture using Imprecations and Curses we must not draw them into Example to fill our Mouths with Curses against any for there is not the same reason betwixt us and them 1. When they cursed they had the gift of discerning of Spirits whereby they perceived such were designed by God unto destruction as a Reward of their cursed Sinnings against whom they used such fearful Imprecations of Eternal Damnation Acts 8.20 Peter said unto him Thy money perish with thee because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money 21. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter for thine heart is not right in the sight of God 23. For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity The like is to be said of David's cursing of his slanderous Enemies under the person of Doeg Achitophel or Judas praying against his Person Family Name Honour Estate and Eternal Salvation Psal 109.6 Set thou a wicked man over him and let Satan stand at his right hand 7. When he shall be judged let him be condemned and let his prayer become sin 8. Let his days be few and let another take his office 9. Let his children be fatherless and his wife a widow 10. Let his children be vagabonds and beg let them seek their bread in desolate places 11. Let the extortioner catch all that he hath and let the stranger spoil his labour 12. Let there be none to extend mercy unto him neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children 13. Let his posterity be cut off and in the generation following let their name be blotted out c. 2. The Imprecations of such men in Scripture might be taken rather as Predictions than as Curses or at least imprecating Predictions They speaking by the Spirit of God foretold what Curses would be inflicted by God upon them for their Sin and in a way of sin overtake them 3. There is a Ministerial and a Magisterial cursing The one is to make any thing or person accursed as the desert of Sin the other is to pronounce wish or declare any thing or person accursed and this is all that men can do Therefore though men pronounce Anathema against some without cause as the Pope and his Councils against Protestantâ— we need not be terrified therewith else the most happy men might be the most accursed 2 Sam. 16.12 It may be the Lord will look on mine affliction and that the Lord will require me good for his cursing this day II. This doth teach us the evil nature of Sin and what a cursed thing it is as being the meritorious cause of all the Curses that befall any of the Creatures of God If Sin had been kept out of the World curses had never come into it But Sin made way for the Curse and brought it in the commission of sin was the introduction of the Curse Gen. 3.14 And the Lord said unto the serpent Because thou hast done this thou art cursed above all cattel and above every beast of the field 17. Cursed is the ground for thy sake in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life Sin and the Curse are so linked together that Christ only that can take away the Sin can remove the Curse Gal. 3.13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us If Curses be heavy Sin cannot be light and if the Curses be great that are due to Sin Sin that procures them cannot be so small a matter as the most make of it Would you flee from the Curse and yet run into Sin would you escape the Curse and yet live in Sin what is this but as if you would drink poyson and hope you shall live run into the fire and imagine you shall not be burnt Do you cry out under the Curse as a grievous pain and yet look upon Sin as the greatest pleasure Is the Curse dreadful and do you look upon Sin as delightful Is the Curse intolerable and can Sin be profitable Oh learn to look upon Sin through the Curse and then Sin will appear to be a cursed thing indeed III. Sin doth cross and thwart the natural Principles which are graven by the finger of God upon the hearts of all men If you ask whether Sin be now in man's lapsed state according to the nature of man I answer with this distinction there is the corruption of Nature and so Sin is according to our Nature as natural for man to sin as it is for light things to ascend and heavy to descend and there are the Principles left in corrupt Nature and so Sin is still against Nature In corrupted Nature there are yet remaining Principles that beget an aversation from Misery and an inclination for the obtaining of Happiness desires to avoid the Curse and to procure Blessedness but Sin is a thwarting of both these that you cannot sin but you go against the very Principles left in corrupted Nature as preservatives to keep down the Corruption of Nature Who is there among you all but hath innate Desires to escape the Curse of the Great God or can you desire to be accursed by him Who is among you that hath
more is contained in these explicatory words than I am able to explain Heb. 8.10 God hath promised the pardon of sins Heb. 8.12 That he will justifie us Ezek. 36.25 and take away the old Heart and give a new one the hard and stony Heart and give a soft and fleshy which shall not be a fleshly Heart ver 26. to give his holy Spirit to help to quicken to guide to comfort you ver 27. To give persevering Grace Jer. 32.40 And I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good but I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me If God neither turn away from his sincere People nor they from God their Perseverance is sure that neither shall be is secured by the Promise of God Now these Promises concern the Lovers of God and Christ and to them shall be performed Neh. 1.5 O Lord God of Heaven the great and terrible God that keepeth Covenant and Mercy for them that love him and observe his Commandments The same words in Dan. 9.4 there are promises to them that love God and Christ and there are promises for the performance of those promises to such Deut. 7.9 Know therefore that the Lord thy God he is God the faithful God which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments He did he doth but how long will he do so To a thousand Generations But what will he do to them that do hate him What Read and Tremble ye that are haters of God and Christ Ver. 10. And repayeth them that hate him to their face to dâ—stroy them He will not be slack to him that hateth him he will repay him to his face III. Predominant sincere love to Christ is an evidence of Gods special and peculiar Love to you How fain wouldst thou know that God doth love thee and Christ doth love thee Then thou saist thou shouldst not care though all the wicked in the World should hate thee and if I knew that God did love me it would resolve my Doubts expell my Fears lighten my Burdens sweeten my Mercies make me chearful under the Cross be a Cordial to me in Sickness and be Life to me in the Gates of Death Canst thou prove thou lovest Christ Then I can prove that both God and Christ do love thee for thy love to God and Christ is the fruit and effect of Gods and Christs love to thee God loveth first or thou hadst never loved at all God loveth us with a preventing Love never any prevented God and Christ in Love We love with a following Love Prov. 8.17 I love them that love me Joh. 14.21 He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him 23. Jesus answered and said unto him If a man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him 1 Joh. 4.19 We love him because he first loved us And now what Spiritual Comfort What Heavenly Joy What Ravishing Delights might a Lover of Christ take in this That God and Christ is a Lover of him because his Love is such that is above all Expression beyond all Conception above all Comparison Eph. 3.18 May be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height 19. And to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge The properties of this Love will make your Joy to be abundant 1. Christ loveth his Lovers with a free Love ye had motives to love Christ his Beauty his Wisdom his Fulness The Necessity ye had of him the Good ye expected by him were attractives of your Love to him but what was in you to move Christ to Love you when ye were Deformed Polluted Guilty Condemned Poor full of running Sores and wallowing in your Blood Ezek. 16.6 And when I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thine own blood I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood Live yea I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood Live 8. Now when I passed by thee and looked upon thee behold thy time which might have been the time of loathing was the time of love As he hath Mercy because he will have Mercy so he Loves because he will Love Deut. 7.7 The Lord did not set his love upon you nor choose you because ye were more in number than any people 8. But because the Lord loved you 2. Christ loveth his Lovers with a pure Love The Love of most is Selfish-love loving others for their own ends and indeed there was something of Self in your loving of Christ that ye might be Pardoned by him and Justified and Saved by him But what can Christ gain by loving of you What advantage redounds to him Or what profit hath he thereby 3. Christ loveth his Lovers with an unparallel'd matchless Love Great was the Love of Jonathan and David great is the Love of tender Parents to their Children but Christs is greater than all Joh. 15.13 Greater love hath no man than this That a man lay down his life for his friends 4. Christ loveth his Lovers with a constant abiding Love for it is eternal and unchangeable The Love of Creatures is sickle and waveringlove sometimes sades and fails while they live or dyeth with them when they dye or when we dye their Love to us doth also dye At least they love us not as in that relation for Death hath null'd that relation But the Love of Christ is without end he doth Live for ever and he will Love for ever and neither our Love to him nor his to us doth dye when we do dye but after Death we love him more than ever and he doth manifest his Love to us more than ever Jer. 31.3 I have loved thee with an everlasting love IV. Christ makes the hearts of his Lovers the seat and place of his special Residence Lovers love to dwell together and Christ hath prepared Mansions for us that we might dwell with him hereafter but Christ through the greatness of his Love being impatient of so long absence till we come to be present with him in Heaven makes our Hearts a Mansion for himself that he might dwell with us on Earth till we are lodged with him in Glory Joh. 14.23 Jesus answered and said unto him If a man love me he will keep my words and my father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him Oh blessed Change When thou lovedst not Christ Satan the World and reigning Sin had their abode in thee These were the Lodgers in thy Heart that had the best Room and chiefest Seat in thine Affections While thou wast in the World and not in Christ the World was in thee and noâ— Christ While thou wast in thy Sin thy Sin was in thee as Lord and Ruler but now thou