is our ignorance of the excellency all-sufficiency and suitableness of Christ to our insufficiency and emptiness that makes our love to Christ so very cold For the proper object of Love is some suitable desireable good thing Were we better acquainted then with that fulness that is in Christ we should more fully and freely open our hearts to Christ Did we but see his loveliness in every respect the loveliness of his person the loveliness of his disposition and qualifications the loveliness of his works and undertakings and his suitableness every way to our condition we should from the inward sense of love in our own souls cry out with the Spouse He is altogether lovely Nay our love towards him and desire after him would be so fervent that we should say with the Spouse Tell him that I am sick of love If therefore thou wouldest have thine heart more open to Christ study Christ better for he hath said he will exalt or set on high such as know his Name and set their love upon him Psal 91.14 And how can he more highly advance thee than by honouring thee with his company Our ignorance of Christ makes us that we do not understand his voice when he calls and therefore we give no heed to his calls 2. Open thine heart to the commands of Christ search the Scriptures to know what it is that he requires of thee and as he teaches thee by his Word and Spirit let thine heart be open to attend thereunto as the heart of Lydia was who attended to the things that were spoken by Paul Yea let thine heart burn within thee while he is talking with thee as the hearts of the Disciples going to Emaus did while Christ talked with them Attend diligently to the Ordinances of Christ and come with the everlasting doors of thine heart open ready prepared to receive whatsoever divine truth God shall make known unto thee and resolving to practise what truths thou shalt receive let thine heart be ready to say when thou comest to every Ordinance as Samuel did Speak Lord for thy servant heareth or as Paul Lord what wouldest thou have me to do Or as the people to Moses but with a better heart and more stedfast resolution All that the Lord hath spoken will we do and be obedient Open thine heart to the commands of Christ and let none of his commands be grievous but say with David O how love I thy Law it is my meditation day and night Remember that Christ is thy Lord and Husband it is his work to command thee and it is thy duty in all things to obey and therefore take his yoke upon thee for his yoke is easie and his burden light and in keeping his commands there is great reward 3. Open thine heart to the counsels and advice of Christ thou maist assure thy self that Christ will advise thee to nothing but for thy good See what counsel Christ gives to the Asian Churches Rev. 2 3. chap. his counsel was very suitable to the several states and conditions of every Church To instance in that of Laodicea she was a very luke-warm Church and yet very proud self-confident Church she said She was rich and increased with goods and had need of nothing but knew not that she was wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked And what was Christs counsel to her I counsel thee to buy of me Gold tryed in the fire that thou maist be rich and white raiment that thou maist be cloathed and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve that thou maist see Rev. 3.17 18. Jesus Christ is a most faithful Friend and Physician will certainly give very seasonable counsel and advice he is called the wonderful Counsellor Isai 9.6 Open thine heart and listen to the counsel which Christ gives to thee he will instruct thee how to mortifie thy sins he will teach thee how to improve Ordinances to perform Duties to exercise thy graces he will teach thee in all respects to order thy conversation aright and to improve all the Dispensations of his Providence towards thee Take but Christs counsel and advice and thou canst never do amiss for he is wise in heart and communicative of his wisdome never fails any that trust and seek to him for counsel and advice Read James 1.5 If any of you want wisdom let him ask it of God who gives to all men liberally and upbraideth no man and it shall be given to him But know this that Christ cannot endure to have his counsel slighted to do this would highly displease him Read Prov. 1.24 c. I called 〈◊〉 but ye would have none of my counsels Therefore I also will laugh at your calamity and mock when your fear comes Theâ— shall they call but I will not answer for that they hated knowledge they would none of my counsels Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way and be filled with their own devices If thou wilt not open to Christ's counsels thou mayest follow thine own devices and see what will be the end of it Psal 81.11 12. write out the Text. 4. Open thine Heart to the rebukes and chastisements of Christ Be not too wise in thine own conceit as to think that Christ can finde no fault with thee But as David speaks concerning the Righteous so do thou from thy very heart say Let the Righteous Christ smite me it shall be a kindness let him reprove me it shall be an excellent oyl which shall not break my head Though thou knowest before hand that he will finde fault with thee at his coming yet be never the more afraid to let him in nor be thou weary of his rebukes It is unpleasant discourse many times when our Friends rip up our faults and tell us of them but it is really our fault so to account it for it is the real part of a Friend to reprove us and not to suffer sin upon our souls However it may be unpleasant yet it is both necessary and safe It argues a more than ordinary love of Christ towards thee if he deal thus faithfully with thee for whom he loves he rebukes and chastens Rev. 3.19 Let thy Heart therefore be open ready and willing to receive and embrace his most severe rebukes And take it as a kindness from him that he will rebuke thee for it is a piece of blessedness Blessed is the man whom the Lord rebukes and chastens and teacheth him out of his Law Psal 94.12 David having found the benefit of this saith Psal 119.75 I know O Lord that thy judgements are right and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me And v. 71. It is good for me that I have been afflâ—cted c. And the Apostle tells us that though no affliction be for the present joyous but greivous yet afterwards it works the peaceable fruits of Righteousness in them that are exercised thereby Heb. 12.11 open therefore
such calls or let slip such opportunities And they are such times as these 1. Christ his knocks and calls are very remarkable under powerful Ordinances accompanied with secret strivings of the Spirit and convictions of our own Consciences God qualifies and sends forth his Ministers to preach the Gospel unto those to whom he sends them and hath promised to be with them always even to the end of the world Matth. 28.19 20. It is his work they are about and they must have his assistance and direction in the Work He must put words into their Mouths such as may accomplish the end and errand for which he sends them to such persons or people And hence it is that the faithful Ministers and Servants of Christ are not onely diversly gifted and qualified for their work but they find the Spirit of God variously directing assisting restraining or enlarging according as God is pleased to make use of them and call them forth upon some particular work and designe There is scarce a faithful Minister of Christ but may observe this in himself by frequent experience both in his private Studies and publick Exercises Now when God doth by his Spirit in a more than ordinary manner raise enlarge and direct his Servants in their studies warming the Word upon their Hearts and likewise inliven and enlarge and warm them in their publick work and at the same time the Spirit of God is busie at work striving with the people to whom this Message is sent by secret impulses of his Spirit and convictions of their Consciences doubtless this is a remarkable call from Christ and it would be of dangerous consequence to let slip such opportunities to stifle such Convictions and to quench such motions of the Spirit An eminent instance we have of this Acts 18. where we have Paul at Corinth inwardly pressed in his Spirit v. 5. and therefore warmed in his work and the same Spirit was also busie at work in the Hearts of his hearers for many believed v. 8. God encourageth him and bids him not fear but go on boldly with his work and he will be with him and defend him And the reason was because God had much people in that City v. 9 10. This was a remarkable time of Christ his calling and the Jews opposing the Apostle and rejecting this call proved of dreadful consequence to them v. 6. for the Apostle left them and preached to the Gentiles When Christ by his Spirit really warms the Heart of the Minister in his work and withal sends his Spirit to open thine Ears to attend to enlighten thy Understanding to apprehend to convince thy Judgment of the truth of what is spoken and to awake thy Conscience and make thy Bowels to stir within thee as here he did the Spouse Cant. 5.4 5. this is a special call from Christ and take heed how thou resistest it or lettest it slip 2. Christ his Knocks and Calls are eminent under special and remarkable Providences The more eminent and remarkable God's Providences are towards them the more loud and considerable are his calls upon thee As for instance 1. Under visible danger of Christ his removal or withdrawing If Christ shew signs and tokens of removing it is to correct our former negligence and to quicken us to lay faster hold upon him Thus in this Chapter whereof the Text is part the Spouse did but too much slight Christ in that she was so lazy that she would not arise to let him in and therefore he withdrew and made her seek him sorrowing with an â—aking Heaâ—â— and guilty self-condemning conscience long before she could finde him Upon this account it is that Christ's departure from a person or people is many times gradual He doth not depart on a sudden but by steps and degrees that every step may be a motive to lay hold upon Christ before he be quite gone Thus we find he departed from the Temple of old as is evident in Ezekiel's vision chapter 10.11 The glory of God first removed to the door of the house from thence to the Mountain and then quite away If we have any business with God it is high time to improve our present oportunity when God tells us by signes and tokens that he is removing and ready to be gone There is a wo immediately falls upon that person or people from whom God departs when he is gone Hosea 9.12 Wo unto them when I depart from them And therefore the signes of God's departure must needs be strong alarms to cause us speedily to lay hold upon God before he depart Therefore saith the Prophet Isai 55.6 Seek ye the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is neer 2. When God hath for some time withdrawn himself and afterward for some little space hath returned again and manifested his presence or nearness this is a loud call to improve our time and while it is called today to hearken and not harden our hearts We read in the parable of the barren Fig-tree Luke 13.6 c. that when the owner had come several years expecting fruit and found none he commands that the Tree be cut down because it but cumbred the ground but at the request and intercession of his Servant he spares it one year longer and takes more pains with it that year than he had done of other years before and if then it bear not fruit it must be cut down without remedy If after our many years barrenness in God's Orchard and his threatning to cut us down he takes more than ordinary pains with us by his Word Messengers and Spirit seeming more eminently and visibly to return to us for some space to dig about us and dung us this is a loud call from him to improve the present opportunity lest he cut us down and there be no servant to stand in the gap or speak a word for us God's Ministers are his Husbandmen and if God threaten to cut down any Tree they cry out Lord spare it a little longer let us take a littlâ— more pains with it and if then it will not be fruitful we will hold our peace and if hereupon God do for some time spare and yet no fruit be brought forth that Tree will be in great danger to be cursed and devoted to the fire If once God say to his Ministers as once he did to Jeremy Jer. 7.16 Pray not thou for this people neither lift up prayer nor cry for I will not â—ear thee such people must needs be in a sad condition and therefore if our time be but 〈◊〉 time of probation it is dangerous to let it slip lest God swear in his wrath that we shall not enter into his rest We finde that good and publick-spirited man Ezra chap. 9. v. 8 c. sadly trembling and astonished at such a thing as this God had punished his people by a seventy years Captivity for their sins and now for a little time grace had been shewed
another if one argument will not prevail they make use of another leave no stone no subject unturned unspoken to that they can imagine may prevail with you What bespeaks all this earnestness and industry but that Christ calls now in good earnest upon you for we are able to do nothing without him It is he that directs us to our subjects and puts a word into our mouths It is he that enlargeth our meditations blesseth our studies and warmeth the word upon our hearts It is he that toucheth our Lips with a Coal from his Altar and helps us to deliver our message in the evidence and demonstration of the truth and of power And all this is for your sakes that the call might be more convincing and effectual upon you And therefore if you finde a more than ordinary spirit upon the Prophets at this day you may conclude it is a more than ordinary call And therefore apply that to your selves which the Apostle speaks Acts 17.30 However Christ might wink at former ignorance or neglect yet now by way of eminency he commands every man every where to repent 5. Doth not Christ eminently knock and call at the door of thy heart by secret impulses of his Spirit and convictions of thy own Conscience Doth not the word of God sometimes come within thy bosome and not onely prove a general word spoken to all but brings some special message to thee and saith to thee as Nathan did to David Thou art the man or as Wisdom to the simple ones Prov. 1.22 23. How long ye simple ones will ye love simplicity and the scorners delight in scorning and fools hate knowledge turn ye at my reproof c. May we not say that God is not wholly departed out of his Ordinances but that yet he walks in the midst of his Golden Candlesticks that his Spirit is yet striving with us and that yet he hath compassion of his heritage and is loth to leave his dwelling place Is there not now and then a secret word whispered in your ear that this word comes from Heaven and is sent a particular message to you Are not you ready to think within your selves sometimes How comes the Minister to know my case so particularly and to speak to those things that none knows but God and mine own Conscience Why you must know that this is God that speaks to you by us It is he that sends us unto you and puts words in our mouths and tells us what to say to you He who knows the secrets of all Hearts directs us what to speak and he by his Spirit opens your ear to hear and to take notice of what is spoken And he by his Spirit convinceth your Consciences that you are the persons to whom it is spoken And therefore when it is thus with you you may assuredly know that this a special knock and call from Christ May there not be the same inward working in your Hearts while this word is sounding in your ears or represented to your eyes in reading of it that was in the Disciples going to Emaus while Christ talked with them and opened the Scriptures Luke 24.32 Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us c. Have you not some secret motions gripings and prickings at the heart under this or other ordinance this is the voice of Christ saying Open to me c. and the more sensible and piercing these are the more loud is Christ's call 6. Are there no fears upon the hearts of God's people lest Christ his stay at our doors should not be long Are there no signes and symptomes of Christ's weariness and readiness to depart seen and taken notice of Is there not a general fear upon the Spirits of most men lest the Gospel should be ready to be removed what ground and cause men have for those fears from second causes I say nothing but that there is such a fear however it comes to pass or what it is grounded upon is evident and I am sure this cannot be without the hand of God This fear is an evil of affliction it disquiets and troubles the spirits of men and therefore must needs proceed from the hand of God For the Prophet tells us Amos 3.6 That there is no evil in the City but the Lord doth it This negative interrogation being a more vehement affirmation And if Christ should not wholly depart and take away his Gospel yet his particular calâ—s by inward convictions and strivings of his Spirit may not last long as he gives you a day so he will give you but a day and then he will swear in his wrath that ye shall never enter into his rest How much of this day may be spent you may better guess than any one can tell you knowing how long he hath called and waited how clear and full convictions have been and how they are now how hot the Gospel hath shined and how cool it is now and the shadows of the evening stretched out And if this be gone what will it advantage you to have the Gospel continued It will be but for your hardening and the sealing you up to everlasting destruction Isaiah was a powerful Preacher and yet you see what a message God sent him to Israeâ— Isai 6.9 10. It is a very uncomfortable message to a faithful Minister of Christ to be sent upon this errand but yet it is the message that God sends them to many an one with and if this be our message to you it will be sad However we must go what message our Master sends us and if it be sad to us it will be ten thousand times more dreadful to you Only our earnest desire is that you might know at least in this your day the things that belong to your everlasting peace before they be hidden from your eyes And these general fears are a loud call to delay or linger no longer but open to Christ 7. Are not all these Calls by Gospel-Ordidinances in answer to your Prayers Here I speak to you that do pray For I am not ignorant that there are a generation of prayerless souls in the world and I wish they were not so great a number There are but too many Families that call not upon the name of God which the Prophet prayes that God would pour his wrath upon Jer. 10.25 and dreadful will the wrath of God be when it comes But I speak here to those that do pray Hath it not been your Prayer that God would return into his resting place he and the ark of his strength Have not you prayed Arise O north-winde and come thou south and breath upon my garden Let my beloved come into his garden Have not you prayed that you might see and meet with God as sometimes you have done in his Sanctuary That you might sit down under his shadow with great delight and his fruit might be pleasant to your taste Have not you sighed and breathed out
Jesus Christ repenting of and forsaking thy sin turning to God with all the heart and taking up a new course of life Fleeing unto Christ alone for justification in a sense of thine own utter unworthyness Entering into covenant with him taking him for thy Prophet Priest and King giving up thy self unto him in all humble hearty and sincere submission to his will and obedience to all his commands This the word dictates and Conscience sets in with it and seconds it And to make up the conviction more full the Spirit of God comes in and tells thee that this condition thou art in is not to be rested in thou must either turn or die To day if thou wilt hear the voice of God then harden not thy heart ere long it will be too late thy Sun will be set thy day of grace over and these things will be hid from thine eyes Hereupon thy Conscience is startled and thou beginnest to think with thy self what thou must do and it may be hast some sudden earnest motions purposes and resolutions to turn and to break off from thine old ways and courses to become a new creature But alas how suddenly are all these vanished and gone again and thou fallest fast asleep again in security Convictions wear off Affections cool Fears abate Sin looks not so terrible thine own estate and condition not to dreadful and hopeless Death not so near the flames of Hell not so hot and scorching and so the wook is laid aside and left undone and thou returnest with the dog to the vomit and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire Or at most if these continue still thou goest with an inward griping wounded Conscience and dost not really come out of thy self unto Christ for healing Christ is little store set by or sought after but thou patchest up a Plaister for thy wounded Conscience of some pitiful poor and imperfect righteousness of thine own takest up some small formal Profession of Religion and thus stoppest the clamours of thy Conscience and Christ is shut out and stands without still Nay may I not say of some that instead oâ— opening to Chrst they are hardned in theiâ— sins and grown Sermon-proof the Word oâ— God affects them not takes not hold upoâ— them as sometimes it hath done but theâ— with less pain and torture of Conscience caâ— turn off reproofs than formerly they coulâ— have done and sit more quietly and undistuâ—bedly under Ordinances and that not becauâ—â— they are in a better condition than formerly for they are the same both in heart and life that they were before but because their hearts are more hardened and their consciences more brawny and their souls more sluggish and sensless than they were before Is this thy opening to Christ Is this the entertainment which Christ finds when his head is filled with dew and his locks with the drops of the night Oh consider this before it be too late before Christ be withdrawn and gone We have a sad complaint which God makes against Ephraim Hos 6.4 c. O Ephraim what shall I do unto thee For your goodness is as a morning-cloud and as an early dew it passeth away A morning-Cloud seems to promise rain but as the Sun ariseth it vanisheth away an early Dew seems to moisten and refresh the earth but when the Sun comes to be hot the dew is quickly gone and the grass scorcheth so much the more so was their goodness very vanishing and unconstant They seemed to take notice of Gods words to be affected with them and to promise and purpose amendment but alas their promises and purposes quickly vanished and came to nothing according to what you finde Psal 78.34 35 36 37. Hath it not been too much your case Under convictions you have seemed to promise God fair things and there hath been some hopes of your conversion and change But no sooner hath the heat of conviction been over but all these things have quickly vanished away and come to nothing Is this the entertainment that Christ hath found Blame him not then if he depart and make you seek him before you finde him But further since it is the Spouse of Christ that is here spoken of let me carry on this Query about Conviction a little further You who really are Believers and have entred into covenant with Christ and stand in a Covenant-relation to Christ Have you opened to the calls of Christ Hath there not been many strong convictions upon your spirits in many particular cases wherein you have been faulty and your Consciences have smitten you and yet for all this you have stifled these convictions and have not opened to Christ you have many times been convinced of your Pride Worldly-mindedness Vanity and Unsavoriness Sloath and Luke-warmness Backwardness to Duty Deadness in Duty Unbelief and distrust of God and of his Care and Providence and such like things and yet your hearts have not been willing fully to open to Christ in these things and to let conviction have its perfect work in order to your reformation you have heard the Word and known your selves to be guilty of such things as the Word hath reproved Conscience hath spoken and the Spirit of God hath spoken and yet you have not hearkned to the counsel and dictates thereof but have turned a deaf ear and gone on in your sin still Is this your opening to him who is the wonderful Counsellor who is your Lord and Husband and whose commands should have influence upon you Oh my friends we may all sadly complain that in this respect we have all of us made excuses and kept Christ out of our hearts 2. If the door be not shut against Christ how comes it to pass that the Ordinances of Christ are so little prized so little store set by at this day We told you in the opening of the Doctrine that one way of Christ his calling was by his Ordinances In and by them he convinceth of and reproveth sin directs in and encourageth unto duty communicates grace affords his company gives in nourishment refreshment strength and comfort unto the hungry panting Soul These are the Wells of Salvation and Waters of the Sanctuary that are for the refreshing the City of our God Where these therefore are slighted Christ must necessarily be shut out and not opened to We have the Spouse Cant. 1.7 8. enquiring where she may meet her beloved And he tells her she may finde him in his Ordinances and in the assembly of his Saints there he records his Name and there he meets his people and blesseth them And therefore they that carelesly turn their backs upon the Ordinances of Christ turn their backs upon and shut the door of their Hearts against him Persons may and often do frequent the Ordinances of Christ and yet keep the door of their Hearts fast shut against Christ But they are utterly out of the way of opening to Christ yea out of the ordinary way
of Christs call that turn their backs upon his Ordinances Greater contempt cannot persons pour upon Christ than to despise and set light by the Ordinances of Christ which he hath instituted as means for the enjoyment of him And if this be so how ordinarily is Christ shut out We complain of the deadness of Trade and what a low rate all kinde of commodities carry but I am sure Christ's trade is very low the commodities which Christ offers in the market of his Ordinances though very rich and costly in themselves yet are at a very low rate in the esteem of most men O how slight an occasion will keep persons back from the Ordinances of Christ If any worldly business be to be done persons think it unreasonable to be moved to leave that and to attend the Ordinances of Christ as the Spouse here thought it unreasonable to move her to leave her warm bed to come to open to Christ O how many will rise more early travel further and take more pains for an earthly bargain than to meet with Christ in his Ordinances these must onely be attended at leisure-times when men have nothing else to do If the Ordinances of Christ lose men an hour in their shops or a single bargain if but to the value of a shilling in their trades they think Christ bids them loss if he move them to leave their worldly business and attend upon him Many value Christ and his company at a lower rate than thirty pieces Some again can spare time to attend Ordinances but if it must cost them any thing these Ordinances must be forborn In many places and with many persons he is the best Minister that will be hired at the cheapest rate though his preaching be little to the purpose though he seldom disturb them with any considerable calls from Christ Others though they do frequent Ordinances yet not as the Ordinances of Christ which binde Conscience but as indifferent things that may be done or left undone without any guilt or blame And therefore they make little matter of rushing out of the world and worldly business into an Ordinance altogether unprepared and uncomposed but their thoughts and hearts are full of the world as may be and as little matter of running into the world again so soon as ever the Ordinance is ended without allowing themselves the least time to meditate or beg God's blessing upon what they have been partakers of Is this your opening to Christ at his call I am very confident this is not the least reason of persons unfruitfulness under Ordinances at this day because the Ordinances are not conscientiously attended Nor do persons allow themselves time in meditation and prayer that the Ordinance might have its soaking influence upon them By this means Sirs you do too ordinarily if not constantly shut out Christ This low esteem that the Ordinances of Christ have among us doth sufficiently manifest that our hearts are not rightly open to Christ It was far otherwise with the Spouse Cant. 2.3 She sate down under his shadow with great delight and his fruit was pleasant to her taste But these have scarce time and less mindes to sit down at all but are in a running posture as if Christ's bounties were not worth the staying for 3. If the heart be open to Christ whence is it that persons are so cold formal and indifferent both in their profession practices and performances Surely if Christ were let in the heart would be more warm and lively Grace would be more active in us than it is at this day We read Cantic 5.5 that when Christ put but in his finger by the hole of the door though the door was not fully opened to him yet he left such a warming perfuming vertue behind him as set the Spouse her Graces afloat she can rest no longer in her bed but ariseth her bowels yern towards him and before she get the door open her fingers drop with myrrhe there will be a sensible alteration of the humours to speak so a change of the frame and disposition of Grace in the heart where Christ comes and meets with ready entertainment The Souls sleepy fit will be over when Christ comes in and her Graces will fall to their work Faith will be strongly active Love will be inflamed Thankfulness will be increased Obedience will be more exact and universal Repentance more deep and serious the heart wholly and zealously engaged for Christ when the door of the heart is truely opened to Christ But oh how far otherwise is it with us something of the carcass of Religion and the form of Godliness an external profession of the Name of Christ is left but little of the life and zeal and warmth and power of Religion left In former days when Christ was eminently seen in his Ordinances and Believers hearts were more freely and fully open to him we see what holy heavenly zealous universally circumspect Christians were then to be found what wonderful works did manifest themselves in them and were done by them But where have we almost any Christians of the old stamp and strain left Now adays we have much talking of Religion but little holy strict and exemplary walking in the ways of God in all holy Conversation and Godliness Sure I am there is a vast difference between Christians in former days and those that now live Then they were humble holy blameless in all manner of conversation zealous for Gods glory lively spiritual and heavenly in their Duties fervent in spirit serving the Lord fervent in love towards God and the Brethren and that not in word only but in deed and in truth such as might easily be distinguished from the generality of the world But now how many professors of Religion are there who are Proud covetous sensual compliers with the fashions and customes of the world envious malicious backbiters slanderers having only a form of godliness very curious about circumstances very careless about the substance and practical part of Religion This shews that though we carry the name of Christ in our foreheads yet Jesus Christ is too much kept out of our hearts 4. If the heart be open to Christ how comes it to pass that the world hath so great a share and interest there Surely where Christ comes he gains the heart and the whole bent of the Soul is after him Nothing more earnestly desired or diligently sought for than Christ Rachels language to Jacob upon better grounds and with far better reason is the language of a gracious heart to God Give me Children or I die So saith the Soul Give me Christ or I die I can no longer be without him I languish and pine away for want of him If I may have but one wish or request in all the world it shall be this That God would bestow Christ upon me that I may not onely have an interest in him and title or claim to him but that I may have his