CHAP. I.

CHAP. II.

CHAP. III. Ten Arguments that prove the Necessity of this Love to Christ, for the avoiding of the Curse.

DOTH it need any further proof than the Text it self? what other construction can you make of it? If you believe that this is the Word of God, and that God's Word is true, how can you question, whether a Non-Lover of Christ shall be a cursed Wretch at the coming of the Lord? but you love not Christ, and yet you hope, to be blessed when he comes; you have no sincere love to him, and yet perswade your selves your Condi­tion is good for the present, and shall escape the Curse hereafter. What! against the plain Asser­tions of the Word of God? Will not you only bear me down, that you shall be blessed; but will you also bear down Paul; nay, and God himself too, that it is well with you now, and shall go well with you at the coming of the Lord, and after that for ever? Miserable men! that have no other hopes that they shall escape the Curse, but that God should not be true, and his Word should not be true, and all his Servants that come and preach to them in his Name, and warn them of this Curse, do not deliver the very truth unto them: But whether you will hear, or whether you will forbear, I will proceed to evidence this truth to you by these following Argu­ments.

Arg. 1. He that loves not Christ, is not in Christ; he that is not in Christ, is in his sins; he that is in his sins is accursed, therefore he that loves not Christ, is ac­cursed: And being found so when he comes, shall be cursed at his coming. He that hath no sincere love to Christ, hath still his old Heart, and his old Love remaining in him; and he that hath his old Heart, is not in Christ: 2 Cor. 5.17. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are past away; behold, all things are become new.

Can you be in Christ, and not the love of Christ be in you? Can you be in Christ, and your heart turn away from Christ? Can you be in Christ, while your heart is set against Christ? and is not your heart against him, while you have no love for him? can there be any Union, where there is no liking Affe­ction? doth not hatred keep at the greatest di­stance, and maintain the widest separation?

If you be not in Christ, can you bring forth any Fruit pleasing unto God? Joh. 15.4. — As the branch cannot bear fruit of it self, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in me: And if you bring forth no fruit, shall you not be cast into the fire? Joh. 15.6. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered, and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burnt: And are you such as shall be cast into the fire, and flames of Hell, and are you not in a cursed, dangerous, and miserable Condition? Can a bad Tree bring forth good Fruit? and if it do not, is it not for the fire? Mat. 3.10. And now also the ax is laid to the root of the trees; therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewen down, and cast into the [Page 46]fire. Hath not the rain of heavenly Doctrine drop­ped upon you, and yet do you bring forth any thing but Briars and Thorns, when you have no love to Christ? and are you not then rejected, and your end to be burned? and is then the Curse far from you? Heb. 6.7. The earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God; 8. But that which beareth thorns and briars, is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned: and when you come to that end, will you not then acknowledge your selves to be Anathema?

Arg. 2. He that loveth not Christ, is under the curses of the Law; therefore he that loveth not Christ, is accursed: For if all the Curses of the Law lighting and abiding upon a man, will prove a man an ac­cursed man, the man that hath no sincere love to Christ, must be the man. For tho the Law as a Covenant be not in force, so that we are not to seek Salvation by it; yet the penalty and threatnings of the Law are in full power against that man that submitteth not to Christ, according to the Covenant of Grace; for though Christ was made a Curse to redeem us from the Curse, yet those only have the saving Be­nefits of that Redemption, that have sound-Faith in, and unfeigned sincere love to Jesus Christ. If by the Law you would escape the Curse threatned by the Law, you must do every thing contained in the Law. Gal. 3.10. — Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them: You cannot do any one thing required in the Law, as prescribed by the Law, and yet so slight Christ, that you will not so much as love him, [Page 47]and still think you are exempted from the Curse of the Law. God will convince you to the contrary; and except you hasten to love Christ before you die, the Flames of Hell will convince you to the con­trary; but it would be your safer way now by the Word of God to be convinced to the con­trary.

Arg. 3. He that loveth not Jesus Christ sincerely, is under condemnation by the Gospel; Therefore he that loveth not Christ, is accursed. The Gospel taken for the whole Doctrine of Christ, hath its terrible tidings, as well as comfortable; Threatnings as well as Promises; a Sentence of Damnation, as well as of Absolution; and more dreadful and intolerable than those of the Law: And to whom do they be­long, and upon whom shall they be inflicted, if not upon the Contemners of the Message of the Gospel? and who contemn the Gospel-message more than they, that will not be persuaded to love the Lord Jesus Christ?

Doth not the Gospel set forth Christ in his Ex­cellency and Beauty to you? Doth it not declare what he hath suffered for you? Doth it not tell you what he hath purchased for you, and will bestow upon you? and is not all this to gain your Love, to win your Hearts and Affections to Christ? yet af­ter all you slight him, and for his Love, and for his Sufferings, you will not so much as love him. Con­sider seriously what Christ saith concerning such: John 3.19. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. If the Law con­demn you, you might have recourse to the Gospel; [Page 48]but if the Gospel condemn you, whither will you go for succour?

Arg. 4. There is no way ordained by God for Final-Non-Lovers of Christ [...] to escape the punishment of Sin, and the Torments of Hell; therefore such are in an accursed damnable Condition. When man had broken the Covenant of Works, God sent his Son to die, and satisfy for the breach of that Covenant, so that Salvation is not impossible; and the esca­ping of the threatned Curse, is not impossible: And though you have sinned against the Gospel by not loving of Christ hitherto; yet Christ hath so far sa­tisfied for sins against the Gospel, that upon your acceptance of Christ, you might have Remission and Salvation: but if you die without Love to Christ, and Faith in him, Christ did not satisfy for that Sin, nor die for the expiating of the final violation of the Covenant of Grace, or for the final-non-perfor­mance of the Conditions thereof: So that you sin against the very remedy prepared to help Sinners out of their Misery; and can you be saved that fi­nally refuse the Saviour? Can you escape the Curse, that to the last gasp reject the only Remedy; for besides this there is no other. Heb. 10.26. For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin: 27. But a certain fearful looking for of judgment, and fiery indignation, that shall devour the Adversaries. 28. He that despised Moses's law, died without mercy, under two or three witnesses. 29. Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath count­ed the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, [Page 49]an unholy thing, and hath done despight to the spirit of grace.

Arg. 5. He that hath no love to Christ, hath no faith in Christ; he that hath no faith in Christ, is condemned; he that is condemned, is in a miserable cursed condition; therefore he that doth not love Christ, is so. Sound Faith, and sincere Love, are inseparable Graces. Those that are Non-Lovers of Christ, are Unbe­lievers, and Unbelievers are condemned men. Joh. 3.18. he that believeth on him, is not condemned; but he that believeth not, is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Oh pity your Children, your Parents, your Friends and Neighbours, that love not Christ; for being destitute of Love, they are void of that Faith that is a condition of Salvation; and being void of that, are condemned Persons.

Arg. 6. Those that have not sincere love to Christ, are in the same condition in which they were born; and you all say that is an accursed damnable condition; For by nature all are children of wrath, Eph. 2.3. and Children of wrath are cursed Children. Some are so ignorant, as to say, they have loved Christ ever since they were born, as if they were born with love in their hearts to Christ; whereas love to Christ is not in us by the First Birth, but by the Second; not by the Natural, but by the Spiritual Birth. Our State by Nature is a State of bitterness and bonds; as bitter as gaul, Act. 8.23. And while you are in a State of Nature, the World hath your Love, and Sin hath your Love, therefore Christ is not the Ob­ject of it; for the World and Christ, Sin and Christ, [Page 50]cannot at the same time, by the same man, be su­perlatively loved: It must then be granted that you were born without love to Christ; and being in the same condition in which you were born, you have lived hitherto without love to Christ; and add but a third, that you die without love to Christ, and then the next moment after death you will see, and say, your Condition is accursed.

Arg. 7. Deceivers in the Worship of God are accur­sed; those 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, [Page 51]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? [Page 52]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, [Page 54] 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 [Page 55]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 [Page 57]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, [Page 58]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 Ʋnderstanding, 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 [Page 59]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 love his filthy un­clean doings still: Let him remain under hardness of heart to his dying day. What should I do with him? my Ministers have begged on him to give me his Love, and he will not; my Spirit hath strived with him, but he will not: What, will he not? not love me! No, then let him love what he will. This is a great Curse upon the Soul of a Sinner while Christ defers his coming. Rev. 22.11. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still.— Some have had great Parts, and with them they have not loved Christ, and their Parts have withered away, Christ hath cursed them. Some have performed many Duties, and were forward Professors, but all this while they prayed, and heard, and received, they loved not Christ, and Christ hath cursed them, and they are turned prophane. Some are given to Swearing, and Whoring, and Drinking; and it is not only their Sin, but the Curse of God upon their Souls, that he hath given them over, because they have refused to love his Son. Psal. 81.11. My people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me. 12. So I gave them up unto their own hearts lust; and they walked in their own counsels. Hos. 4.17. E­phraim is joined to idols, let him alone. My Spirit let him alone; my Ministers let him alone; my Ordi­nances let him alone; Conscience let him alone; [Page 60]let all let him alone; he is stubborn, wilful, and perverse; his heart is joined to his Profits, and to his Pleasures; Let him alone, let him take his course, and walk in the foolish imagination of his owne vil heart: An heavy Curse in this life.

But when Maran-atha, the Lord comes, these Curses on the Soul shall be setled, fixed, never remo­ved. This was the man that never loved me; now, let him never repent, except it be with a vain, empty, self-tormenting Repentance: Now, let him be without Holiness for ever, and without Love to me for ever.

3. To be Anathema, when Maran-atha, shall be to be cursed with a bitter Curse, without any ingredi­ent of the least Blessing, to allay or mitigate the bitterness of it: Then shall he have sorrow without joy, mourning without mirth, darkness without light, pain without ease, misery without mercy, all evil without the least good, and all this without end, and therefore without hope; this Cup of Cursing, because it shall be so pure without mixture, shall be so exceeding, so inconceivably bitter. Rev. 14.10. The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture, into the cup of his indignation, and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone, in the presence of his holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb. 11. And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever; and they have no rest day nor night.— A bitter Cup, a bitter Curse; more bitter than the water of Jealousie that caused the Curse, which a woman drank that had given her love to another man, and had tres­passed against her husband; the Water was bitter Water, and the Curse a bitter Curse; for it made [Page 61]her belly to swell, and her thigh to rot, and she was a curse among the people, Numb. 5.27. This bitter Curse at the coming of Christ, shall come into thy bowels like water, and like oil into thy bones; it shall be unto thee as the garment which covereth thee, and for a girdle wherewith thou shalt be gird­ed continually, Psal. 109.18, 19. It shall imbitter thy thoughts, thy soul; thy very being, and make thee cry out, Oh this is a bitter place! this is a bitter state, a bitter condition, exceeding bitter! My loving of the World, and Sin, was not so sweet, as this is bitter: That seemed to me once as sweet as Honey, but this is more bitter than Gall. But here is my Wo, which makes it still more bitter, the sweet is gone, and the bitter re­mains; the sweet will never return, and the bitter will never be gone. I did put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter; but now I cannot: The bitter is so bitter, that I cannot put it for sweet, nor ima­gine it to be so. Oh I never thought the sweet de­light I took in what I loved, would have brought upon me this bitter Curse, or me to these bitter Torments!

4. To be Anathema when Maran-atha, will be to be accursed publickly and openly before all the world; to be accursed before blessed Angels, and cursed Devils; to be accursed before the blessed Saints, and other cursed men. Thou didst openly declare thy love of Pleasures, thou didst openly follow such courses, that all might see are inconsistent with sincere love to Christ, and thou shalt be openly ac­cursed. Or though thou didst openly pray, and publickly hear, and profess the ways of Christ, but [Page 62]didst secretly in thy heart love something else more than Christ, yet for thy secret hypocrisie thou shalt be publickly accursed.

Before the greatest Congregation that ever eyes beheld; before a greater number than ever yet at once were gathered together, even before Millions of Angels, before all that shall be found alive at Christ's coming; and all that have been dead, that shall then be made alive, even all People, of all Na­tions, and before them shalt thou stand, and be de­clared a cursed wretch, because thou didst never love the Blessed Son of God. What shame shall then confound thee, and what confusion shall then cover thy face, when thou that thoughtest thy self a blessed man, and others thought thee to be blessed, that thou and they were quite mistaken! When Christ before them all shall pronounce a sentence up­on thee, whereby thou art published to be accursed, and commanded with all the Plagues and Curses of God upon thy soul and body, to depart into everla­sting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels, Mat. 25.41.

5. To be Anathema when Maran-atha, is to be cursed Positively; sentenced down to positive pains, to real politive torments; so great, so grievous, so many, so extreme, continual, and universal, that shall wring out a confession from thee, Now I am accursed indeed. To lye in these flames that can­not be quenched, to burn in this fire in which I can­not be consumed, is such a Curse, so intolerable, that will make thee curse the day in which thou wast born, and curse the time thou ever livedst in this world, because not better improved, to escape that [Page 63]Curse thou liest under in that world. When thou shalt cry out, and roar, Wo is me, poor miserable wretch! I am tormented in this place, and cannot have one drop of water to refresh and cool my parched tongue! Wo is me, poor cursed Caitiff! I am in pain, in pain, in extremity of pain, and here is no ease! alas! here is no ease! I toss and tumble in this bed of flames, and cannot rest! If I wander from one side of Hell unto another, I cannot find one corner where I might have a little rest! O cursed creature, that I loved not Christ! If I had loved Christ as much above the world, as I loved the world above Christ, I might have been among the blessed Saints, and not in the midst of such a cursed Crew! Had I loved Christ so much more than Sin, as I loved Sin more than Christ, I might have been a blessed one; but because I did not, O cursed Caitiff, that I did not! I am now this cursed Caitiff! Who can be in these Torments, and not acknowledge the Curses of the Lord have overtaken him? Who can feel what is here to be endured; and yet who can endure to feel it, which yet in feeling must be endured, and not reckon himself as cur­sed as curs'd can be? This I was told, for want of Love to Christ, would be my cursed state; the Lord is come, and now for want of Love, it is my cursed state. I was told, If I love not Christ, I should be Anathema when Maran-atha; I did not love Christ, and now Maran­atha, and I am Anathema.

6. To be Anathema when Maran-atha, will be to be cursed privatively; with the loss of God, of Christ, of Heaven, of the society of Saints and Angels, and of all the joys and happiness that God hath prepared for them that love him; shall then be openly cast out of God's Favour. You cast off [Page 64]Christ, and that is your sin, and Christ will cast you off, and that will be your Curse. The love of your heart is not towards Christ, and that is your Sin; and God's Face and Favour shall not be to­wards you, and that will be your Curse. Can he be blessed that loseth God, that is our blessedness? Must not he be cursed that lies under the punish­ment of cursed Devils? Now you love not Christ, and yet you will be confident that you shall escape Hell, and obtain Heaven, and be blessed: But if you continue without Love to Christ, you will be shut out of Heaven; and where then? Do you know of any other place (whatever Papists dream) but Hell? and when out of Heaven, and in Hell, what a poor Blessedness will your groundless confi­dence bring you to.

7. To be Anathema when Maran-atha, will be to be finally accursed. While Christ doth tarry, if you are not in a good and blessed state one day, you might be another: Tho last Lord's-day you were in a miserable condition, yet this you may (and oh! that you might) be translated into a better: If not this, if you live till the next, you may be then; tho you should desire to get out of a cursed dangerous condition this day, before the next, for this day is yours, the next might be none of yours. But when Christ shall come, that will be the last day, and there shall not be a next: Therefore to be accursed that day, will be to be sent away with a Curse upon your Souls, without any succession of a Blessing.

When Christ was upon the earth, the last act he did relating to his Disciples, was an act of Love, [Page 65]his Valedictory act was an act of Benediction, Luk. 24.50. And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lift up his hands and blessed them. 51. And it came to pass, that while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into Heaven. And when Christ shall come again, the last act relating to them that love him not, shall be an Act of Justice, and Ven­geance, and Wrath; and his Valedictory act, an act of Malediction; and after this, no act of Mercy, of Love, or Favour to them, therefore shall be fi­nally accursed.

8. To be Anathema when Maran-atha, will be to be accursed without an appeal to any higher Court, or superior Judge, for such none is. If it were the last thing that Christ would do to them, yet if they could remove their Cause, and have an Hearing in another Court, and before another Judge, they might hope the Curse may be repealed, the Sen­tence whereby they are declared accursed, might be changed, and their sad condition altered for the better; but this cannot be, for all Judgment is committed to the Son, John 5.22. And all men must stand or fall, live or dye, be damned or saved, according to the Sentence that Christ shall pass up­on them. 2 Cor. 5.10. For we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one might re­ceive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. And in the de­scription of the Process of the day of Judgment, we find, without appeal to any other, the Execu­tion shall certainly follow; and those whom Jesus shall pronounce blessed, shall go into Eternal Life; and those whom he shall declare accursed, shall go [Page 66]into Everlasting Punishment. Mat. 25.43: Come ye blessed of my Father—. Vers. 41. Depart from me, ye cursed—. Vers. 46. And these shall go away into overlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal.

9. Therefore to be Anathema when Maran-atha, will be to be accursed with an irrevocable Curse. Tho they should cry, call, beg for a Blessing, with great­er importunity than Esau did, who cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his Father, Bless me, even me also, O my father, Gen. 27.34. Yet the Lord Jesus at that day will be in­exorable, not to be intreated; but as Isaac said concerning Jacob, I have blessed him, and he shall be blessed; so Jesus shall say concerning them that lo­ved him, I have blessed them, and they shall be blessed; and to them that hated him, I have cursed you, and ye shall be cursed. So much we learn from Luk. 13.25. When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are. 26. Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drank in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. 27. But he shall say, I tell you I know, not whence ye are, depart from me all ye workers of iniquity. Mat. 7.22. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have not we prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name have done many wonderful works? 23. And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you; Depart from me, ye that work ini­quity. Christ in these Scriptures speaks of many who shall find the door shut, themselves excluded, [Page 67]shall be importunate for admission into a state of Everlasting Blessedness, by knocking, calling, Lord, Lord, Open to us: But Christ doth disown them, and denieth their request. They plead their pro­phecying, their hearing, their eating and drinking in his presence, casting out of Devils, and doing many wonderful works in his Name: But Christ re­plies; All this you did, but you did not love me, and ye were not lovers of me, for ye were workers of iniquity; and a Lover of Christ, and a Worker of Iniquity, (as this Phrase is used in Scripture) a man cannot be at the same time: So that such as shall then be so cursed as to be shut out of doors, are past recovery, past hopes of Mercy, past a pos­sibility of being blessed. And therefore

10. To be Anathema when Maran-atha, will be to be accursed with an Eternal Curse: For be they must for ever; dye they cannot; shake off the Curse they cannot; therefore cursed they must be for ever. For a man to be accursed all his days, would be a sore judgment; but for a man to be accursed to all Eternity, is beyond conception heavy and grievous. To live for ever, and to be accursed for ever, is worse than never to have been, or to have their being turned into nothing.

All the Curses that men, void of the Love of Christ, do lye under in this world, they make light of. If they are cast out of God's Favour, it is a great Curse; but now they are merry under it: If they have no Grace, it is a great Curse; but they do account it no Curse; they have none, and they desire none: But there are Curses waiting for them, and shall be poured out upon them at the coming [Page 68]of Christ, which in the other world shall be heavy indeed, and intolerable; and under them shall have a merry heart no more for ever. For to be Ana­thema when Maran-atha, Is to be Cursed

• Dreadfully, because
• Totally,
• Bitterly,
• Publickly,
• Positively,
• Privatively,
• Finally. Therefore
• Uncontroulably. Therefore
• Irrevocably. Therefore
• Eternally.

CHAP. V. Eight Reasons why Love is so strictly required, that Christ must be Loved, or the Sinner accursed.

THE Fourth general Head in the Method pro­pounded, is, Why there is such a flat necessity of our sincere Love to Christ, for the escaping of this described Curse? Why God doth so much insist up­on our Love unto his Son, that whosoever doth not love him, shall be Anathema.

This is not to be understood exclusively, as if other Graces and Conditions were not also necessa­ry; for in other Texts we find, that for want of Faith, this Curse will overtake many. Mar. 16.16. He that believeth not, shall be damned. John 3.36. He that believeth not the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. And for want of Repentance, Luke 13.3. Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. And for want of Conversion, Mat. 18.3. Verily, I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Joh. 3.3. Jesus answered, and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And for want of Obedience, Heb. 3.18. And to whom sware he, that they should not enter into his rest? [...], but to them that were disobedient; translated, believed not. Sometimes the condition is expressed by the term of a new creature. Gal. 6.15. [Page 70] For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. Sometimes Faith and Love are put together, Gal. 5.6. For in Jesus Christ, neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love. And indeed all these are requisite, and are found together in the same person; for he that hath Faith, hath also Love, and he that hath Love, doth also Repent, and he that Repents doth also obey; and he that doth Believe, Love, Repent, and Obey, is a New Creature.

Yet Love is thus insisted on for such Reasons as these.

1. Love commands the whole man; for it is in the Will, which is the commanding Faculty. Love

1. Commands and sets on work all the other affections. If a man love Christ, it sets Desires on work, if he be absent; it sets Joy on work, if he be present, if Christ be absent, and the Soul doth see a proba­bility of obtaining him, Love sets Hope on work: If there be any impediments that hinders a man in his prosecution, it sets Anger on work for the re­moval of them.

2. Love commands the thoughts and mind: For love to Christ sets the mind on thinking on Christ, and meditating upon him. The mind doth muse upon what the heart doth love: Where love is fixt, the thoughts do dwell. Psal. 119.97. O how I love thy law! it is my meditation all the day.

3. Love commands all the outward members of the body. Love to Christ doth set the Tongue to speak of Christ, and for him; the Ear on hearing of his Word; the Eyes in seeing the tokens of his Love [Page 71]and Goodness; the Hands in acting, and the Feet in walking to those places and duties where Christ is to be found, and enjoyment of him to be had.

2. If Christ hath our love, he hath our all: And Christ never hath his own from us, till he hath our Love. Love withholdeth nothing from Christ, when it is sincerely set upon him. Then he shall have our time, and he shall have our service, and he shall have the use of all our Parts, and Gifts, and Graces; yea, then he shall have our Estates, Liberty, and our very Lives, when he calleth for them.

As when God loveth any of us, he will withhold nothing from us that is good for us, no, not his own only begotten Son, Rom. 8.32. And when Christ loveth us, he giveth all unto us, his Merits to justi­fie us, his Spirit to sanctifie us, his Grace to adorn us, his Glory to crown us; so when any of us love Christ sincerely, we lay all down at his feet, and give up all to be at his command and service, Rev. 12.11. And they loved not their lives unto the death.

3. Love gives the denomination to a man, according as the Object is which he superlatively loveth: For as is the Love, such is the man; and as is the Love, such might you boldly call the man: If he be a lover of Honour, he is an Ambitious man; a lover of Plea­sure, a Voluptuous man; and if he chiefly love the World, he is a Covetous man; if he love Holiness, he is a Religious man; if the things above, an Heavenly-minded man; and if he love Christ with a predo­minant love, he is a Sincere man, Cant. 1.4. The upright love thee.

4. Without Love all other things, tho never so many, great, and excellent in themselves, are not acceptable [Page 72]unto God. He regardeth not your Prayers, if you do not love him: He matters not your Hearing, if you do not love him; all your Almsdeeds are poor things in his esteem, if you do not love him; yea, all your Suffering for Religion, and for Christ, are nothing, if you do not love him. If a man could Preach like an Angel, and yet not love him, he should not be accepted by him, 1 Cor. 13.1. Tho I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 2. And tho I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and tho I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have no charity, I am nothing. 3. And tho I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and tho I give my body to be burn'd, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Love therefore is above all these, for all these with­out love are nothing.

5. Love makes us most like to God; for God is love, 1 Joh. 4.8. And God loveth Christ above all the men on earth, and above all the Angels in Heaven; therefore calls him his Beloved Son, Mat. 3.17.

God loveth

• All men with a Common Love, John 3.16. Tit. 3.4.
• Holy men with a Special Love.
• Angels with an Higher Love.
• Christ most of all, who is the Son of his Love, Col. 1.13.

So our Love is gradual; we ought to love all men with some degrees of Love, Holy men and Angels with an higher Love, and Christ with the highest [Page 73]Love. And when we love as God loves, our Love makes us most like to God.

6. Love is the highest improvement of the faculties of our Souls.

1. We have Ʋnderstandings to know God and Christ: And Love to God and Christ is the highest improvement of all our knowledg; for if we know him and not love him, the more we know of him, the more our knowledge doth increase our sin, and will aggravate our condemnation.

2. We have Wills to chuse the Lord Jesus Christ, and when we chuse him, Love is the improvement of our Wills, in taking complacency in him who is the Object of our choice.

3. We have Consciences that do dictate to us that Christ is best, and best for us; and then we im­prove those dictates when we love him; else all those dictates of Conscience are lost, and come to nothing.

4. We have Memories, wherein the Sayings of Christ to us, the Sufferings of Christ for us, and the Benefits of Christ bestowed upon us, should be lodg­ed and laid up; and when we love him, we shall love to remember all these things that we have by him and from him, and himself that is Purchaser and the Donor of them.

But if our Love is predominantly placed upon any thing below Christ, all the Powers of the Soul are debased; the Reason of man is degraded in con­triving the getting of such ignoble and fordid enjoy­ments as his highest end; the Will is debased in chusing of them, and the Memory in being stuffed with the remembrance of them, forgetting God [Page 74]and Christ, and better things; so that a man is more a brute than a man, without sincere Love to Christ.

7. Love is the end of all other Graces, and in which they terminate their Operations. Our knowledge of Christ endeth in our loving of Christ, our believing on him, hoping in him, trusting to him, like so ma­ny streams, at last run into the Love of Christ.

8. Love is the Everlasting Grace that shall abide and be in use and exercise, when the actings of other Graces shall cease. There are some Graces suitable especi­ally to our state of imperfection in this world. To live by Faith, to Repent, and Mourn for sin, to live in hope of the glory that is to be revealed, to wait till we be possessed of the Mansions that are above, to desire all the good that is promised to us, but not yet conferred upon us.

But hereafter Faith shall be turned into Vision, Hope into Fruition, Desires into Possession, wait­ing into Obtaining. And then we shall thus be­lieve no more, nor hope, nor desire, nor wait; but then we shall love still, yea, more than ever, more abundantly, yea, perfectly, without diminution; continually, without intermission, and eternally, without cessation; in which respect, among the three Cardinal Graces, Love hath the preheminence, 1 Cor. 13.13. Now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three, but the greatest of these is charity; because it is the longest in duration. So that those that love Christ sincerely here, shall love him perfectly here­after, and be for ever blessed in that love. But those that love him not on earth, cannot love him in the other world; and for want of such Love, shall be accursed for ever.

CHAP. VI. The Application of the Doctrine.

THE last thing propounded in the method of this Subject, is the Ʋse and Application of it, to bring it down to our own hearts, to work this truth upon our Minds, Consciences and Affections. And now, O that God would help me, and Christ would help me, and the blessed Spirit of God and Christ would so help me, and give me lively words, a lively Heart, lively and inflamed Love to blessed Jesus, and your immortal precions Souls! that I might speak and apply this great Truth, as becomes a man that deth believe, every one of you before God in this Congregation this day must be Anathe­ma, when Maran-atha, if you live and die void of love to Jesus Christ! as becomes a man that doth be­lieve you must be blessed or cursed, damned or sa­ved for ever, as you are prevailed with, or not prevailed with, to give Christ your Hearts, and hearty love! as becomes a man that doth believe your Everlasting Stare is much concerned in this one point that now is before us! Alas! Methinks I do foresee the great multitudes that this Anathema will fall upon. Methinks I see the Lord a-coming, methinks I hear the Trumpet sounding, and the Voice calling to the Dead, Arise, and come to judg­ment; Come ye cursed Souls that have been in the Infernal Lake, and appear before my Bar; come ye [Page 76] cursed Bodies, awake, arise, and stand before my Judgment-Seat; and let those cursed Souls be a­gain united to those cursed Bodies, and now be both cursed together, and cursed for ever, and let both be inseparably linked together to endure this Curse to all eternity. Methinks I see them coming, but unwillingly; they come, but with fear, and trembling; with horrour, and amazement.

Now, what is to do now? now, Maran-atha, and now every one of us that loved not that Lord that now is come, must be Anathema. O woful Souls! O miserable Sinners! O cursed Caitifs! What shall we now do? and whither shall we now go? do? that we should have asked before this day, that the Lord is come. Do? We should have done that which we did not do; and now must go thither, whither we would not go. O that we might rather cease to be, than to be what we must for ever be; and go, from whence we never must return; and feel what will make us cry and roar, toss and throw, and be for ever restless, and the more rest­less, because hopeless and remediless. O, Sirs, my Heart is pained, my Bowels roul within me, my Joints do shake with trembling, for fear lest any of you, that pray in this place, and hear in this place, should fall under this Curse, when the Lord shall come.

The Uses of this Doctrine shall be

• 1. By way of Inference or Instruction, what things from hence may be deduced and learned.
• [Page 77]2. For Reprehension or Reproof; aggravating the Charge against such as love not the 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. Ʋnder the first Ʋse 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 [Page 79]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 [Page 80]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 Protestant [...], 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 not innate desires to be happy and blessed for ever? or can you fling away, or shake off [Page 82]all desires of being blessed? you might as soon cast off the Nature of men. A Prophane Esau cried out for a Blessing, Gen. 27.34. And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and ex­ceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father. 36. — And he said, hast thou not reserved a blessing for me?

Oh then say, Be gone, O cursed Sin! be gone; I will banish thee out of my heart: for thou art not only contrary to the Nature of the blessed God, nor only contrary to Innocent Nature, but even also to my Humane Nature, though corrupted. Thou art not only opposite to a Principle of Grace implant­ed in the New Creature, but to the Principles which God in mercy hath left in my Corrupt Nature, that cursed Sin might be opposed, striven against, and for ever abandoned by me. I would be blessed, but thou wilt make me cursed; I would avoid the Curse, but thou wilt bring it upon me. If I cannot be a wilful Sinner, but I must be a cursed Creature, I would rather cease to be such a Sinner, than to re­main for ever such a cursed Creature. If I cannot have the blessing of God, and my Sins too, I had better be without my own Sins, than be without God's Blessing.

IV. Men will be the most miserable, or the most happy of all the visible works of God. For amongst these, Man only is capable of proper Blessings, or proper Cur­ses; for those only are capable of penal Evils, that are capable of moral Evils. Therefore when you read of other things being cursed, the Curse is not on them properly, terminatively and ultimately, that is on the Creature, in it self, for it self, or from [Page 83]it self; but only improperly, and relatively, in respect to man, and so other things have been cursed in reference to man.

1. To shew what man hath done. So Gen. 3.17. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, thou shalt not eat of it: Cursed is the ground for thy sake, in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. 18. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee. The barren­ness with which the Earth is cursed, in not bringing forth good Fruit, and its abounding with Briars and Thorns, are both as Rods for the scourging of sinful man. So also is that Catalogue of Curses in Deut. 28.14, 15, 16, 17, 18, &c.

2. To shew what man should do. So Mar. 11.14, 21, 22. Christ cursed the barren Fig-tree, to teach man the duty of fruitfulness to the glory of God, or the duty of having faith in the power of God; for upon the Disciples observation how the Fig­tree was withered away, Christ said to them, Have faith in God.

The unreasonable Creatures have not the know­ledge of God, and the senseless Creatures cannot feel the power of God; therefore these as they can­not be properly blessed, so nor accursed. But Man hath understanding to know God, and hath sense to feel the power of his Anger; therefore since among all God's visible Works, man is only the subject of proper blessings, and proper Curses; he will of all these be the most happy, or the most misera­ble: If he obtains the Blessings of God, the most happy; if he lie under the Curses of God, the [Page 84]most miserable. Those that get the Blessing, shall dwell, and live, and reign with the blessed God, with blessed Jesus, and with his blessed Angels; but those that lie under the Curse, must be tor­mented with cursed Spirits, cursed men, with cursed Devils for ever. So then, except you love Christ, better you had never been rational Creatures; a Toad, a Dog, a Serpent, will not be in so bad a case as you will be: In a natural sense it is better be a Man than a Beast; but in a Theological sense, it is better to be a Beast than a Man that will never love the Lord Jesus Christ.

V. Sins of Omission expose men to the Wrath and Curse of God, and to Eternal Damnation, as well as Sins of Commission: For it is, for not loving of Christ that a man is declared to be Anathema. And when the Curse shall be openly and publickly pro­nounced, and by Christ be thundered out against men at the last day, the Reason given is Sins of Omission; Matth. 25.41. Then shall the king say un­to them on the left hand, Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. 42. For I was an hungry, and ye gave me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no arink: 43. I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; naked, and ye clothed me not: sick and in prison, and ye visited me not.

These are charged, not with taking away their Meat, but with not giving; not with casting them out, and banishing Christ in his Members, but with not taking them in; not with putting them in Pri­son, but with not visiting them when they were there, and for this they are declared to be accursed, and sentenced to go to cursed Devils.

What a sandy Foundation then is the hope of multi­tudes built upon; That because they are not open­ly prophane, they bless themselves, and make no question but God will bless them too. Like the Pharisee, Luke 18.11. God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. Thou proud Pharisee! What if thou art no Swearer by the Blood and Wounds of Christ, yet thou art no Lover of Christ, and for that thou shalt be accursed. Thou blind Pbarisee! What if thou art no Reproacher, or Persecutor of Christ, yet thou art no Lover of Christ, for this thou shalt be accursed. Thou Self-doluding Pha­risee! What if thou art no Blasphemer of his Sacred Name, no Opposer of his holy Ways; no Drunkard, no Adulterer, no Thief nor Robber, yet thou art not a Christ lover, and for this thou shalt be Anathe­ma. What if thou art not as other men be, while thou art not what thou oughtest to be? What if thou art not as this Publican, while thou art not as this man that loveth Christ? the Blessing of God belongs not to thee, but the Curse of God, and his Wrath shall overtake thee. Oh look about you, and search and see what Sins of Omission you are guilty of, repent and mourn for them, or else you will be cursed and damned for them.

VI. It is an easie thing for a man to fall under the Curse of God. It is but forbearing to love Christ, and how easie a thing is that? it is but denying Christ your Heart, your hearty love, and the Curse is your own, and how easie a thing is that? to obtain the Blessing is hard, is exceeding difficult; for there must be weaning of our love from the [Page 86]World, and getting that under our feet, which was predominant in our hearts, and how hard a task is this? there must be calling off the love of the heart from Sin; which was as our right Eye, or right Hand unto us, and how difficult a work is this? there must be a loving above all, what we hated more than all; and an hating above all, what we loved most of all; and thus to turn the stream of a man's Affections is exceeding difficult.

There must be striving to an Agony, Luk. 13.24, 25. there must be wrestling with Devils, Eph. 6.12. with God himself, so as not to let him go, except he bless us; Gen 32.24, 26. there must be fighting, and watching, and maintaining our spiritual Warfare, 2 Tim. 4.7. there must be running, as for life, 1 Cor. 9.24. all this to get the Blessing, when the Lord shall come; all hard and laborious.

But it is the easiest thing in the world to come under the Curse and Wrath of God: Nay, it is hard not to have it come upon us. What mean then the most of men to take so much pains to bring the Curse of God upon them? what need you be at so much labour to undo your selves? what needs such swearing, sweating, in a way of Sin, as if you were striving to get to Hell; as if you thought you could not go thither fast enough, nor get thither soon enough? what need you rail at the People of Christ? and revile the ways of Christ? and rent and tear his holy Name, in your prophane, polluted Mouths? Hell might be had with lesser pains: and if cursed you WILL be, cursed you MAY be, without wearying of your selves in committing of Iniquity: Sit still, and you will run to Hell; do no­thing, and you will soon be there. It is but letting [Page 87]Faith, and Repentance, and Christ alone; it is but forbearing what you ought to do, and the Curse will fall upon your Soul, and stick fast to you for ever.

It is easie to do what you should not, to love the World more than Christ. It is easier not to do what you should, not to love Christ, and for the easier of these you may be as sure of Hell, as if you were there already: therefore hold your Hands, and Tongue, and Feet, from sinning so fast, from ma­king such speed and haste, from committing sin ma­nibus pedibusque, with all our might and power; for if not loving of Christ, not believing on him, not repenting for sin, will, and doth expose you to the Wrath and Curse of God: Good Lord! how easie a thing is it to be overtaken with it.

VII. Must such as want love to Christ be thus ac­cursed? Then what great care and Conscience should Ministers have to preach the Lord Jesus Christ unto the People with that plainness and power, that Christ might have their love, and they might have the blessings of Christ? Cursed must the People be that do not love Jesus Christ, then cursed must the Preacher be that preacheth himself, and not Christ, and stu­dieth to set out his own Gifts and Parts, that men might admire him for an Eloquent Orator, for his lofty Style, for his fruitful pregnant Fancy, and as the Phrase now prevails, for his fine English, or for a profound Philosopher, or a great polemical Divine; while by his starched Sentences, seraphi­cal Notions, and needless Pulpit Disputations, and manner of Expressions, he soars aloft above the Peoples Capacities, and casts a vail upon their [Page 88]Eyes, as if he studied in preaching of Christ, to hide Christ from their Ʋnderstandings; while he preach­eth to instruct them in the knowledge of Christ, he clouds the Doctrine of Christ, and makes the plain necessary Truths to be obscure, that after his polite Discourse, poor ignorant Souls remain as ig­norant as before, as if he stood amongst a thousand People that must be damned, and cursed with ever­lasting Curses, if they love not Christ, to flourish his Parts, to get the name of a great Scholar, in making easie things hard, and hard more hard; when the true use of Learning (and great Learning it) is to make hard things easie, and to bring things sublime and lofty, down to the capacity of the meanest in the Congregation, that hath a Soul that must be damned or saved: Alas! it would make a serious man to tremble, when he thinks all these People stand upon the brink of Eternity, and if Death jog them, they fall and enter into it; and when he heareth the Preacher speak with lofty Rhe­torical Strains, great swelling Words, as if he were making an Oration in the Schools, not considering the Ignorance, the weak Capacity, of hundreds of his Auditors. Can he think that Servants that have precious Souls, and many ignorant and un­learned Trades-men, that are taken up with the matters of the World all the Week, can be profi­ted on the Lord's Day with such a Style, or man­ner of expressing the great things of God; that though it be their Mother-tongue, transcends their Apprehension, almost as much as if he spake in an unknown Language, and so indeed is no better than an English Barbarian to the People.

What cursed Pride is this, to seek Applause from men, when he should be gaining Sinners to Christ? to seek to have their perishing breath, when he should seek to save their Immortal Souls? What cursed doing is this to stand in Christ's stead, and commend himself, instead of commending Christ? What though Christ be the Subject of his Discourse, when his Discourse upon that Subject is so mana­ged, that it glides from Christ, unto himself, both as the Subject, and the End? In hatred to such doings, I was about to say, What cursed Preaching is this, wherein dying Self is sought to be advanced in the esteem of dying People; when Blessed Jesus should be so set forth, that he might be magnified in the hearts of all; be loved by all, be received by all; and immortal Souls so loving, and receiving of him, might be for ever saved and blessed by him? And what is the end of all? that he might be reve­renced for his Parts, extolled for his profound adorned Language, and have the common Vogue of a man of more than ordinary Wisdom: A Wise man! and through his wisdom ignorant Souls do perish: a Wise man! and by his preaching with the enticing words of man's Wisdom, even by the preaching of the only Saviour, in the words which man's Wisdom teacheth, and not the Holy Ghost, the Devil goes away with, and makes a prey of the Hearers Souls, who in hearing do not hear, neither do they understand; not because the Hearers are such Fools, but because the Preacher is so wise. Let him pass for a Wiseman in his own Conceit; let him be esteemed a Wiseman by them that do admire him, because they do not understand him, nor the worth of Souls, nor the weighty [Page 90]work and end of Preaching, but with me he shall ne­ver pass for a wise Preacher, who had rather be a Fool for Christ, than wise for my self; for in such a place and work in being wise (in the reproved sense) for my self, I should be found an egregious Fool. He that preacheth so that no man can ratio­nally contemn him, and yet every man understand him, and thereby wins Souls to set their love on Christ, is a Wiseman, and a Learned Preacher; when he that preacheth so, that few or none of the meaner Capacities, which are the greater num­ber, can understand him, any further than to un­derstand they do not understand him; and so the People perish for want of knowledge, under the sound of profoundest knowledge, shall have lit­tle thanks from such People at the Judgment-day; and what Reward he shall have from Christ, when he comes to take an account of Ministers for preaching, and People for hearing, let him take into his serious thoughts, and learn of Learned Paul, who hath left a pattern of the wisest Preaching, 2 Cor. 4.5. For we preach not our selves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and our selves your servants for Jesus sake, lest not preaching Jesus the Lord, but himself, as if he were more than a Ser­vant, and Jesus not Lord, he find, when Preaching and Hearing are ended and cease, Maran-atha, and Anathema, be joined together.

VIII. Must they be cursed that love not Christ? then know, that outward Prosperity and this Curse are consistent. A man might be a prospering man in this World, and cursed in this World, and in the World to come.

Do you see many, whose Lives declare they have no sincere love to Christ in their Hearts, thrive and abound in outward Enjoyments? not love Christ, and yet are strong: not love Christ, and yet are rich: not love Christ, and yet be in honour: What then? Might not a man in health be a cursed man? nay, the more strength he hath, the more able he is to do the Devil Service, and so his strength is a curse unto him. The more he enjoyeth of the World, the more he hath to love, and the more he loves it; and so his Enjoyments are a curse unto him, when they keep him from placing his love upon Jesus Christ. Have you not read, that mens Blessings are cursed; Mal. 2.2. If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory to my name, saith the Lord of hosts; I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them alrea­dy, because ye do not lay it to heart. God threa­tens to curse wicked mens Blessings; I will curse your blessings. I will! that is not to do now, I have cursed them already.

Many are apt to call the proud happy; Mal. 3.15. The Rich, though bad, are thought by many to be blessed: a great mistake! all men might see their outward Blessings, but all have not eyes to behold the inward Curses that lie un­der those outward Blessings. Is it not a Curse to have Riches without Grace? to have our Por­tion and Blessings, and all in this Life? to pro­sper in the World, and to be every moment in danger of Hell? do you look upon it to be such happiness to have all for the Body, and nothing for the Soul? to have Earth, and nothing of [Page 92]Heaven, and nothing to shew for them? You read of some that have their Portion in this life on Earth, Psal. 17.14. and you might read that their Portion on Earth is a cursed Por­tion, Job 24.18. and was it not so with the Rich man spoken of in the Gospel? that on Earth had his purple robes, and fine linen, and sumptuous costly dishes every day. O happy man! but stay till you hear the end: He died, and whither then? to Hell. Where is now your happy man? and what is his condition there? what, there he finds more pain, than on Earth plea­sure: there he feels more torment and terror, than all his days on Earth had pleasure and delight; Luk. 16.25. But Abraham said, Son, re­member that thou in thy life-time receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. Remember! that vexeth, not easeth: in thy life-time; but that was but for the time of life, which then was short and sweet; but this Life where now I am, more properly called Death than Life, is long and bitter: receivest thy good things; but amongst them all hadst not a good God, a good Con­science, nor one good Fruit of the Spirit; no, not so much as love to Christ; but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented; he is blessed, and thou art cursed: he is happy, and thou art miserable. Behold the change! the world's blessed man, is now the cursed man: and he that was the miserable man in the esteem of the World, is now the blessed man.

Then do not judge of Blessedness or Misery by the prosperity or poverty of this World, but [Page 93]by the graces of the Spirit, or want of them in your hearts; particularly by your love, or want of love to Jesus Christ. For it is not said, Let him that is not rich, but let him that loves not Christ, be Anathema, Maran-atha.

IX. Must all that love not Christ be cursed, then tremble at the thoughts of the great number that shall be cursed. There are but few compa­ratively that have sincere Love to Christ, therefore but few comparatively that shall be blessed by en­tring into Eternal blessed life. Mat. 7.13. Enter in at the strait gate; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat. 14. Be cause strait is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

Many for want of Love to Christ will not bear his Cross; but all that want this love Finally, shall bear his Curse. The number of the Curse-bearers, and Non-lovers of Christ, shall be an equal number; so many, and no more.

Consider then what multitudes there are, that love other things more than Christ, and see what vast numbers of men shall be accursed.

1. How many are [...], Lovers of pleasures more than lovers of Christ? 2 Tim. 3.4.

2. How many are [...], Lovers of money more than lovers of Christ? They prize their Silver above the Saviour, and part with him to keep that, Luke 16.14. 2 Tim. 3.2.

3. How many are [...]. Lovers of honours more than lovers of Christ? John 5.42, 44, and and 12, 43.

4. How many are [...]; Lovers of themselves more than lovers of Christ? 2 Tim. 3.2. And indeed sinful self-love is the very heart and core of the car­nal man, and the great Idol of all unconverted sin­ners. Principles of selfishness are the rise of all their actions, and self is the end and scope at which they aim in all they do; and so set up self in the room of God and Christ; and love carnal self, when they should love Christ, and so shall lye under the Curse, when they would have a Blessing. Few love Christ, and few blessed by Christ. Most are void of love unto him, and most shall be accursed at his coming. Is it an hard saying? If hard, yet true. Is it a hard saying? But it will be harder feeling, when the Curse shall fully be inflicted.

XI. Shall every one that loves not Christ be Ana­thema, when Maran-atha, accursed when the Lord shall come? then the day of Christ's coming will be a doleful day to the Non-Lovers of Christ. Then all the World shall be divided into cursed ones, and blessed ones. You love not Christ, and yet bless your self; but I pray you consider Maran-atha, the Lord comes. You glory in your Estate, though Christ hath not your Heart; but I beg of you, that you would remember Maran-atha. You put the Curse, and the Evil day far from you; but I beseech you let Maran-atha sound in your ears. Then! Oh then, you shall curse the day that ever you were born! you shall curse the time that you lived under the Gospel, and heard of Christ, but did not love him. You shall curse your self for your wickedness, madness and folly, that so lovely a Christ was set before you, and you had [Page 95]not an heart to set your love upon him; and say,

Oh cursed heart, that would love the World, and not love yonder glorious Christ! Oh cursed Will, that didst chuse the Vanities of the World before the Son of God! Oh cursed was that love which I gave un­to the Creature, and did deny to Christ! How can I hold up my head now to behold that Christ, whom I never had an heart to love? How can I hear that Voice, and yet it is so great, so thundring, and so loud, that I cannot but hear it, commanding me to depart like a cursed Wretch, when I never did, and never would hearken to his Voice, calling to me to love him, and to give my Heart and Affections to him? Wo is me! now Maran-atha, and now I am Anathema. Wo is me! the Lord is come, and with him wrath is come; and banishment from Heaven is come. Wo, wo, wo is me! the Lord is come, and I feel fear and trembling is come: ten thousand woes to me, for the Lord is come, and now com­pleat damnation comes: the Lord is come, and I must go. I poor Wretch must go: go? Whither must I go? to a cursed place: to whom! Alas! to cursed Company: But how! wo is me! like a cursed Wretch. Cursed most bitterly; cursed finally, totally, Body and Soul, and all eternally; for I had no Love for Christ, and now Christ hath no Blessing for me.

When it is said throughout the World, Maran­atha; then the World will ring with this Cry, eve­ry one that loves not Christ, is now Anathema.

CHAP. VIII. Twenty Aggravations of want of Love to Christ.

THE Second Use doth bring a Charge and an Ac­cusation against you, for not loving the Lord Je­sus Christ. Some openly declare by their actions and manner of conversation, That they do not love him. Some openly pretend Love to Christ, but real­ly have no love unto him, Ezek. 33.31. And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness. Love to Christ is in their mouth, but love to the world is in their heart. Some say they love him, but God knows they do not. John 5.42. But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you. No! Do you know how great a sin this is? Why then do you make so light of it? Why then are you no more ashamed, that you want this love? Would you not be ashamed if this report went of you, That you did not love your Wife, your Children, or your Neighbour? And is it not an incomparably greater sin and shame, that you do not love the Lord Jesus? The only Son of God, the only Saviour of lost sinners. How is it that you do so seldom or never bewail the want of love to Christ, in your Prayers; or scarce put it in amongst the Confession of your Sins? What? do you love your Gold, and not your God? Or do you make your Gold your God, and then love [Page 97]your Gold, instead of loving the true God? Can you love your Silver, and not the precious Saviour? Are you bound to love your very Enemies, and yet have no love to him that would be your surest, greatest, and most faithful friend? What shall I say? Good Lord, I am ashamed, and blush to say, which yet is true of too many of the sons of men, that they both can and do love their very beasts, their dog, their horse, and all their cattel, and yet will not be prevailed with to love thy Son, thy only Son, and by thee, beloved Son! Nay, what shall I say? That you do love your very lusts, and filthy sins, that will destroy and damn you for ever, and yet not love that only Lord and Jesus that would save you from your sins, and from Hell for ever. What can I say? but that you love not Christ, because you love your sin so much.

Oh horrid shame! Love Deformity and not Beauty? Where are your eyes? Surely your love to sin is blind. O monstrous Lover! Love that which is worst of all, and not him that is best of all! Where is your reason? Have you lost the un­derstanding of a man? Hath sin bereaved you of your wits? Then oh Madness and Folly! Are you so fond of sin, as to be damn'd for it? Are you so foolishly fond of this world, as for the love of it to be hated of God, and banished out of his Glo­rious Presence for ever? Is your Soul so clogg'd with flesh, and sunk so deep into it, that it can rise no higher in its love, than sensual, earthly, and fleshly delights and pleasures? Will this love be so sweet in the review, as you think it is in the present taste thereof? Is this so vile a thing, so base and sordid love, that sets you below [Page 98]the rank of men, not to be reproved? For this are you not justly blamed?

Blamed! yea, and justly reckoned an Anathema, that hath such an incomparable Object as Christ propounded to him, and yet will nor love him? Whose Excellencies are set forth, and yet he seeth no Beauty in him? That when there is nothing in the world so suitable to a sinner, as Christ, and yet will you be so perverse as to imagine, and your heart maintain, that Riches are more suita­ble, and Pleasures are more suitable, and Christ and the things of Christ, the only inconvenient things for you? If you do not think so, why do you do so as you do, in denying him your love? Are you not to be blamed, that when yet you might have Christ; are not past a capacity, a possibility of having Christ, and all his benefits and good by him, that you do not turn your love unto him? Are you not to be blamed, when you thus do vilifie that Blessed Lord that none can over-value? Will not you pass for a sinful wretch, among all wise and serious men, nay, with God and Angels, that you have a will for the world, and for the empty vanities of this life, but no will for Christ, for a full, and All-sufficient Christ? When you do prefer fading enjoyments of a transitory life, before a durable good in eternal life? Tell me, I beseech you, is not he deservedly a wretch, whom neither the Excellencies of Christ himself, nor all the benefits he might have by him, will move him to set his heart upon him? What do you think? What do you say? Have you done well or ill in not loving Christ? Well, you dare not say; Ill, you are loth to say; because [Page 99]by so saying you will condemn your self. What then? Condemn your self, because you have not loved him; and love him now, that you might not be condemned by God, and cursed by Christ, for not loving him at all.

But because the want of love to Christ is such an horrid, loathsome sin, and yet lamented but by a few, as if it were in our days almost accounted for no sin at all, I shall endeavour to aggravate the hainousness thereof in Twenty par­ticulars, propounded to you by way of questi­ons, and let me intreat you to weigh them with a serious mind, and when Right Reason shall dictate a true answer, seek out some secret place, where you might weep bitterly for this odious sin, want of love to the Lord Jesus Christ.

I. Not love Christ! What is this, but a crossing of the end of God in making thee a man? In set­ting thee above the beasts of the field? In gi­ving thee a more noble and more excellent soul, than he hath given to the unreasonable crea­tures? Hath not God given thee a soul capable of knowing Jesus Christ? And what shouldst thou know him for, if not to love him? Hath not God given thee a will to go forth in its actings upon the most sweet and suitable Ob­jects? And what is that but Christ? Hath he not put such an affection as Love into thy heart? And dost thou think in thy Conscience, it was that thou mightest love the world, and not his Son? Thy self, and not his Son; but [Page 100]thy self in opposition to his Son? Thy sin, and not his Son? Canst thou imagine that God made thee a man, and not a beast, that thou mightest love him no more than beasts can love him? Then it had been enough if God had made thee a beast, and not a man. Or dost thou repent that God hath given thee the Na­ture, the Reason, and the Love of a man, that thou wilt not place it upon himself, for which end he made thee a man? If thou dost repent that thou art a man, and not a beast, then chuse the Love and Pleasures of a beast, and refuse the Love and Pleasures of a man, and that as a man thou art capable of. If not, why dost thou not answer the end of thy crea­tion?

Dost thou not see that all the Visible Works of God do that for which they were made? Did not God make the Sun to give light unto this World? And dost thou not see what haste it makes to set, and in the morning thou percei­vest, when out of view, it kept its course, and hasted to rise to give its light to this our He­misphere again? Did not God make this Earth to bring forth Fruit for the comfort of man? And dost thou not daily eat thereof? Did not God make other Creatures for the use and ser­vice of man? And do they not do so? And hath not God made thee, and made it thy du­ty to love him? Why then dost thou not do it.

Oh monstrous perverting of the Creation of God! And that in the best of his visible works. If the like were done by other creatures, how [Page 101]soon wouldst thou be weary of thy life? If the Sun should withhold its light, what a dungeon would this world be? If the Earth should bring forth nothing but Briars and Thorns, it would yield thee nothing but vexation and sorrow. If the creatures should use their power and strength against thee, as they do in serving of thee, thou wouldst judge it better to want them, than to have them. And shall all that was made for man answer their end, and not man, that was made more immediately for God himself? But a man that wants Love to Christ, is become worse than the beasts that perish, Psal. 49.20. Better thou hadst never had the heart of a man, if Christ hath not thy heart.

II. Not love Christ! What is this, but a thwarting the end of all Christ's undertaking for thee, as thy Re­deemer? When man had sinned away the Holy Image of God, and turned his heart and affections from God to the Creature, man might have feared him, but never have loved him, Gen. 3.10. I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid. —Sin had brought such an aversation in the heart of man from God and all good, that without Christ's undertakings for man, man could have loved him no more than Devils.

Why did the Son of God become the Son of Man? Why did he shed his Blood, lay down his Life? Why did he suffer, sweat, bleed, and dye? Why did he bear our Punishment, satisfie Divine Justice, endure the Wrath of God, the Rage of Men and Devils, but to bring man back again to God, from whom he had departed? And that the [Page 102]stream of man's affections might be turned again into its right Channel?

Couldst thou not have loved the World, and Self, if Christ had never dyed? Couldst thou not have loved thy Pleasures and thy Sins, if Christ had never died? And having died, wilt thou love no better? Hath he come from Heaven to gain thy Love, and shall he not have it? Hath he given himself a Ransom to deliver thee from thy Capti­vity, and paid thy Debt, for which thou shouldst have gone to the Prison of Hell, to gain thy Love, and shall he not have it? Hath he given his Life for thine, his Soul for thine, in dying when thou shouldst have dyed, and all this to gain thy Love, and shall he not have it?

What thinkest thou? Was Christ weary of the Bosom of his Father? Was it more honourable for him to dwell in flesh on earth, than with the Father of Spirits in Heaven? Was it not infinite Conde­scention, for his Deity to be vailed with the rags of our Humanity? Or was Christ prodigal of his Blood, or weary of his Life; or did he love and chuse such cruel Scourgings, such Contempt and Scorn, such a cursed, shameful, painful Death for themselves? Surely all this was for some great and noble end; which end thou doest, as much as in thee lies, by thy not loving him, frustrate, and render unattainable; for if all men should deny him their Love, as thou dost, where would be the Reconciliation betwixt God and man, Remission of Sins, or Salvation 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 [Page 103]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, [Page 104]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 [Page 105]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 [Page 106]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. [Page 107]6.18. I will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. That is, I will pity you as a father, and love you as a fa­ther doth his children, and much more; and ye shall love me as sons and daughters love their fa­ther, and much more. A son, and not love! a daughter, and not love! such sons and daughters are bitterness to their Parents; and so are ye to Christ.

2. In not loving Christ, the Threatnings of the Go­spel are slighted, and set at nought by thee. It is dread­ful to lie under the Curses of the Law; but it is more terrible to fall under the Curses of the Go­spel. It might make thy heart to shake within thee, to have the Curse and not the Blessing of thy Maker; but it might make thy heart to sink within thee, to have the, Curse and not the Blessing of the Redeemer. What else doth he do in the words of the Text? What else is it but a Curse, to be judged, account­ed, declared to be unworthy of Christ? Unworthy to be pardoned by him, and saved by him; that is, not fit to be saved by Christ, nor sit to be delivered from hell, or taken up to heaven. Mat. 10.37. He that lo­veth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me. Or wilt thou bless thy self tho thou hearest this Curse? Like the man, Deut. 29.19. And it come to pass when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, tho I walk in the imagination of my heart, to add drunkenness to thirst. So thou; Tho I do love the world, and sin, and self, more than Christ, I shall have Peace, and Pardon, and Eternal Life. [Page 108]Shalt thou so? How wilt thou come by it? From whom wilt thou have it? Will God spare such a man? Shall not his Anger smoke against him? And the Fire of his Indignation burn him up till he be consumed? Or burn him, tho by burning he shall never be consumed. If it were a man, thou might­est say, Let him curse, Psal. 109.28. But wilt thou say of God, of Christ, Let him curse, who cares? Let him curse, who fears his Curse? Thou careless sinner! God will make thee care, and if thou dost not fear, God will make thee feel the weight of his Anger; and when thou shalt feel what now thou dost not fear, thou shalt not make so light a matter of it.

3. The great Command of God, by not loving of him, is disobeyed; Matth. 22.37. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38. This is the first and great com­mandment. The Lord Jesus is a great King, a great Saviour. The Command to love him is a great Com­mand, which if thou dost not do, upon this account thou art a great Sinner. If a great Swearer, then ye say, such a one is a great Sinner, a great Drunkard, and therefore a great Sinner; and so he is. But tho thou art no Drunkard, no Swearer, yet not a Lover of Christ, for this, I say, thou art a great Sinner; for thou livest in daily disobedience to the great Command.

4. By not loving of Christ, the Promises of the Gospel are undervalued; if thou wouldst love him, he pro­miseth thee a Crown of life, Jam. 1.12. he promi­seth thee all the good that thou dost want, or canst [Page 109]desire; the pardon of Sin; the Favour of God; deliverance from Hell, the Happiness of Heaven. Oh what Inducements of Love are these! What Motives! what Incentives! what madness to lose all these for the love of the World, for the love of a nasty, filthy Lust! Wilt thou still say, all these shall never gain my love to Christ? nor move me to set my heart upon him? Thou sayst, thou sayst not so, but I say, and God knows thou dost so: and is it not as bad to do so, and not say so; as not say so, and yet do so, when thy doing so, is as if thou saidst so: So! how? why as if thou saidst, Rather than I will love Christ, I will never be pardoned; ra­ther than I will love Christ, I will go without the Fa­vour of God, without the Joys of Heaven; I will be damned, and go to Hell, rather than I will love Christ; sayst thou so? or wilt thou do so? is the Love of Christ so grievous to thee? take thy choice; and when thou art in Hell, and damned there, thou shalt never love him.

VI. Not love Christ! what is this but odious Ingra­titude for the greatest Kindness to the Children of men? Suppose thou wast in debt, and unable to pay, there­fore must be cast into Prison; one dischargeth thy Debt, wouldst thou not love him? if not, would not all say, thou art unthankful? Suppose thy self to be in Turkish Slavery, and one redeem thee, wouldst thou not love him? Suppose thou art con­demned to dye, and one procures thy Pardon, wouldst thou not love him? or bear the brand of an ungrateful Person? Thou wast in debt to God, and hadst nothing to pay; thou wast in slavery to [Page 110]Sin and Satan; thou wast at enmity with God: con­demned to dye, in danger of Hell, unfit for Heaven: the Justice of God did flame against thee: the Wrath of God did lie upon thee; Hell and Devils waited for thee. None could help thee, but Christ; satisfy for thee, but Christ; purchase thy Pardon, but Christ; save thee from Hell, and bring thee to Heaven, but Christ: nor He neither without suffering, bleeding, sweating, dying: without bearing the punishment of thy sins; giving his Soul for thine, his Life for thine; and after all this, art not thou to a wonder unthankful, if thou wilt not so much as love him? wilt not? let the Heavens be ashonished! and the Earth ama­zed, and all the Creation of God blush, and be ashamed at the unthankfulness of sinful men! that hear, that for their sakes Christ was scourged, buf­feted, crowned with Thorns; his Side pierced with a Spear, Nails driven through his Hands and feet, was arraigned, condemned, accused, con­demned and crucified, and yet will not love a Christ scourged for them; a Christ groaning under the burden of their Sin; a Christ sweating under the heavy load of the Wrath of God, will not love a weeping, bleeding, crucified Christ, when all this was endured in their room and stead.

VII. Not love Christ! is not this damnable contemn­ing and despising of him? Is it not a setting him at nought? it is spoken of Christ, Psal. 22 6. A re­proach of men, and despised of the people. And Isa. 53.3. He is despised and rejected of men.— He was de­spised, and we esteemed him not. The Septuagint tran­slate the word by [...], which is used of Christ [Page 111]in the New Testament, Luke 23.11. And Herod with his men of war set him at nought, and mocked him—. Act. 4.11. This was the stone which was set at nought by you builders—. What we greatly love, we highly value: what we love not at all, we va­lue not at all, and that we do despise. And is it not sin enough to despise the People of God, but wilt thou also despise the Son of God? not enough to despise the Word and Ways of God, but wilt thou add this to it, to despise the only begotten Son of God? Not to love, and to despise, is all one; Matth. 6.24. No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Is this no evil in thine eyes? Is Christ that is honour­ed by the Father, contemned by thee? Is he the joy of Angels, the delight of Saints, and is he thus set at nought by thee? Is he the Pearl of great price, and dost thou look upon him to be nullius pretii, of no worth? Is he the chiefest of ten thou­sands, and dost thou thus disdain and vilify him, as if he were the meanest of ten thousands? Canst thou value thy Riches, and love them, and not Christ? Canst thou value thy Relations, and love them, and not Christ? Behold, in comparison of Riches, Children, Life, thou despisest Christ, when thou shouldst depise these in comparison of Christ. He that despiseth the word, shall be destroyed, Prov. 13.13. He that despiseth his neighbour, s [...] ­neth; Prov. 14.21. He that despiseth his father's instruction, is a fool, Prov. 15.15 He that despi­seth his mother, the ravens shall pick out his eyes, Prov. 30.17. What then is he, and what shall be done to him that despiseth Christ?

VIII. Not a lover of Christ! what art thou then but an hater of him? there is no medium between these two. Love him thou must, or hate him thou dost. Matth. 6.24. He will hate the one, and love the other. Matth. 12.30. He that is not with me, is a­gainst me. He that doth not so love him, as to have him rule him, doth hate him. Luke 19.14. But his citizens hated him, and sent a messenger after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us.

Shouldst thou hate thy Lusts, and love the Lord; and dost thou love thy Lusts, and hate the Lord? I intreat thee, tell me, What hath he done unto thee, that thou shouldst hate him? as Christ reasoned with them that so hated him, that they stoned him; John 10.32. Jesus answer­ed them, saying, Many good works have I shewed you from my father, for which of those works do ye stone me? So let me reason with thee; Many a good Work hath Christ done for thee, for which of these dost thou hate him? Hath he not come from Heaven for thee? was he not wound­ed, beaten, scourged, and suffered death for thee? for which of all these dost thou hate him? hath he not made Salvation possible for thee? dost thou hate him for that? hath not he purchased a Conditional Pardon for thee, dost thou hate him for that? hath not he in­treated thee to consider thy own Soul, and to prevent thine own Damnation; dost thou hate him for that? hath he given thee any other cause? [Page 113]thou hast many reasons to love him, but no cause to hate him, as Christ himself asserteth. Joh. 15.25. They hated me without a cause, but for that ha­tred they shall not be punished without cause.

IX. Not love Christ! art thou not herein a confe­derate with the Devil, against God and Christ? And joinest in with the Devil against Christ? And dost thou not in this rather obey the Destroyer than the Saviour of thy Soul? Christ calls, Give me thy love, but thou dost not. Satan perswadeth thee to with­hold thy love from Christ, and so thou dost. Christ saith, Give me thy heart, Prov. 23.26. but thou dost not. Satan saith, Let the World have thy heart, and so it hath. Canst thou displease Christ more than to deny him thy Love? Or canst thou please the Devil better? What meaneth this perverseness of thy heart? What mean these cross and crooked dealings, as if Christ were thine ene­my, and the Devil thy friend? As if thy loving Christ would be thy ruine, and listning to the Devil were the way to happiness.

Poor Sinner! Will the Devil save thee? Christ would. Will he help thee into the favour of God, or up to Heaven? Tell me, what dost thou in thy Conscience think, doth Christ or the Devil most desire thy real good? Did the Devil suffer for thee? Christ did. Did the Devil dye for thee? Christ hath. Hath the Devil any love unto thee? Christ had so much as to shed his Blood, that if thou wilt hearken to him, thou mightest be saved by him. Why then, when Christ, the World and Satan, are striving for thy heart and love, dost [Page 114]thou open to the World and Satan, and shut it against the Lord Jesus Christ?

X. Not love Christ! Dost thou not herein bear the Image of the Devil, and look more like a Devil than a man. Hath the Devil no love to Christ? Nor hast thou. Oh what a thing is this, that a man on earth should love Christ no more than the Devils in Hell? And is the likeness of the Devil thy Glory? Is his Image thy Beauty? And Conformity to Satan thy Dignity? Or canst thou be saved more than the Devil himself, if thou lovest Christ no more than he? Oh when the Accusation at the last day shall be brought against thee, This man hated Christ like a Devil: Did he so? Away with him now unto the Devils. And that mans heart was no more to­wards Christ than the Devils. No? Then let that Man and Devils go together, and be Damned toge­ther.

XI. Not love Christ! Dost thou not carry thy self worse towards Christ than the Devils do? And is not thy not loving of Christ worse in thee than it is in De­vils? because the greater love and kindness that Christ hath shewn to thee than ever he did to Devils, and the more he hath done for thee than he hath for them, the worse is want of love to Christ in thee than in them. Did Christ dye for Devils as he hath for thee? Did he bear the punishment of their Sin, as he hath for thine? Did he ever make Salvation possible to them, as he hath to thee? Did he ever offer pardon to them, as he hath to thee? Or did he ever sollicir them for their love, as he hath done with thee for thine? Might not Devils say, we have [Page 115]not that cause nor reasons to love Christ as Men have? And might not we suppose, if the Devils in Hell were set in the same circumstances as Men on Earth, that some of the Devils might love him, when some men will not? However, when we consider the Texts that speak of fallen Angels, and how they are irrecoverably cast into blackness and darkness, and of fallen men who are saveable, it is sufficient foundation for this conclusion, That want of love to Christ is worse in men than it is in Devils. Concerning Gods just dealing with Sinning Angels, we read, 2 Pet. 2.4. God spared not the Angels that sinned, but cast them down to Hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judg­ment. And Epistle of Jude, ver. 6. The Angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own ha­bitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day. Not a word of a Saviour for them, but of Mankind the Scripture speaks of abundance of love and mercy: Joh. 3.16. God so loved the World, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Tit. 3.4. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared; and denieth that con­cerning Angels, which it doth affirm concerning Man. Heb. 2.16. For verily he took not upon him the nature of Angels, but he took upon him the seed of Abraham. Hath he done that for you, which he hath not done for Devils, and is not then want of love in you to him, a greater evil, than it is in De­vils? Let this shame you that ye are not lovers of Christ.

XII. Not love Christ! What do ye make of this but the beginning of Hell? By the same reason as love to Christ is the beginning of Heaven. Love to Christ is the employment of the Saints in Glory, and to be without love to Christ is the frame of the Dam­ned in misery. So much of hatred to Christ is in you, so much of Hell is in you, before you be in Hell.

XIII. Want of love to Christ! Is not this the Daughter, and the Off-spring, of many foul abomi­nations that are reigning in thy heart? Doth it not suppose the predominancy of many other sins? As,

1. Doth it not suppose Ignorance of thy misery, Sins deformity, and of Christs beauty, excellency and necessity?

2. Doth it not suppose preceding Infidelity? That thou dost not believe what God saith concerning Christ, nor what shall be thy portion, and thy everlasting miserable condition without Christ?

3. Doth it not suppose a conceit of thy own Righte­ousness, which if thou sawest to be insufficient, would Christ be thus slighted and disregarded by thee?

4. Doth it not suppose Self-willedness? Thou wilt love what thou wilt love, and not him thou shouldst love, come on it what will. Is it not plain wilfulness when thou canst give no reason why thou wilt not love Christ, But because thou wilt not?

5. Doth it not suppose predominancy of sinful Self love? Carual Self thou wilt love, and because [Page 117]this in dominion is inconsistent with the love of Christ, thou dost omit the loving of him.

6. Doth it not suppose fearlesness of God, and of his Indignation? If this did awe thee, could Christ be thus neglected by thee?

7. Doth it not suppose forgetfulness of Death and Judgment? Of Heaven and Hell? Couldst thou without horror, think of dying without love to Christ; When to dye so once, would be to dye for ever? Without trembling couldst thou think of Judgment, when for want of love to Christ thou shalt certainly be damned, whenever thou appearest at his Judg­ment-bar? Or of Heaven, when thou must never enter into it? Or of Hell, when thou must certainly be cast into it for want of love to Christ?

8. Doth it not suppose great carelesness of thine own Soul? For canst thou love thy Soul, and not love Christ the Saviour of the Soul? Canst thou take care of the Salvation of thy Soul, and take no care to love him that is the purchaser, and the donor of eternal Salvation? Is such a litter of sins in the heart void of the love of Christ? And wilt thou after this, make so light a matter of it?

XIV. Want of love to Christ! Is it not the Mo­ther of many horrid transgressions, and the Nurse, Maintainer, and Fomenter of them? Love to Christ shuts the door of the heart against the temptations of Satan, the inticements of Sinners, and the al­lurements of the World; but the want of it sets it open unto all. Love to Christ would be a Dam to the stream of Sin, but the want of it is the plucking up the Floodgates thereof, that Sin might run out of the heart into the life with a swift current. Is not [Page 118]the absence of love to Christ the cause of many commissions of Evil? Would it not bridle thy Tongue, restrain thine Hands, shut thy Eyes, stop thy Ears, and keep all these from being defiled with finful actings upon sinful objects? Is it not the cause of the omission of good? Of praying, hearing, meditation, holy discourse? What goeth before, and what followeth after the want of love to Christ, as flowing and proceeding from it, maketh it a sin exceeding sinful.

XV. Love not Christ! Have not then all the Or­dinances of God been ineffectual as to thee? Have not Ministers preached in vain, and spent their labour for nought? And hast not thou heard in vain? And followed the means of Grace in vain? when by all the means thou hast not got this Grace of Love? What though thou hast obtained knowledge, is not that knowledge, without love to Christ, vain know­ledge? What though thou art able to discourse of God and Christ, and Heaven, and the workings of the Spirit, without love to Christ, is it not (though concerning such great and weighty matters, yet) vain discourse? Have not all the calls of Mercy, the workings of Conscience, the wooings of Grace, the pleadings of Ministers, the intreaties of Love, the knockings of Christ, the strivings of the Spirit, the waitings of Patience, been all slighted and dis­regarded by thee? Are not all thy Prayers lost, and will not all thy Profession come to nothing, and thy hopes of Heaven perish, when for want of love to Christ thy Soul shall never enter into Heaven, but perish everlastingly?

XVI. Want of love to Christ! Is it not a mark and brand of a graceless Man? Is not the absence of love to Christ, inconsistent with the presence of any other saving Grace? Psal. 31.23. O love the Lord, all ye his Saints. No love, no Saint: No Saint, no Grace in thee. If Loveless, altogether Graceless; for then,

1. Thou art faithless, for didst thou believe on him, thou wouldst have sincere love unto him, for where there is Faith, it worketh by love, Gal. 5.6.

2. Thou art fearless of God. Love and fear of God do sweetly concur: Love is afraid to offend.

3. Thou art sorrowless; that is, as to any holy, godly sorrow: For love to Christ would make thee sorrow for thy sin, for the absence of Christ, and love would cause thee to sorrow that thou lo­vest no more.

4. Thou art also hopeless; for there can be no solid ground of hope in him, when there is no love unto him. He that hopes for Heaven by the merits of Christ, without love to the person of Christ, his hope is a Fabrick without a foundation, the Fools Paradise: It is hope without a warrant, and in the end, when he misseth of the end of his expecta­tion, will be found to be no better than rash confi­dence, bold and damnable presumption. For the greatest Professor, without love to Christ, is a Self-deluding Hypocrite, whose hope shall be cut off, and prove as weak, though spun as fine as a Spi­ders web, Job 8.13. And shall be as the giving up of the ghost, Job 11.20. And is the want of all Grace no evil in thine Eyes, when it brings punish­ment [Page 120]that shall be endless, easeless, and remediless, upon all that were totally and finally Graceless.

XVII. Not love Christ, Gods own Son! How then is God thy Father? Joh. 8.42. Jesus said unto them, if God were your father, ye would love me—If ye be his creatures, and not love him, it is an aggravation of your sin, not to have love to him that gave Be­ing to you; but though ye are his Creatures without love, yet ye are not his Children; but better ne­ver had been his Creatures if not his Children, for though ye should every day, with great confidence, say Our Father, without love to Christ, God will never own you as Children, nor give you Childrens Portions.

XVIII. Not love Christ! How canst thou then excuse all the love thou hast to other things from being sinful Love? So that the more thou lovedst, the more thou sinnest, because thy love to others is not subordinate to the love of Christ, but separate from it. To love other things and persons in Sub­ordination to the love of Christ, is not a Sin, but Duty; to love other things and persons, and not Christ, or more than Christ, is not a Duty, but a Sin; and thus the love of your Estates is sinful Love. And the love of Husband, Wife, Children, and of your Selves, is therefore sinful Love, because it is above the love of Christ, for these should be loved in Christ, and for Christ, but you love them with­out Christ, and more than Christ, therefore all your love, without love to Christ, (though materially good) is sinful love, Mat. 10.37.

XIX. Not love Christ! Art thou not all this while treasuring up terrible Accusations in Conscience against the hour of Death, and day of Judgment? The time will come, and is at hand, when thou, and all thou lovedst, besides Christ, must be se­parated. Thou hast loved the World, and thou must leave it; thou hast loved thy Pleasures, and thou must bid adieu unto them; thou hast loved thy Relations, and thou must take thy sarewel of them; and then, oh then, if conscience be awakened, if thou dost not go blindfold, and hood wink'd, by the Devil, out of this World, wilt, in the bitter­ness of thy Soul, lament thy woful case, and say, Oh! What have I done? What is this that I have done, to love what I must leave? I loved my Riches and now Death will take me from them. I have set my heart more upon my earthly Relations than upon Christ, and now Death is come to tear and carry me away from them. I have loved my life more than Christ, and now Death will put an end unto my life. And all these things that I have loved, now must lose. Oh! Had I loved Christ as I have loved them, Christ would not have left me; Death could not have separated him from me, but should have removed me nearer unto him. But this I did not; woe is me that this I never did, for now all my love proves vexatious love, to think and find that what I have loved, in one moment I have for ever lost.

XX. Want of love to Christ! Doth not this make Damnation unavoidable? and the escaping of Hell to be impossible? For when thou dyest, whi­ther [Page 122]wouldst thou have thy Soul to go? To one whom thou never lovedst? While thou didst live, thou didst not, wouldst not love him, and after Death canst not. Canst not love him? Is Heaven a place for them that cannot love Christ? Heaven is a place of Love; the Imployment of Heaven is to love, and praise him whom they do love. Without love to Christ, thou wouldst not find im­ployment there, and the life of Heaven will be no idle life, where all shall live and love, and love as long as they shall live; therefore such as do not now, and hereafter cannot love, shall never enter to live in that place of Love.

Now, Sirs, What do ye think? Is the want of love to Christ so small a sin as ye have hitherto sup­posed it to be, when you have spent and past the greatest part of your lives without love to Christ, and without sorrow, for want of that love? What do ye mean! To cease to live, before ye do begin to love? What shift have ye made to live in mirth and joy, when the love of Christ hath not liv'd nor reign'd in your hearts? Let Conscience be Judge be­tween God and you, but if Conscience be dead, and will not give its judgment, let God himself be Judge; have ye done well to love that which ye should have hated, and hated him whom ye should have loved? Done well! God knows it is not well done, and Devils themselves know you have not well done; and ye your selves, sooner or later, (God grant before it be too late) shall know in this ye have not done well. Done well! No, ye have done foolishly, ye have done wickedly; nay, in this ye have done Devilishly in what ye have done; call to mind the things that have been said, [Page 123] ponder them in your hearts, weigh them in the bal­lance of right reason, and it will tell you ye have done abominably in what ye have done.

But I suspect this thought is rising in your hearts, If we had not loved Christ, we should yield we had done so great an evil as this is aggravated in it self, and by its circumstances to be: But God forbid that we should live without love to Christ, we think it is pity that Man should live that doth not love Christ. This supposed love, I fear will keep you off from repenting for want of real love to Christ, and make you set light by all these aggravations of this Sin, because ye think, and hope ye do love Christ; and some are so ignorant of their sinful state by Na­ture, and so vainly confident of the goodness of their hearts, that they bless God they have loved Christ ever since they were born, and will be ready to spit in that mans face that shall question their love to Christ. Come then, ye that are so confident that ye love him, come unto the Trial, bring it to the Touchstone of the Word of God, and try of what Mettal is your Love: What if it should prove but counterfeit instead of real? Or suppose in some sense it should be real, and not counterfeit, yet should not be sincere, and saving love, for the dis­covery whereof, I shall ne [...] proceed to the third Use.

CHAP. IX. Ten Questions by way of Conviction, that ma­ny, very many, have no sincere Love to Christ; from whence also Characters of sin­cere love to him, by the right resolving of these Questions, might be gathered, and our Love tried, whether sincere or counterfeit.

MUST a man that loves not Christ sincerely, be Anathema when Maranatha? Must he love, or be cursed if he do not? Then, as Christ did put the Question unto Peter, Joh. 21.15. Simon Son of Jonas, lovest thou me? And 16. the second time, and 17. the third time. Simon Son of Jonas, lovest thou me? So do thou put this Question to thy self, O my Soul! lovest thou the Lord Jesus? And when thy heart may forwardly return an answer, ask it the second time, O my Soul! art thou not mistaken? Dost thou indeed love the Lord Jesus? And because the matter is of everlasting moment, put the Question a third time, and so often, till to this Question, O my Soul! Dost thou sincerely love the Lord Jesus? Thou hast such proof out of the Scripture, as will hold trial, when this shall be in question at the great day of Judgment. But alas! What great grounds of jealousie are there, that the love of many is but supposed love to Christ, that think they do, that hope they do, but indeed do not? [Page 125]For whose conviction I shall desire them to give in a serious answer to the following Queslions, as trials of the sincerity of their love.

I. Dost thou love Christ sincerely, and live in wil­ful disobedience to the known commands of Christ? Dost thou know his will, and willingly every day act contrary to it, and yet pretend to love him? Dost thou slight his commands, and love his person? Doth Christ command thee to be the death of thy sins, and thou suffer them to live and rule, and yet love him? Doth Christ command thee to pray con­tinually, and thou dost neglect it continually, and yet have the face to say thou lovest Christ? Doth Christ command thee not to swear profanely at all, nor to take Gods name in vain, and dost thou do this often in a day, and yet defie that man that calls in question thy love to Christ?

But whatever be thy confidence, I do declare to thy face, it is a great and Soul-damning mistake; for as Love and Obedience are conjoined in the Scrip­ture, so they are never parted in the true and sincere Lover.

Weigh these Scriptures, and thou wilt find thy Love pretended to without obedience, to be so light, that it will be driven away by the evidence of the Word, like chaff before the wind. Exod. 20.6. And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. The same words repeated, Deut. 5.10. and 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, to a thousand generations. And 11.13. And it shall come [Page 126]to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my com­mandments, which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart, and with all your soul—Neh. 1.5. I beseech thee, O Lord God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him, and observe his commandments. Joh. 14.15. If ye love me, keep my commandments. 21. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is, (yes, that is the man) that loveth me—23. Je­sus answered and said unto him, if a man love me, he will keep my words—24. He that loveth me not, keepeth not my sayings.—Do ye see how in all these Texts Obedience is joined with Love? If Love go before, Obedience follows after, and the latter is a proof of the former.

Then the man amongst you, that is not openly profane, but of a moral conversation, and moreover a Professor, will say as Saul did to Samuel, Blessed be thou of the Lord. I have performed the command­ment of the Lord, 1 Sam. 15.13. But Samuel re­plied, ver. 16. What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the Oxen which I hear? So ye say, we love the Lord; how do ye prove it? Why we have performed the Commandments of the Lord. Have ye so? What meaneth then the neglect of Prayer in your Fa­milies that I hear of? What meaneth then your Idling away the Lords day, or polluting it by world­ly Discourse? What meaneth, I pray you, the allowed dead Praying, and dull performances, not striven against, nor lamented for? But if you would not deceive your sell, mind that, that Obe­dience which proves sincerity of love to Christ must be,

1. Ʋniversal, and that in regard of the object; all the Commandments of God, those that are more hard, as those that be more easie; those that cross and condemn your best beloved sin, as well as those you could more easily and readily part with; those commands that respect the inward as well as the outward Man, and do enjoin the manner as well as the matter of your Duties. Psal. 119.6. Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect to all thy com­mandments; and Universal, in regard of the subject, that your obedience be done with the whole heart. Deut. 10.12. And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul.

2. Obedience that is a proof of Love must be chearful, for Love obeyeth with delight. It is not a burden to Pray, but a pleasure; hard Duties be­come easie to Love, and the time seems not long, nor tedious. As Jacoh, for the Love of Rachel, Gen. 29.20. And Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed unto him but [...] as ones days, translated as few days, for the love he had unto her. Seven years to love seem but as one day. One day in an holy Duty to one that wanteth love, seemeth as seven days, if not as seven years, which seem to pass away sooner, and with more delight, than one day spent in Flesh displeasing Duties, where there is no love to take off the rediousness of it to the Flesh.

3. Such Obedience must be the choicest: Sincere Lovers of Christ will serve him with the best they have, and in the best manner they can. Love thinks [Page 128]nothing too good for God and Christ, else it is but de­ceitful and pretended love. Mal. 1.13. Ye said also behold what a weariness is it, and ye have snuffed at it, saith the Lord of hosts; and ye brought that which was torn, and the lame and the sick; thus ye brought an offering: should I accept this of your hands? saith the Lord? You bring Prayers, but they are sleepy Prayers; thus ye Pray. Ye Pray, but with your minds roving because of the prevailing habitual love ye have unto the World; THUS ye Pray. Could sincere Love find no better Service? Give no better Duties than such for which a man is a Deceiver, and Accursed? v. 14. But cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his slock a maele, 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. That is strange then, that it should be no more dreadful among his peo­ple that pretend to love him, that they are not afraid to bring and offer such Duties to him as do so much provoke him, and are so greatly displeasing to him; that give him only words when they have (a Male in their Flock) an heart in their breast to give him.

4. Such Obedience as is a proof of Love, must be persevering to the end, expressed not by stepping into Gods ways, but by walking in them. One that loves not Christ might step into a good way, but he that loves doth walk therein. Deut. 11.1. There­fore thou shalt love the Lord thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments alway. And 19.9. If thou shalt keep all these commandments to do them, which I command thee this day, to love the Lord thy God, and to walk [Page 129]ever in his ways.—Such then as have made great shews of love to Christ, and now are revolted, and have forsaken his holy Commandments, by this might judge what kind of love it was to Christ, that they once made profession of; and more by their partial, irksom, and refuse Obedience, might be convinced, that their love to Christ is unfound, and only supposed Love.

II. Do you love Christ, while you maintain the Love of Sin in your Heart? Can the love of Sin, and the love of Christ, dwell together in highest degrees? Can the affection of love in that manner be carried out to two contrary objects at the same time? And is there any thing in the World more contrary than Christ and Sin? Is there more oppo­sition between Light and Darkness, extreamly Sweet, and extreamly Sowre? Can you love your Health and Poyson too to be in your Stomach? Can you love Christ, and yet love what he doth hate? Can you love Christ and delight in Sin, which took away the Life of your Lord? Could you carry that Knife continually in your Bosom with delight, that was the Instrument of Death unto your dearest Friend? You might as soon look down upon the Earth, and up unto the Heavens at the same instant, as thus love Sin and Christ together. Psal. 97.10. Ye that love the Lord, hate evil; and the hatred to Sin, that proves sincere Love to Christ, must be

1. Ʋniversal, to the Darling Sin as well as others, to the Sin that hath been to you as your Right Hand, or Right Eye. Hatred is to the kind; he that hates a Toad: It is not this one, or that in [Page 130]particular, but all. He that Loves Christ sincerely, hates Sin as a man hates a Toad, not only as to the degree, but also as to the extent, all and every one. Psal. 119.104 I hate every false way.

2. Implacable: Anger might be pacified, but Ha­tred planted in the Nature is irreconcileable. An­tipathy cannot be rooted out, nor turned into Love. A man might be angry at Sin that loves not Christ, but be friends again; might turn from it, and after­wards return unto it; but the hatred to Sin implanted in the new Creature is implacably bent against Sin, that the words might have some place here by way of allusion, relating the Love and Hatred of Amnon to Tamar. 2 Sam. 13.15. Then Amnon hated her exceedingly, (Hebrew is, with great hatred greatly) so that the hatred wherewith he hated her, was greater than the love wherewith he had loved her; and Amnon said unto her, Arise, be gone. With like detestation will the Lover of Christ pack away his Sin; Arise, be gone, with greater hatred than be­fore he loved it.

3. Therefore it is mortal and destructive to Sin that is the object of it. Esau hated Jacob because of the Blessing wherewith his Father blessed him; and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand, then will I slay my bro­ther Jacob, Gen. 27.41. So the Lover of Christ, that hateth Sin, is resolved to be the destruction of it. Shall not I be the death of that cursed Sin that was the death of my blessed Lord? Shall I suffer that to live in my heart, which would not suffer Christ to live in the World? Did Sin shed my Sa­viours Blood, and shall not I be avenged on my [...] Did Sin make my Saviour Groan, and Sweat [Page 131]in a bloody Agony, and shall I take delight therein? Was my Sin the Nails that did fasten him to the Cross? The Spear that did pierce his blessed Side? And the Thorns that Crowned his Sacred Head? And shall I lodge it in my Bosom? Did Christ in love unto my Soul dye for my Sin, and shall not I, in love unto my Lord, cause Sin to dye in me?

III. Do you love Christ sincerely, when the things of this World have the predominant degrees of your affections? As Sin is not to be loved at all by them that love Christ, so things that are good, must not be loved above Christ, nor are by them that love him. Mat. 10.37. If any man love father or mother more than me, he is not worthy of me. Doth that Woman love her Husband with a sincere Con­jugal Love, that though she love him truly, yet lo­veth another more than him?

Do you love Riches, Pleasures, Honours, Re­lations, Self, Life, more than Christ, and yet sin­cerely love Christ? As he is better than all, greater than all, more suitable, more durable, more sweet, more satisfying, than all other good things, so he must be loved above, and more than all. 1 Joh. 2.15. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world; if any man love the world, the love of the father is not in him. Jam. 4.4. Ye Adulterers and Adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

Though one that is sincere in his love to Christ might not love Christ more than some other persons love him, yet he loves Christ more than he loves [Page 132]other persons or things. But do you love Christ more than you love other things, and yet,

1. Your thoughts are habitually set, and actually run out upon other things more than upon Christ? Can you think on the World with delight, but not on Christ? And love to have a thousand thoughts on other things for one you have of Christ? It is a pleasure to you to think on your Pleasures, your Profits, your Children, but a burden to you to think of Christ, and keep your thoughts upon him. Are not the thoughts much upon the object of love; Psal. 139.17. When I awake, I am still with thee. But if you cannot sleep in the Night, your Head is full of the thoughts of the World, because your Heart is full of the love of the World. Is it not a sign the World, and not Christ, is loved as your Treasure? for where the treasure is, there the heart will be also, Mat. 6.20, 21.

2. Do you love Christ more than other things, when your labour is more for other things than for Christ? Did you ever take that pains, that care, to get an Interest in Christ, as you have done for the Riches of this Life? If you had, might you not have had him, whereas now you are without him? You Sweat for the World; you are Cold in your Praying for Christ; you lay out your strength in working for the World; you are sloathful in en­deavouring after Christ; you are lively upon the Exchange; quick in your Counting-House; with might and main you act in your Shop, but dull in your Closet upon your Knees, if you at any time are there so imployed. Is this your love to Christ more than to other things? Or,

3. When your care is more to keep other things than that Christ, you conceit you love? Let Christ go to keep your outward Possessions, and yet say you love Christ more; who do you think will believe what you say? Will not a man that loveth his Child more than his Gold, and all his Goods, if his House were on Fire, lose all to save his Child? So would you for Christ, if you loved him more than all.

IV. Do you love Christ and never grieve, nor groan, nor repent for the Sin whereby you have dishonoured him? Can there be love to any per­son without grieving for the unkindness that you have done unto him? Doth a Child love as a Child, that is not grieved because he did offend his Father? If your Heart did burn in Love, would not your Eyes flow with Tears? If the fire of Love were kindled in your Breast, would not the waters of Sorrow run down your Cheeks, and make thee say, Oh! What have I done, that I so long have slighted this loving Lord? Oh! What did I mean to stop mine Ears against his Calls of Love and Mercy? That I let him stand without Door, when the World and Satan were admitted in? Did my Lord suffer for my Sins, should I then have sinned thus against my suffering Lord? Was he Nailed to the Tree for my sake, and must I yet wound him more? Oh! That I could not be­hold my bleeding Lord without a weeping Eye! I am grieved, dear Saviour, I am grieved, to re­member how I slighted thee, and trampled thy Royal Commands under my feet. O Lord, I blush and am ashamed, that I did spurn against such [Page 134]tender Bowels, that I did undervalue such inva­luable Love! and did prefer the Dung of this World before such an incomaprable Saviour!

But you can daily sin, and your Soul not sigh, nor sob, nor grieve, nor groan. You can sin and rejoyce at the thoughts of it. Jer. 11.15. When thou dost evil, then thou rejoycest. Thou canst sin and make a sport at it, like a fool. Prov. 14.9. Fools make a mock at sin. Oh thou Loveless Sinner! Did Christ bleed for Sin, and dost thou laugh at it? Was Christ serious, and his Soul sorrowful even to the Death for sin, and dost thou make a sport of it? Hast thou a Sea of Sin, and not a drop of Sorrow for it? Surely thou art the man that hast not one Dram of sincere love to Jesus Christ.

V. Dost thou love Christ, and live without com­munion with him? And when he is absent from thy Soul, art never troubled at it? Doth not Love desire sweet converse, and familiar enter­course, with the person that is the object of thy Love? Can Lovers be long asunder, and not desire a meeting? Canst thou account the presence of the beloved object a burden to thee? Or is not his ab­sence really so? Dost thou think that he doth love thee, that is weary of thy company, or never de­sirous of it? Or shuns the place where thou dost wont to be? If indeed thou lovest Christ, thou couldst be content to be without any thing than without him: Thou couldst better be without thy health than without Christ, without thy dearest friend next to Christ, than without Christ; that is to thee the dearest of all, if thou dost love him. Without thy Meat and Drink, even thy necessary [Page 135]Food, than without Christ. How is it then that thou canst take up contentedly without Praying, and without Hearing, or with these without Christ in them? Is it not for want of Love? Lovers have their fainting Fits, ready to faint and dye away when the object cannot be enjoyed. Cant. 2.5. Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love. Cant. 3.1. By night on any bed I sought him whom my Soul loveth; I sought him but I found him not. 2. I will rise now, and go about the City in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth; I sought him but I found him not. 3. The watch­men that go about the city found me: To whom I said, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth? 4. It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go—The Soul in love with Christ is restless in his absence, and never leaves seeking till it find him, and having found him, holds him fast by Faith and Love, and will not let him go. The Soul that loves doth long, doth thirst, doth breathe and pant, after the beloved object; for what is desire but love in motion, as love is desire at rest? And though a gracious heart finds complacen­cy and rest in love to Christ, yet if Christ be not enjoyed, Love cannot rest, but moveth, in desiring of him, like David, Psal. 42.1. As the hart pant­eth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul af­ter God. 2. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God? And is early and earnest in seeking after him, and every full condition to him is empty, and eve­ry fruitful state to him is barreh, and he seeth [Page 136]weakness and disgrace in all worldly Strength and Honour, till he is filled and made fruitful by the en­joyment of Christ, and doth see his Power and his Glory in his Ordinances. Psal. 63.1. O God, thou art my God, early will I seek thee: my soul thirst­eth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee, in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is. 2. To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.

VI. Do you love Christ, and yet hate what he doth love? Doth not true love make you love such as are beloved by him whom you do love? Do you love Christ and hate his Word? Did not David that loved God, esteem his Word, for the sweetness of it, more than Honey? Psal. 119.103: And for the worth of it, more than Gold? Psal. 119.72. Do you love Christ the Lord, and take no delight in the Lords-day, that is set apart for the commemoration of the wonderful work of mans Redemption, and filling us with joy at the remembrance of his Resurrection? Can you idle away this day? Can you spend it in Pleasures, and profane it with your vain Discourse and worldly Talk, when you should be delighting your self with the thoughts and speech of the great things that Christ did suffer, and by suffering procure for his People? Do not they that love and honour an earthly King, delight themselves, and shew their joy, on his day of Coronation? I can­not be induced to believe that any man loveth Christ, that takes no care, and makes no con­science of the holy observation of the Lords-day.

Do you love the Lord Jesus, and yet hate his people? Cannot you endure a real, holy, humble, sin-fearing Christian, and yet impudently say, You are a Lover of Christ? Can you revile them, and magnifie Christ? Do you love him, and hate such as are like him? Doth a Woman love her Husband, that with indignation tears his Picture? In this God himself doth declare thee to be a Liar, when thou doest this, and saith thou art a Christ-lover. 1 Joh. 4.20. If any man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother, whom he hath seen, how can he love God, whom he hath not seen? 21. And this command­ment have we from him, that he who loveth God, love his brother also. 1 Joh. 5.1.— And every one that loveth him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him. Did not Christ shew his love unto his people, by laying down his life for them? And do you shew your love to Christ, in taking their lives away from them that love him, because out of love unto him they will not, dare not sin against him as you do, and dare; when true love to Christ and them, in due circumstances, will cause a man, that is a sincere Lover, to lay down his life for them? 1 Joh. 3.16. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Did you love God and Christ, you would have a free heart, and open hand, to receive his people in their Need and Necessities. And do you love God and Christ, when you can find both heart and hand to spoil them of their Goods, and thereby bring them into Poverty and Want? Is it a certain sign of want of love to Christ, when you do not [Page 138]according to your power supply their wants? And is it not then a certain sign of hatred unto Christ, when you take away their Supplies, and bring them, drive them into want? 1 Joh. 3.17. But whoso hath this worlds goods, and seeth his brother hath need, and shutteth up his bowels of compas­sion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? How indeed? Who can tell or conceive how it should?

VII. Do you love Christ, when you had rather sin against him than suffer for him? Is that your Love, when you had rather forsake him, than in danger follow him? When you had rather de­ny him, than dye for him? And though you do as Peter did, you do not repent, and weep bitterly as Peter did. Did not Love move Christ to suffer and dye for us? Was not Love the chain that did fasten him to the Cross? And if you loved Christ, would the Waters of Affliction and Persecution quench your Love? You love him, but cannot suffer for him. Worthy Love! but such as with which Christ doth not count you worthy of him, or to have any saving benefit by him, Mat. 10.37, 38. The Martyrs loved Christ, when they did go to Prisons for him, and went to the Stake, and were burned into Ashes for him. You would think it a hard saying, to assert, None but Martyrs love Christ. But with a distinction, I think it is a true saying, A Martyr is either actually so, or intentio­nally. It is the purpose and resolution of the Heart, to dye for Christs sake, if called to it; he is one that doth dye for Christ, or is ready, willing, and b [...] the help of Grace is resolved to lose his Life, [Page 139]than leave Christ. And then it is safe to say, That he that loves his Life more than Christ, and will part with Christ, rather than his Life, hath no sin­cere love to Christ; for Christ doth say it, Mat. 10.37, 38. And this was the resolution, and dispo­sition of Paul's heart, before he was actually put to death. Act. 21.13. Paul said, What mean ye to weep, and to break mine heart? for I am rea­dy not to be bound only, but also to die at Jeru­salem for the name of the Lord Jesus.

VIII. Do you love Christ, that never were con­vinced of your need of Christ? Of your undone and lost estate? Of your deplorable cendition with­out Christ? Are you ignorant of your Malady, and can you then value the Remedy? Doth not the Soul, first feeling its wounds by Sin, enquire what to do to be saved? And then upon the sight of the power of Christ, that he is able to save, and of the freeness of Christ, that he is willing to help, the Soul is drawn to love him, and to set his heart upon him. Blessed Lord! wilt thou help me out of my misery? When none can deliver, wilt thou? I am undone! Wilt thou succour me? I am lost! Wilt thou save me? Why, poor Sinner, saith Christ, I do pity thee: my bowels yearn over thee: I will keep thee: I will save thee both from Sin and Hell. Wilt thou so, dear Lord? Thou shalt have my heart; my love shall be to thee.

IX. Do you love Christ, and yet will not sub­mit unto him in all his Offices? When you say you love Christ, whom do you mean? Or in what respect do you consider him? As a Priest only, that [Page 140]died for your Sins? As a Jesus, to deliver you from Hell, to free you from the torments that your very Nature is against? Did you ever know a Drunkard, a Swearer, or the vilest-debauchedst Wretch, that hath heard of Hell and Christ, but was willing and desirous, on his own terms, but not on Christs, to be saved from the torments? And upon that account will you say, That this man continuing in his open Sins doth love Christ? But Christ in this one respect considered only, is not that Christ that is Preached, and offered to you in the Gospel, but also Christ as Prophet and King. Is this then your love to him, to divide him? Is this your love, to dethrone him from his Kingly Office? No, it is plain hatred to him. Luk. 19.14. But his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us. But those mine enemies which would not that I should reign over them, bring them hither, and slay them before me.

X. Do you love Christ, and never care if he never come again? Nay, you could be glad you might never leave this World, if you might have your pleasures and enjoyments in it; but that Christ should come to you by Death, or at Judgment, you have no desire, but sorrow at the thoughts thereof. Doth that Woman love her Husband that is gone a Journey, and the tidings of his coming back is sorrowful News unto her? The loving of the coming of Christ, is a character of such as shall be crowned when he comes. 2 Tim. 4.8. Hence­forth there is laid up for me a crown of righte­ousness, which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but [Page 141]unto all them also that love his appearing. And the Spouse that was inflamed with Love, concludeth that Song of Love with this Request, Cant. 8.14. Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a Roe, or to a young Hart upon the mountains of spices. And when in the last words (save one verse) of all the Book of God, Christ promiseth his last and speedy coming; the Church that loveth Christ, catcheth the promise out of his mouth, and turns it into a Prayer. Rev. 22.20. He which testifieth these things, saith, Surely I come quickly, Amen. Even so, come Lord Jesus. But your heart saith rather, Oh not so, Lord Jesus; great love in the mean time in your heart. Yet one that truly loveth Christ might be sometimes filled with fear at the thoughts of Christs coming, not because he doth not love and desire it, but because he thinks he is not prepared for his coming, lest Christ should find him unfitted and unready at his coming, to enter with him into his glory; but while he doth defer his coming, the loving Soul is hasting in his preparations for it: As a Woman that is told her Suiter is coming, is great­ly troubled, not because he is coming, but because she fears he might come before she he adorned as she doth desire.

What say ye now, Sirs? Do ye love Christ, or do ye not? Upon the laying these things to your heart, by examination of your heart by them, can ye upon mature deliberation, say that ye find the love of Christ is there? Then I shall shew in the close of this subject, what cause of joy in God ye have, what comfort for the present, and what ground of expectation of better, greater things for the future, and for ever this love to Christ might be unto you.

But is this the case of all you in this Congrega­tion? I would to God it were! Is love to Christ in every heart among you? I wish it were, but I fear it is not. I hope some of you do love Christ, but can I hope so of you all? If I would never so fain I cannot, while some are ignorant, and some are prophane, and too many are excluded by the former characters of Love, from having, for the present, the Grace of Love. Oh that I my self had more love to Christ, that I might grieve more, that blessed Jesus is not loved by more among you! Oh that for Jesus sake I had more love to your Souls, that I could weep abundantly over you, that neither for Je­sus sake, nor your own, have hitherto loved the Lord Jesus! What then? Have ye not? Good God pardon it. Will ye not? Good God forbid it! What shall I do? Take it for granted that many of you do not love the Lord Jesus? Yea, I have proved that ye do not. And oh! how bitter are these thoughts to me, that so many of you do not love the sweetest Jesus! Shall I take it for grant­ed that ye will not? This were enough, if my heart were not a stone, to break it to pieces. Shall I let you alone without this Love? I dare not. Shall I try to gain your Love, not to me, but to my Lord? I am afraid ye will deny me. Deny me! In this that is of everlasting concern­ment to your Souls, shall I take a denial and be gone? At your first denial I will not be gone, I know ye must have love unto him, or be cursed by him; how then can I acquiesce in a denial from you?

I know the Sinner doth not know what he saith, when he doth deny to give Christ his love, and therefore in hopes he might come to a bet­ter understanding of himself, and what makes for his own eternal good, I will proceed to the fourth Use, by which I hope God will change some of your hearts and minds, and win the love of some of you for Christ, that all you that yet do not love him, will not give this as your final answer, That ye will not love him.

CHAP. X. Where the fourth Ʋse is an attempt of gain­ing Sinners consent to love Christ; a se­rious wish for good success.

OH then be perswaded as ye love your Souls, as ye would escape the Damnation of Hell, as ye would obtain the Happiness of Heaven, as ye would avoid the punishment of Devils, as ye would dye in a good condition, and after Death give a good account of the Wooings of Grace this day, and not be Anathema when Maranatha; be perswaded to set your hearts and love upon Jesus Christ, for he must be loved by you, or ye must be cursed by him. Abraham, Gen. 24. sent his Ser­vant, bound with an Oath, to seek a Wife for his Son Isaac, with this provi [...]o, If the Wom [...]n would nor be willing, he should be clear from his Oath, [Page 144] ver. 1. to 10th. The Servant prepares to go on this Message, and Prays, O Lord God of my master Abraham, I pray thee send me good speed this day, and shew kindness to my master Abraham, ver. 10.11, 12. He meets with Rebekah by the Well of Water, enquireth whose Daughter she was, and whether there were room in her Fathers House for him to Lodge in; he is invited by her Brother Laban, saying, Come in thou blessed of the Lord, wherefore standest thou without? for I have prepa­red the house, and room for the camels, to ver. 32. There was Meat set before him to eat, but he said, I will not eat till I have told my errand. And he was desired to speak on, and he said, I am Abrahams servant, and the Lord hath blessed my master greatly, and he is become great—and he hath a Son, and he hath given him all that he hath, and my master made me swear, saying, Thou shalt go unto my fathers house, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son; and now if ye will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me, and if not, tell me, that I may turn to the right hand, or to the left. Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said, The thing proceedeth from the Lord; we cannot speak unto thee bad or good: behold Rebekah is before thee, take her, and go, and let her be thy masters sons wife, as the Lord hath spoken. And the servant brought forth Jewels of silver, and Jewels of gold, and raiment, and gave them to Rebekah, and they said to Rebekah, Wilt thou go with this man? and she said, I will go.

O that I might have such success with Souls this Day! for the Lord my Master, hath sent me bound with the obligation of a Woe, to seek the love [Page 145]and consent of lost Souls, to become the Spouse of his Son Jesus, with this relief, That if Sinners be not willing, nor will accept the motion, I shall be released from the Woe. I have made preparation, (though less and weaker than such a weighty mat­ter doth require) and have Prayed that the Lord God would send me good speed this day. And now I am standing by the Well of the Water of Life, and some of the City are come to draw Water out of the Well of Salvation; and upon enquiry made, I find they are the Children of the Kindred of Jesus, who forasmuch as the Children were partakers of flesh and blood, himself also took part of the same, to whom my message is so important, that I can willingly forbear to eat till I have told my errand; and therefore in your Audience desire to speak on, saying, I am the Lords Servant, who is not made great, or blessed by any other, for he is great and blessed above all, and over all for ever: the earth, and all that therein is, is his; the Sea, and all there­in is his; the Heavens, and all therein, is also his: And he hath a Son, one only Son Jesus, and he hath given him all that he hath, even all pow­er in Heaven, and in Earth, and hath set him at his own right hand, far above all Principalities and Powers, and Might, and Dominion, and eve­ry Name that is named, not only in this World, but that which is to come, and hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be Head over all things; the Judge of all the World. And this great Lord hath sent me to ask and beg your Hearts and Love, in order to an indissoluble Mar­riage to his own only Son; and now if ye will deal truly with my Master, tell me, if not, tell me. [Page 146]Oh now who saith the thing is of the Lord, and proceedeth from his grace and mercy, we cannot gainsay, we will not refuse this Message. And when you are asked who will have this Jesus? Who will love this Jesus? methinks one should say, I will; another should say, and I will. One and Another! What! no more? Methinks every one should say I will; that there should not be another, that should say, but I will not. Let who will, but I will not. No? Why? Because no better a Servant is sent to gain thy consent? Or doth manage this great affair with no more zeal and skill? Do thou pray for the pardon of my weakness and folly, and I will pray that thou mightst have more wisdom to discern when a good proposal is made unto thee; but whether thou regardest me, or not regardest me, I regard not, so thou wouldst but have regard to Jesus Christ, and to thine own immortal Soul. If thou dost despise me, do not despise my Master, nor his Son, for though I am not so good as Abrahams Servant, yet my Lord and Master is better, infinitely better, and greater, than Abraham, to whom he was Servant; and my Masters Son, Jesus, is better, incomparably better, than Isaac, Abrahams Son, and would certainly prove a richer match to thy Soul, than Isaac was to Rebekah.

Consider therefore again, before thou dost again deny him thy love, for hast thou not denied him thy heart long enough already, but wilt thou do so still? Hath not thy love run waste upon the Crea­ture to this day? And shall it do so still?

Art thou not weary yet in loving of the World? Art thou not yet tired in setting thy heart upon Va­nity? Hath it answered thine expectation? Hast [Page 147]thou found that sweetness in the Creature which thou lookedst for, when thou didst first set thy heart and love upon it?

Thou hast tried what is the love of the Creature, oh now try what is the love of Christ, and if thou dost not find it better, if thou dost not find it sweet­er, than all thy former love, (provided thou lo­vest him sincerely) return to it again.

Behold, whose cause do I plead this day? Christs or mine own? For whom do I ask your Love? for my self, or for Christ? Slight me as you will, but do not slight Christ: Vilifie me, but do not un­dervalue Christ: Count me unworthy of your love or look, but do not so by the blessed Son of the most glorious God: Say, I am not fit to be regarded; I bless God, I have learnt to bear it; but I beseech you, say not so of Christ. Revile and hate me if you will, if you will but love that Jesus, that out of Love did dye for you: If you would but love him, that then would certainly save you, and bring you to eternal Glory and Happiness for ever.

If you love the World never so much, can the World do so much for you? If you love your Honours, your Pleasures, your Relations, never so much, can they bless you as Christ will bless you? Nay, the more you love them, the more miserable the love of them will make you. Should I call you to love the World, you would do it; or your Pleasures, Self, or Sin, you would do it. Nay, when I (or any more skilful than I am) have called to you, to wean your Love from these, yet still in love you cleave unto them.

What! Is Christ the only unlovely object in your Eyes? Can you find Love for any thing but Christ? [Page 148]What is it in Christ that doth displease you? What do you see in him that is offensive to you? Either love him, or give a reason why you will not.

Do you blame me for my Importunity? I thought since I began this Use, you did refuse, be­cause I was not urgent enough with you. You will not love, except you be entreated; if that were it, that you love to be entreated to Love, and would love Christ, after much intreating, I would study Night and Day to think how I might entreat you, and what Arguments to use, to pre­vail, and obtain your love for Christ.

But why should you look for such long entreaties? Do you know who it is that doth entreat you? Is it I, or God himself by me? I pray you view one Text, and then let him that doth entreat you, wait no longer for your answer, and for shame put him not to entreat you longer. What place is that? It is 2 Cor. 5.20. Now then we are Embassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christs stead, be ye reconciled to God. What say you now? I from God, and God by me beseech you. A Minister of God stands among you in Christs stead, to beg, entreat, beseech that from you, which if Christ stood in this place this day, he would Preach unto you, and desire, and command from you, that ye would be reconciled unto God; after the enmity to him, you would love him. God, Christ, by his Servant, doth be­seech, entreat, pray you to love him.

Oh the astonishing condescention of the holy God! That he will i [...]treat! Oh the amazing stu­pidity and folly of the sinful Sinner, that he will not be entreated! Surely the infinite distance that [Page 149]there is betwixt God and Man, might fill us with wonder that God should become a Suiter to man for his love, when there is not so much distance between Man and Nothing, as there is between God and Man; and yet he is pleased to stoop so low, to urge us to consent to him, that we might be advanced as high as Heaven, who else must be plunged into the depths of Hell.

On what is this? that the Creator should seek to be loved by the Creature! The Lord to be lo­ved by the Servant! The King of Saints to the Sub­jects of Sin, that he might have our Heart and Love! Whereas if we did consider, that our stri [...]test Service to him, would be our largest Liber­ty, our having of him our only Happiness, our missing of him our greatest Misery, we should know it were our Interest to prostrate our selves at his Feet, to lye at his Door, with Prayers and Tears, with Cries and Calls, with Grief and Groans; to make it our daily Suit to him, that he would love us, and give us an Heart to love him.

Man was first in departing from God, and in re­moving of that love that at first there was betwixt God and Man; yet God is first in seeking the re­newing of Love, else Man would always hate, and never love him. And that God should seek to Man for his Love, and be denied, might be astonishment to the Angels in Heaven, and make matter of joy (if they be capable of any joy) to the Devils in Hell, that Men that may love Christ, and will not, might be as miserable as themselves, to whom he is not propounded as an object of Faith, Love, or Hope.

But whether you will love, or not love him, God hath commanded me, and others of his Mini­sters, to lye hard at you for your Love; he hath gi­ven us a Commission to make a motion of love be­twixt Christ and you, in order to your matching with him, Mat. 22.2, 3, 4, &c. and hath commit­ted to us the Word of Reconciliation, and made it our Work to Wooe you for your love unto his Son, and to try to gain your consent, 2 Cor. 5.18, 19, 20. And if you will love him, to espouse you to him, 2 Cor. 11.2. This is my Message, and for this end am I come this day, If I do not ask you, I hazard my Soul; if you deny, you lose yours. God therefore grant, that I might so ask, that you may not deny, that both your Souls and mine might Love, and so be Saved. For the gaining of your Love for Christ, I shall use these Arguments, pro­pounded by way of Question, and when you have given a right Answer to them, I hope Christ will have a good Answer from you.

CHAP. XI. Twenty Motives, or Pleas, that Christ might have the Love of your Hearts.

I. CAN you find a more excellent object for your Love than Christ? If you search through the whole Creation of God, is there any like to Christ? Whatsoever you think, who dare say there is? Are Riches, Honours, Pleasures, Relations, which you have loved, comparable to Christ, whom you ought to love? If Good be only the object of Love, is not the best Good the best object? Can you love the lesser Good, and not the greater? Yea, the greatest of all? Is not all the Goodness in the Creature but as a drop to the Sea, as a Candle to the Sun, as a Sand to a Mountain, if compared to the Goodness there is in Christ? If David were worth ten thousand of others, 2 Sam. 18.3. is not Christ, Davids Lord, better than all the World? Read Cant. 2.3, & 5, 16. Prov. 3.14, 15. Phil. 3.8. Dost thou waver in thy thoughts, or hesitate about this? Tell me,

First, Is not Christ a Good most suitable for thee? Is Liberty so suitable to a Captive Man, or Bread to an Hungry Man, or Health to a Sick Man, or Ease to a Pained Man, as Christ is to a Sinsul Man? For,

1. Art thou not lost, undone, in danger to be Damned? Christ will be thy Saviour, thy Keeper, and Recoverer. Luk. 19.10. The son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost. Heb. 7.25. Wherefore he is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him, seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them. Isa. 63.1.— Mighty to save.

2. Art not thou ignorant, dark and blind, know­est not the way to Heaven and eternal Happiness, and might [...]st weary thy self to find the Gate of Life, and yet miss of it when thou hast done all? He will be thy Teacher and thy Guide, and direct thee Infallibly to it. He will Anoint thine Eyes, and cause thee to see such things as never yet thou saw­est, ver. 3.18▪ If he Anoint thine Eyes with his Eye-salve, though thou wast born blind, thou shalt have thy sight.

3. Art thou not Sick, and full of Spiritual Di­seases? Abounding with Soul Distempers? Even sick to Death? Nigh unto eternal Death? He will be thy Physician, who is so able and so skilful, that never any yet, that he undertook to Cure, Died under his Hands; for rather than thou shouldst dye of thy Disease, he will make thee a Potion of his own Blood, which if thou Drinkest, thou shalt cer­tainly recover. Therefore he came to be a Soul. Physician, and gave this as a reason why he did converse with Publicans and Sinners, That he might cure them, Mat. 9.12.

4. Art thou not indebted? Owest thou not Mil­lions to God? Hast thou a Mite to pay? If God demand satisfaction from thee, will it not prove thy Damnation? If Justice pursue thee, Death Arrest [Page 153]thee, will not Devils seize thy Soul, and hale it to the Prison of Hell, from whence thou shalt not be delivered, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing, which will never be? This Christ, if thou wilt but love him, will be thy Bail, become thy Surety, and make payment of thy Debt, and give thee a Discharge.

5. Art thou not polluted and unclean? Hath not the Leprosie of Sin overspread thy Ʋnderstanding, Will, Conscience, Memory, and all thine Affections? So that thou art defiled all over, liest wallowing in thy Blood, art cast out to the loathing of thy person; and canst thou, in this filthy case, enter into the holy Kingdom of God? If thou wilt give him thy Love, he will take away thy silthy Rags, and give thee change of Raiment, Zac. 3.1, 2, 3. If thou wilt come to him with Faith and Love, and say, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean, he in Love to thee will say, I will, be thou clean, Mat. 8.2, 3. He will make for thee a Bath of his own Blood, and his Blood shall cleanse thee from all thy Sins, 1 Joh. 1.7. Yea, though they be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wooll, Isa. 1.18.

6. Art thou not a Captive to Satan and to Sin? Drudging Elbow deep in the loathsome Service of Sin? Is not thy Bondage more hard than that of the Israelites in Egypt? And is not Satan and Sin as Cruel and Tyrannical as Pharaoh and his Task­masters? Dost thou love thy Chains? Art thou at ease in thy Fetters? Wouldst thou be released? Christ will be thy Redeemer, by Price and by Power, and make thee free; and then thou shalt be free indeed.

7. Art thou not an Enemy to God? Born so, and Lived so? Take heed thou dost not dye so, for then there shall be no Peace, no making up the breach betwixt God and thy Soul. But now Christ is the blessed Peace-maker, and by the Blood of his Cross he will reconcile thee unto God, Col. 1.20, 21. God will never be reconciled to thee, but in, and through Christ, 2 Cor. 5.18, 19.

8. Art thou not spiritually Dead? Hast thou not lost the holy Image of God, which was thy Beau­ty? Though thou art Dead, he can quicken thee, and give thee the Life of Grace and Glory, 1 Joh. 5.12.

Now if this be thy condition, and Christ can, and is ready, able, and willing, to help thee in eve­ry respect, how suitable is Christ to thee? And suitableness being a ground of Love, and a motive thereunto, what an Argument is here to win thy Love? Oh say then, I am Lost, but Christ will save me; I am Ignorant, but Christ will teach me; I am Sick, and he will recover me; I am Indebted, and he will be a surety for me; I am Polluted, and he will cleanse me; I am a Captive, and he will re­deem me; I am an Enemy to God, and he will re­concile me; I am Dead, and he will quicken me. Oh, I never found one so suitable for me; now, even now, he shall be loved by me. Oh this is the most excellent Object for my Love, and I will no longer hold it from him.

Secondly, Is not Christ the most satisfying Good? Thou art Indigent, he will supply thee; thou art empty, he will fill thee; thou art poor, he will en­rich thee. Oh for Love, for such a Saviour!

Thirdly, Is not Christ the most durable Good? When thy Riches shall fail thee, thy Pleasures and Honours, and Friends, shall fail, Christ will never fail, Psal. 73.26.

Fourthly, Is not Christ a peculiar Good? Given by peculiar Love, only to a peculiar People, bring­ing with him peculiar Priviledges? When all other things thou lovest, are common to the bad, as well as to the good? Though a Worldly man, whose Heart and Hands, and House, are full of the World, might say Riches are mine, yet he cannot truly say, Christ is mine. Let him have from thee peculiar Love, and he will be to thee a peculiar Good.

Fifthly, Is not Christ the most necessary Good? Dost thou need Food so much when thou art Hun­gry, or Liberty so much when thou art in Prison, or Salve when thou art Wounded, as Christ when thou hast sinned? Without other things thou maist be happy, pardoned, reconciled, and for ever sa­ved, but can any of these be thine without Christ? Christ is needful, while thou livest, for if thou beest in health, without him thy Soul is sick. If thou shouldst be sick, he will give the choicest, and the richest Cordial; when thou diest, he will secure thy departing Soul; and after Death, he will be thy Friend; when all shall leave thee at thy Grave, he will be thine for ever.

Sixthly, Is not Christ the most profitable Good? For when thou hast him, thou hast all. Then God is thine, and the Spirit is thine, and the Promises are thine, and the Priviledges of the Covenant are thine; and Heaven it self shall be for ever thine.

Seventhly, Is not Christ the most delightful Good? Some delight in what they see, some in what they hear, some in what they taste, some in recreation, and some in notions, but the delight of Christ doth surpass them all.

Eighthly, Is not Christ a sure Good? Other things God may give, and call for them back again, Hos. 2.9. I will return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wooll and my flax— But God never saith, I gave such a man my Christ, but I will take away my Christ again. He may take Riches out of thy Hand, but (if thou gettest him) he will never take Christ out of thy Heart.

Ninthly, What shall I say to advance Christ in thy esteem, that thou mightst love him? Is he not a comprehensive Good? Eminently all? There is no goodness in the Creature, but it is formally, or vir­tually, in Christ. Is there wisdom in the Creature? There is more in Christ. Is there beauty, power, in the Creature? There is much more in Christ, Col. 1.19. For it pleased the father, that in him should all fulness dwell. Joh. 1.14.— full of grace and truth.

This is the person for whom I beg your Love. This is HE that is altogether lovely and desirable. Consider now, I beseech you; can you be better offered? Can you find a better match for your Soul? Can you say all this, the one half of this, any one of all these things, concerning the objects you have hitherto loved?

Oh then say, I never understood the loveliness of Christ before: How hath Sin befool'd me! How [Page 157]hath the World bewitched me! And how hath my foolish wicked heart deceived me, that I have la­vished my love upon the Creature, and Sin, when there was a Christ to love! Such a Christ to love! Such a Good as is not to be found in all the World! Now shall he have my Love, my Heart, my All.

II. Tell me, Hath not Christ deserved your Love, by what he hath suffered, done, given, purchased, promised, and prepared for his Lovers? Behold his Wounds which he hath endured for thee: Behold a Crown of Thorns on his Head, that there may be a Crown of Glory upon thine. Behold him Dying, that thou maist Live: Him Suffering, that thou maist be Saved: Him Poor, that thou maist be made Rich, with the best, s [...]rest, and most durable Riches. Behold him Condemned, that thou maist be Absolved: Him in an Agony, that thou upon the conditions of the Gospel mightst have Rest and Ease in Glory. Behold him bearing the Cross, and the Cross bearing him, that thou mightst not bear the Curse: Him bearing the Fathers wrath, that thou mightest be made the Subject of his Grace, and the Object of his Love. And now tell me, Doth not this Christ deserve thy Love? Shouldst thou love any like him, when none hath done for thee like him? Doth the small kindness of a Crea­ture draw thy Love, and shall not all this in thy Saviour, towards thee, kindle a Fire of Love in thee towards him? How canst thou forbear to love him?

III. Will not Love to Christ be the best Love [Page 158]thou canst attain unto? As he is the best Object of Love, so Love going out to Christ is the best Acting of Love; and pity it is, that any other Object should go away with thy prevailing Love. 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 [Page 160]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 [Page 161]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 strength of your love on Worldly things, where the return of love is not only not actual, but impossible? But would ye love Christ, ye should have more love from him than ye give unto him, if ye strive with all your might to love him with the utmost love ye can, Joh. 14.21, 23. Prov. 8.17.

3. Is it not great folly to love that which can ne­ver satisfie you, and not him that would satisfie your Souls for ever? Did these things ye love, ever fill your desires? Did they ever give you full content? How should they? When God hath made your Souls capable of the enjoyment of an infinite good, how can that which is finite fill them? It is only an infinite good, and not finite, that can satisfie your Souls, though they be finite; all the Creatures can­not fill one. For the Will of Man, though it be subjectively finite, yet it is objectively infinite; that is, (for to be easie and plain in such a place as this, and in such matters as these, before you, is best, because for you most profitable and edifying) though the Will in it self, and in its own Nature, because a Creature, is finite, and limited, yet it is capable of making choice of God, for its chiefest Good, [Page 163]that is infinite and unlimited. And God hath put into the hearts of Men, desires after good that is eternal, for they desire to be eternally happy; but God hath not put this eternal goodness in any, in all the things of this World, for they are all transitory. Therefore when ye look for satisfaction in the Crea­tures that ye love, or in the loving of them, ye look for that which God never put into them, and nothing can give more than it hath, and nothing hath more than God hath given it, therefore to look for more from it, than God by making it, hath put into it, may yield you vexation enough, but no satisfaction at all. Eccles. 5.10. He that loveth silver, shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase. This is also vanity.

4. Is it not great folly to love that which ye must shortly part with, and not him that ye might enjoy for ever? Though ye have your heart full of Love to other Earthly things, you shall not earry an hand­ful of them into the other World. Eccl. 5.15. As he came forth of his mothers womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hand. 1 Tim. 6.7. We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out; but Death, that carrieth the Lovers of the World quite away from the things they love, shall set the Soul of a Lover of Christ nearer to him. Phil. 1.23. For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far bet­ter. The Soul that loveth Christ, when (by Death) it is absent from the Body, it shall be present with the Lord, 2 Cor. 5.8.

5. Is it not great folly to love that which might leave you while ye live, and not that Christ that would never leave you, nor forsake you? As ye are fure these things, which ye love, will be none of yours after Death, so ye are not sure they shall be yours while ye live. May ye not be rich to day, and poor to morrow? Well to day, and sick to morrow? In honour to day, and in disgrace to morrow? Was it not so with Haman? Esth. 6.10, 11, & 7.9, 10. When ye have Riches, and love them, ye are not sure to hold them. Prov. 23.5. Wilt thou set thine eyes (thine Heart and Love) upon that which is not? for riches certain­ly make themselves wings and fly away as an Eagle towards heaven. The Hebrew Text is, Wilt thou cause thy eyes to fly upon that which is not? Riches fly away, and the Worldly mans Heart, and Love, fly after them; and though his Heart and Love, be swift in their motion after Riches, yet sometimes Riches fly so swiftly, that their Lo­ver cannot overtake them. The pleasures of Sin, and so the profits of the World, are but for a Season, Heb. 11.25. and when the Season is over they are gone; but Christ would never leave you, nor for­sake you, Heb. 13.5.

6. Is it not great folly to love that which may prove an hinderance to your everlasting happiness, and not him that is the purchaser, and the promo­ter of it? To love that which is often hurtful to the owners, and always hurtful to the over-lovers of it, and not him that never did his Lover harm, but good? Eccl. 5.13. There is a sore evil which I have seen under the Sun, namely, Richer kept for the owners thereof to their hurt. This [Page 165] Solomon had seen, and many have seen; but that Christ should hurt any Man, that hath him for his own, was never seen. Riches are thick Clay, and Clogs, to the Minds of Men, and keep them down to Earth, that they cannot rise to Heaven, nor get so high while they live, nor their Souls when their Bodies dye, that they make Salvation exceeding difficult, Mat. 19.23. Then said Jesus to his Disci­ples, Verily I say unto you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of heaven. 24. And again I say unto you, it is easier for a Camel to go through the eye of a Needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God; but to love Riches, and not Christ, while a Man doth so, doth not make Salvation only hard, but impossible; but the love of Christ, makes Salvation not only possi­ble, but certain and easie.

7. Is it not great folly to love that which cannot comfort you at Death, and not Christ, that both can and would? Love what ye will, besides Christ, and not Christ, it cannot be a stay to your depart­ing Souls; what will ye look to at Death for com­fort, your Riches? Why ye are going from them, with an heart full of love to them; to love them, and yet must leave them, to leave them in loving of them, will torment and vex you, not support and comfort you. To Pleasures that ye loved? When ye lye a dying, they are fled, and past, and gone. To your Friends? When ye are dying, ye are taking your last leave of them. To Christ? Alas, him ye never loved, and the thoughts of that, will be a sting more painful than the sting of Death.

V. Can ye do any thing less than love Christ, or can ye do any thing more? Is it not a small thing that Christ should have your Love, for all those great things ye have, and hope to have by Christ? And yet Christ stands upon your love as greatest of all, and all without love is nothing. If Christ had asked you to lay down your Life for him, had he required more from you than he himself hath done for you? Had he called you to give your Bodies to be burned for him, should ye not have done it? How much more when he faith, Let your Hearts but burn in Love unto me, when that burning will not be painful, but delightful? When Naaman came to the Prophet to be cleansed of his Leprosie, being directed to go and Wash in Jordan, and he should be clean, in Wrath he went away, but his Servant came to him and said, My Father, if the Prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldst thou not have done it? How much rather then, when he saith to thee, wash and be clean? 2 King. 5.13. If Christ had required some great thing, that thou mightest escape great torments, and be partaker of great Salvation, wouldest thou not have done it? How much rather then, when he saith, Love me, and be Saved? When you have received great kindness from a Friend, whom you cannot requite, yet you say, I cannot do less than love him; yet this small thing is more in Christs account than all without this. You Pray to him, but to Love him is more; an Heart full of Love, is more to Christ than a thousand Prayers, full of the most eloquent Expressions, without Love. You hear his Word, but to love him is more. You might [Page 167]suffer for him, but to have love to him is more. Should [...] give all your Goods to the Poor, and your [...] to the Fire for him, to give your Heart and [...] him is still more. And indeed, ex­cept [...] the former proceed from Love, and are accompanied with it, they are not pleasing to Christ, nor profitable to your Salvation, 1 Cor. 13.1, 2, 3.

VI. Will you love that which you might easily love too much, and not Christ, whom you can ne­ver over-love? You might love your Riches, your Relations, your Pleasures, your Self, your Liberty, your Life, too much. In these your love might soon exceed, and transgress the bounds; and it is hard not to exceed, but to keep within bounds. And indeed, so much love as you give to these, more than to Christ, is too much; but could you love Christ with as much love as all the Saints in Heaven love him, it would not be too much for him, if you were able to bear it. Many have complained they loved Christ too little, but never any that he had too much of their love. God doth blame you, and Conscience doth accuse you, for your great love to things below, but neither God nor Conscience, for the highest degrees of love to Christ, and things that are above.

VII. Can you love your selves truly, and not love the Lord Jesus sincerely? There is a Self-love, which is inconsistent with the love of Christ, and there is a Self-love which is the best, that no man hath but he that loveth Christ. Doth that man love himself indeed, that regardeth not the Salvation of [Page 168]his Soul? That doth ruin himself, and damn him­self, and shut himself out of Heaven? Doth that man love himself indeed, that doth expose himself to the wrath of God, to the damnation of Hell, and to banishment from the glorious presence of the blessed God? All which, a man brings upon himself for want of love to Jesus Christ; if then you will love your self truly, you must love Christ sincerely.

VIII. Are not all the Duties of Religion tedi­ous to you for want of love to Christ? Do you find it a burden to Pray? A burden to hear or read the Word of God? Is it a burden to you to medi­rate upon God and Christ, and things above? It is all for want of love to Christ; for Love makes hard Things easie, and heavy Labour to be light.

IX. Doth any thing make you more like to God than to love Christ? Do you not in this most re­semble God? Do you believe in Christ? So doth not God. Do you trust in Christ for Life and Sal­vation? So doth not God. Do you obey the com­mands of Christ? God hath no superiour to com­mand him. But do you love Christ? So doth God. Joh. 3.35. The father loveth the son, and hath given all things into his hands. Joh. 5.20.

X. Might you return to God and Christ, like for like, in any thing but in Love? Or in any thing carry it towards God, as God doth towards you? If God be angry with you, might you be angry with God? If God withdraw comfort from you, might you with-hold Duty from God? If he rebuke you, [Page 169]might you rebuke him? If he be displeased with you, might you be displeased with him? Would not all this be your sin, and perversness of heart, to­wards him? But if he love you, you may, and ought to love him. If he hath set his heart upon you, your Duty is to set your heart on him.

XI. Can you hope for Salvation by him, with­out sincere affection to him? Or who bids you hope for any such thing? Can you have the face to ex­pect such great things by, through, and from Christ, as Pardon of all your Sins, deliverance from Hell, the happiness of Heaven, and yet not love him? Do you hope for eternal Life by Christ? I know you do; might not Christ then expect love from you, when you expect Life by Christ? As you would have Life by Christ, let Christ have Love from you, or else your expectation of Life will be disappointed, and end in Death without end.

XII. Dare you dye without love to Christ? Dare you, can you, leave this World with a quiet mind, if you love not Christ? No, surely, except you dye as Blind as you were Born. What think you when you come to be Sick, and when you come to Dye, will it not be a cut to thy Heart, to think I have lived twenty, forty, years, but I never loved Christ? Now must I go to appear before him whom I never loved. Why not love him while you live in health, as well as wish you had loved him when health is gone, and sickness come? When Life is going as fast as Death is coming?

XIII. Is not your Love Christs due? Do you [Page 170]not owe it to him? Is it not due to him by vertue of Creation? Did not he give your Being to you? By vertue of Redemption, when you were worse than nothing, did not he lay down his Soul, his Life, his Blood, as a Price for your Ransom? By vertue of Preservation, hath not Christ kept you out of the Grave, and Hell, unto this day? Justice would have hewn thee down, and Wrath would have damned thee long ago, and who hath procu­red a Reprieval for thee but Christ? That thou art on this side the Torments of the Damned, not past Praying, and Hearing, and Hoping, is all through Christs procuring for thee longer time. By vertue of Provision, which Christ maketh for thee, thou wouldst not have had a Rag to thy Back, nor a Morsel for thy Mouth, nor Sleep in thy Eyes, if Christ had not bought, and by Purchase procured for thee what thou hast. Thy love is due to Christ by vertue of Command, whereby thou art obliged and bound to give it to him, and shalt be accounted a Transgressor, and a great one too, if thou dost with-hold it from him.

If it be due so many ways, what Injustice will it be in thee to deny to Christ that which is his due? Art thou not careful to give to every one their own? And is it not an ease to thy mind, that though thou art not Rich, yet thou hast to give every one his due? Dost thou not Trade, Work, Cark and Care, to give all their own, and shall Christ be the only Person to whom thou wilt be Unjust? If thou hast not enough to satisfie all thy Creditors, yet of one, whom thou lovest, and bearest more respect unto, thou sayest, If it please God, such a one shall lose nothing by me. Poor Sinner! wilt [Page 171]thou say, Though I cannot do what I should, yet Christ shall not be so far a Loser by me, as not to have my Heart and Love. Look to it, that he do not; for if he do, thou wilt lose thy Soul; and then who will be the greatest loser?

XIV. Is it not great condescention in Christ, that he will so kindly accept of thy Love? One so great accept the Love of one so mean! One so holy ac­cept the love of one that is so sinful! One so glo­rious, of one so vile! Do great Men value the love of Beggars? or Princes, the love of Peasants? Would a Man of great Birth and Estate give leave to one cloathed in Rags to love him in order to Mar­riage? Or would he not scorn and reject both the person and her love? Methinks, considering what Christ is, and what thou art, thou shouldst say, If Christ will give me leave, I will love him. Give thee leave! Not only so, but gives the command, and that upon pain and peril of everlasting Dam­nation, if thou dost not. He doth give thee leave and charge to love him, but no leave to live with­out love to him, though for thy long refusal he might justly leave thee to live without love to him.

XV. Should you ever have any cause or reason to be ashamed of your love to Christ? Is not the time coming, and the day hastning, when covetous men shall be ashamed of their loving of the World, and voluptuous men ashamed of loving their Pleasures, and the ambitious of their Honours; but the time will never come, the day will never be, that a gracious Soul shall be ashamed of his [Page 172]sincere love to Jesus Christ. For what is said of Hope, is true of Love, Rom. 5.5. it maketh not ashamed; but as all Sin is matter of shame, Rom. 6.21. What fruit have ye of those things of which ye are now ashamed? so especially the Lovers of Sin, shall be ashamed that they loved not Christ. For is it not an horrid shame, that a rational Crea­ture should be such a Sot as to love Sin that is most loathsom, and not love Christ that is most lovely? To love deformity, and not beauty? A real evil under the notion, and appearance, and paint, of a seeming good, and not a Christ that is a real good, without appearance of the least evil! O shame! shame! I am ashamed that Sin should have such esteem, and Christ so great contempt put upon him; but shame shall ere long confound these now shame­less Wretches, when they shall cry out, We are ashamed that we loved Profits, and not Christ; House, Lands, Lusts, and not Christ. This is the confusion of our Faces, and shame doth cover us, that we should be so foolish, and so blind, that we had not Wit, nor Reason, to distinguish betwixt the greatest and most lovely good, and the great­est and most odious evil.

XVI. Is there any love so profitable as the love of Christ? Gain draweth Love; by the love of other things more than Christ, you will lose more than you gain. By such love, God, Christ, Hea­ven, and your own Soul, will be for ever lost; and should your gains of the World be proportionable to your love of the World, yea, and exceed it, to the gaining of the whole World to your self, which never man yet did, your gain would prove [Page 173]your loss; and when you come to cast up your Ac­compt at Death, or Judgment, you will find your self cast much behind hand, because from Gods face and favour. Mat. 16.26. What is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? But by the loving of Christ you shall have gain, that no man can value, no Wit can estimate, no Arithmetician, by all his Numbers and Figures, can compute; even pardon of innume­rable Sins, the favour of an infinite God, delive­rance from unconceiveable Torments, possession of endless Life, and more than I, or any man, can describe or comprehend.

XVII. Is there any love so universally necessary, as the love of Christ? One man loves one thing, and a second another, and a third another, but there is no necessity that all men should love any one thing but Christ, and things appertaining to our having and enjoying of him; and love to Christ is necessary for poor and rich, for great and small, for noble and ignoble, for learned and unlearned, for bond and free. Oh then, what doings are these, that that love which is necessary, not only for the most, but for all, should be neglected not only by the most, but almost (comparatively) by all?

XVIII. Do not you want one great help against the temptations of Satan, while you are void of love to Christ? Is not Satan your Enemy? Is not your heart forward to yield to him? Doth it not concern you to resist him, when if you yield, you deserve to dye? But this love would Garrison your [Page 174]Hearts, Fortifie your Souls, make you Couragious and Resolute against all the batteries of Satan, as­saults of Sin, and watchful against the Assurements and Ambushments of the World, and that you would say, Shall I offend my dearest Lord? Shall I displease him that hath had such good pleasure to do me such good, such everlasting good? Oh! how can I do this, or that great evil, and sin against him whom I do love! For do you not find that Love forbids, and exceedingly restrains, from grieving, offending, or wronging him, whom you do entirely love?

XIX. Will you ever be able to hold your profes­sion of Christ without sincere love unto him? When trials come, will not such as have no saving love to Christ, turn their backs upon him? Will they that love Riches, Ease, Liberty, Honours, Life, or any thing more than Christ, lease, lose, lay down, these for Christ? What you love most, will you not endeavour to keep longest? These must be harboured, but Christ then shall be abandoned, Mat. 19.21, 22. but if you have not that love that will keep you stedfast and constant, in suffering for Christ on Earth, for want of that love you shall suffer eternally in Hell.

XX. Is it not possible for you to set your love upon Christ? Is it not attainable? Devils cannot love him, but you can. Damned Souls cannot love him, but you can if you would; for have you not the means to help you to love him? Is not he Preached to you? Is not the Spirit striving with you? Will you say you cannot love him though you [Page 175]would? That I utterly deny, for if you were really willing to love him, you could love him; nay, if you do unfeignedly Will to love him, you do love him, for what is Willing but Loving? And what hinders you from Loving, but your not willing to love him? Will you say, you want power? What pow­er do you mean? The Natural faculty or power of the Will? That you have; how else do you Will any thing you do? Will you say you want a power of Willing to love Christ? What is that, but that you are unwilling to love him? And if you cannot, because you will not, the more you plead your Can­not, the more you aggravate your Will not. A Na­tural Power God hath given you, that is a Will, if you lye under a Moral Impotency, that is your Sin; and what is this Moral Cannot, or Impotency, but the averseness of the Will from Christ? There­fore, though without the powerful workings of the Grace and Spirit of God, you cannot love Christ sincerely, yet this Cannot is your Will not; for if by the Grace of God you were enabled to Will, you could, and if you were as willing to love Christ, as some now are, that once were as unwilling as now you be, you could love him as well as they. Why should you stand off, and say, If it were possible for me to love Christ, I would? How! Possible! What! Is there no difference betwixt you and a Devil? Betwixt you and the Damned in Hell? You can love the World; can you do that? You can love your Self; can you do that? Yes. And I suppose you can love Sin too, can you not? To our Grief, and your Shame, we find it: But why can you love World, and Self, and Sin? Is it not because you will? Do you do it against your [Page 176]Will? I wish you did, then there might be more hopes you would be perswaded to love Christ. You can, and do love Sin, because you are willing; have but as great willingness to love Christ, as the World and Sin, and then it may be said, Not only that you can, but do love Christ. However, though I am no Asserter of the Liberty and Power of the Will in things Supernatural, nor an opposer of the necessity of the workings of the Spirit, to enable a Sinner to love Christ, yet it is most manifest that your unwillingness is the hinderance of such Love, and this unwillingness is your weakness; since then your unwillingness (certainly by Grace) might be removed, your Love is possible, therefore cease not till it be actual.

Are ye at length convinced of the Necessity of love to Christ? And are ye at length perswaded to seek it, and willing to get love to him? I shall then next proceed to the Directions, whereby ye might, through Grace, fall in love with Jesus Christ.

CHAP. XII. Ten Directions to get sincere Love to Christ, shewing the way of Love to him.

I. CLearly understand, and be throughly convinced of thy lost Estate, and miserable Condition, for Conviction, sight, and sense of Sin, and of [Page 177]our lost Estate thereby, usually goes before the setting of the Heart and Love upon Jesus Christ; though God doth not deal with all Sinners, in all cir­cumstances, alike, in working and begetting in them consent and love unto his Son, in divers per­sons the measure of Conviction is different, as in the Natural Birth, some are born after more pangs and throws than others are, so in the Spiritual Birth (in which the Love is turned unto, and set upon Christ, the day of this Birth being the day of Espousals) some God dealeth with more gently, with some more roughly. Some he melts like Wax, and some he hews like knotty Wood; some he carri­eth by the Gates of Hell, to the Door of Heaven; and some he brings to Christ, and leads to Heaven with lesser Terrors.

To gain your love to Christ, he expresly threat­ens Damnation that is so great, it cannot be fully ex­pressed, and lets the Sinner know, that Consent and Love he must, or be Damned he must. He doth let in such light into the Mind, that the Soul doth see there is is no way to escape the darkness of Hell, than by consenting to Christ that came from Hea­ven; and Christ presseth hard upon the Conscience of the Sinner, whom he Wooeth for his Love, saying, Poor Sinner! What dost thou mean? To be Damned rather than to have me for thy Sa­viour? To go to Hell with thy Lusts, than to Hea­ven with me the Lord? What wilt thou do? Shall I have thy Love or No? Wilt thou at last con­sent, or wilt thou still refuse? I tell thee plainly, if I and thou part, Hell and thou must meet. I have been Wooing long, and Waiting long, but now it is come to a parting, or a closing point, [Page 178]and it is time for thee to come to a resolution. This is the Case, Deny my Suit, and God will Damn thy Soul: If thou hear not me, thou shalt howl in Hell: If I leave thee, God will leave thee, and Mercy will leave thee, and all Misery will come upon thee. Poor Sinner! Consider the issue of thy final refusal of me, and of denying thy love to me.

1. Will it not be thy being cast into pain of great­est extremity? And how wilt thou do to bear it? If God do but touch thee with his Finger, thou dost sigh and sob, thou dost cry and roar, and canst not rest. O how wilt thou rest, when God shall lay on blows with his Almighty Arm? If pain in thy Head, or sickness at thy Heart, or Gripings in thy Bowels, make thee cry out like a Distracted Man, what wilt thou do to bear the wrath of God in a place prepared on purpose to shew his indignation against Christ-refusing Sinners? When the sorest affliction in this Life, is but as the pricking of a Pin, to the piercing of a Sword, if compared to the Torments of the Damned?

2. Will it not be Misery joined with endless Eternity? And hadst thou rather bear pains extream and eternal too, than Love me, that would deliver thee from them? Doth not a small affliction make one Day or Night seem long, much more if it be heavy? Then in the Night thou askest, Is it not Day? Thou countest the Clock, thou numberest the Hours, and think'st that Time doth pass but slowly on. Would it were but break-a-day that I might rise! But all the time between the Creation and the Dissolution of the World, is but a moment to Eternity: Where there is no striking of Clocks, [Page 179]no telling of Hours, no returns of Night and Day, but always Night, and never Day; never shall be break-a-day. A thousand years shall pass, and ne­ver the less to come. Nay, nothing past, and no­thing to come, and yet more to come than is alrea­dy past; an everlasting 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 Ʋnderstanding 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; [...]hine Eyes in seeing a cursed Crew of Damn [...]d [Page 180]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, [Page 182]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. [Page 183]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 all my Love upon him? His Name is the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord Jesus Christ! Oh blessed Lord, Oh sweetest Jesus, Oh loving, lovely Christ! Lord Jesus Christ! Methinks the sound of his Name is Melody to mine Ears, is Honey to my Taste, is Light unto mine Eyes, a sweet Perfume of precious Ointment; it is Balm to my wounded Conscience, it is a reviving Cordial to my sinking Spirit, to my fainting Soul. Methinks, now you have told me, his Name runs in my Mind, I love to have it (with love and reverence) in my Mouth, and upon my Tongue. The Lord Jesus Christ will help me; the Lord Jesus Christ will save me, if I love him; if I love him that is Lord, and Jesus, and Christ. Oh if the very hearing of his Name hath given this hopes, fain I would know more of him, for surely the more I know of him, the more my Love will be set upon him. Oh that some would tell me more what he is, and what I might do that I might love him! That's next.

IV. Get the Knowledge of Christ, what he is, and what he will be to thee, and dwell on those [Page 184]thoughts, till thou findest thy heart to glow, to burn, to flame in love to him. And to this pur­pose consider,

• 1. His Name, Lord, Jesus, and Christ.
• 2. His Relation to God, yet given for Man.
• 3. His own Excellencies, and undertaking for you.
• 4. His Affection, and what he will be to you.
• 5. His Benefits that he will confer upon you.

1. The consideration of his Name hath much in it to attract and draw thy Love; for he is,

1. Lord. Even Lord of Lords, and King of Kings, the Blessed and only Potentate, 1 Tim. 6.15. He is Lord by vertue of Creation, he gave thee thy Being, brought thee out of Nothing, made thee a Man; he gave thee Understanding, Will, Affections. Now wilt thou love thy Father, and thy Mother, and not thy Maker? He is Lord by right of Redemption, when thou wast in thy Sin worse than Nothing, in Bondage to Satan and Sin, he bought thee out with his own Blood, Act. 20.28. by giving his Soul for thine, Isa. 53.10. his Life for thine, Mat. 20.28. himself for thee, 1 Tim. 2.6. Let the thoughts, how dear he paid for thy good, draw thy Love. He is Lord by universal Jurisdiction, given by the Father. Mat. 28.18. All power is given unto me in Heaven, and in Earth. Joh. 5.22. The father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son. 27. And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. Joh. 17.2. As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou [Page 18]hast given him. Rom. 14.9. For this end Christ both died, rose and revived, that he may be Lord both of the dead and living. Behold, no Lord like this, that hath power to judge and execute, to damn and save; a means this is to beget both fear and love.

2. Jesus. A gracious Name, a Saviour, Mat. 1.21. Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sin. His very Name tells you, what you might expect by him. Jesus! A glorious Name, Phil. 2.9. Wherefore God hath high­ly exalted him, and given him a name above every name. 10. That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow: all be subject unto him. Jesus! A pre­cious Name! Gant. 1.3. This Name is a sweet Perfume, more than all precious Oyntments. Je­sus! A miraculous Name. Acts 3.6. In this name the lame have been made to walk, the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the guilty are justified, the polluted are purged, the aliens reconciled, and sinners sa­ved.

3. Christ. Anointed; Psal. 45.7. God thy God hath anointed thee with the oyl of gladness above thy fellows. Isa. 61.1. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings— If he hath been anointed to be a Saviour to lost Sinners, should not the thoughts of this be an attractive of your love?

2. To gain your love to Christ, consider him in his relation to the Father, who yet gave him foryou. All Beings have some relation to God, but none nearer to him than Christ; who is God's own Son, and that in a sense beyond all Angels that were the [Page 186]Sons of God by creation, Job 38.7. Believers, by Adoption, John 1.12. Gal. 3.26. but Christ by eternal Generation, Psal. 2.7. Christ, God's only begotten Son, such an one he had but one, and yet this only one was given for you. O where is your love? Is not this enough to kindle it in your hearts? Christ was God's dear Son, his very Dar­ling, his daily delight, Prov. 8.30. The Son of his love, Col. 1.13. And shall he not be the Object of yours? Behold the Son of his love was given, and came for the Children of Wrath. And is not he to be beloved upon that account, and for that ve­ry reason? Do men love the Sons of Princes, and will not you love the Son of God? Do you love your own Children, your own Sons and Daugh­ters, and will you not love the Son of God? He did not say, Father, since I am thy Son, why should I suffer and die for thine Enemies? Father, I am thine only Son, and thou hast not another in Heaven or Earth, as I am; why then should I be crowned with Thorns, that Sinners might have a Crown of Glory? But this only Son did die for Rebels; the Son of God's Bosom, lay in the Bosom of the Earth. Dear Saviour! Thou art worthy of every man's bosom-love.

3. To attract and draw your Love, consider how wonderful Christ is in himself, and in his under­takings for you, and then love him with wonderful love; for if you should not love, it would be wonderful. Isa. 9.6. His name shall be called Won­derful.

1. Christ was wonderful in his Conception and Birth, Isa. 7.14. Behold, a virgin shall conceive, [Page 187]and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Luke 1.35. The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; there­fore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God. Behold, Mary a Mo­ther, and yet a Virgin. Wonderful! Mary that bore Jesus was a Sinner, and yet Jesus born of her was without Sin or Spot. Wonderful!

2. In his Person. He was Man, and yet he was God; he was God, and yet he was Man, 1 Tim. 3.16. Wonderful!

3. In his Works and Operations. He healed the sick without medicines, he opened the Eyes of a man born blind with Clay and Spittle, John 9.1.6.7. cast out Devils, with a word did calm the raging Sea, Matth. 8.26, 27. All wonderful!

4. In his Death and Passion. Matth. 27.50. Je­sus when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the Ghost. 51. And behold the vail of the temple was rent in twain, from the top to the bottom, and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent. 52. And the graves were opened, and many bodies of Saints which slept, arose. And before, ver. 45. From the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. All wonderful!

5. In his Resurrection, John 10.18. The Dead were raised by him, and he being dead was raised by himself. Wonderful!

6. In his Ascension, Acts 1.9, 10, 11. The Dis­ciples stood gazing and looking, and wondring at his going up to Heaven.

Now was this wonderful Jesus, born in s [...]ch a wonderful manner, lived doing Wonders, dyed with Wonders, rose by a Wonder, and wonder­fully [Page 188]ascended into Glory, and all this for the sake and salvation of lost Sinners, if ye will not love him, will it not be the Wonder of Angels, of De­vils, and all the Creation of God? Might not An­gels wonder at you, and Devils wonder at you, and the Saints of God at his coming wonder at you? Behold, so many of you as will not love this wonderful Jesus, shall be the Wonder of the World at the last day.

7. Nay yet more, he was the Ancient of Days; from all Eternity, John 8.58. and 17.5. Prov. 8.22, 31. and yet he became a Babe for you.

8. He was cloathed with Majesty, Heb. 1.3. and yet for your sakes did subject himself to greatest Ignominy, Isa. 50.6.

9. He was eminent for Beauty above all men, Psal. 45.3. And yet for you his Countenance was marred more than any man's, Isa. 52.14.

10. He was mighty in Power, by his Word com­manded Devils, stilled the Sea, supporteth the World, yet for you dyed like a weak man.

11. He was perfect in Holiness, without spot or guile, and yet standing in your room was greatly accused of Blasphemy.

12. He was full of Wisdom, Col. 2.3. yet deri­ded and laughed to scorn for you.

13. He is judge of all the World, and yet for you condemned at the Barr of Men, to take away your sins, and (if ye would love him) to prevent your being condemned at the Barr of God. All this is wonderful: And yet that such a wonderful Person did so wonderfully condescend, and after all this should not be beloved by you, will be and is won­derful shame.

4. To draw your love to Christ, consider what he will be to you. For relation breeds affection. The love of Christ to you, should beget love in you to Christ. What will he be to thee, if thou wilt love him! He will be thy Bridegroom and thy Hus­band, the richest Match that can be offered or mo­tion'd to thee. He will be thy Shepherd, and gather thy Soul unto his Fold, and save thee from the de­stroying Wolf. He will be thy Redeemer, by price to buy thee out of the hands of revenging Justice, and by Power to rescue thee out of the Jaws of the roaring Lion. He will be thy Priest and Surety to pay thy Debt, and reconcile thee unto God. He will be thine Advocate to plead thy Cause against Satan thine Accuser, and will continually appear before the Father for thee, 1 John 2.2. He will be thy King and Captain, to conquer thine Enemies, and trample them under thy feet. Is there nothing in all these things to gain thy Love, to woo and win thy heart to this blessed Jesus? How canst thou for shame deny him? Canst thou go out of this place this day, and not plight him thy truth? not give him thy love? Oh say, this is he whom I will love?

5. Moreover, let this powerfully draw thy love to Christ, what benefits thou mayst have by him, in respect of deliverance from evil, he would then de­liver thee from the guilt and power of sin, Matth. 1.21. from the tyranny of Satan, Luke 11.22. Heb. 2.14. from the Curse of the Law, Gal. 4.4. from the Wrath to come, 1 Thess. 1.10. Rom. 5.10. and from the sting of Death and Damnation of Hell, [Page 190]1 Cor. 15.54, 55, 56. in respect of the collation of good; he will reconcile thee unto God, and bring thee into the Adoption of Children; purge thy Heart, justifie thy Person, procure audience of thy Prayers, stand by thee at Death, and save thee for ever.

Now poor Sinner! what dost thou think of this Lord Jesus Christ, that makes a motion for thy affection? Tell me, as before God, would not thy love be better bestowed upon this Christ, than upon the World and Sin? Thou darest say no otherwise with thy mouth, Oh say so also unfeignedly in thy heart, and give it him as thou sayst, and I have my end of preaching this lovely Jesus to thee, and Christ will have the end of his dying for thee, and thou wilt have that good by hearing, which was not in thy heart to aim at when thou camest within these doors; that camest a slighter of Christ, and goest away a lover of Christ; that camest from thy house to this with an heart cleaving in love un­to the World and Sin, but returnest from this unto thy own, with the love of sin turn'd out, and with the love of Christ entred into thy heart, will make thee say, O blessed change! How much is this new love better than my old! O blessed Word, that it ever sounded in my ears, and God brought it to my heart! O blessed day! the day of days! the best day I ever had! This day shall be recorded by me, for this day Christ and I did fall in love. Some come to a Sermon, and by their wandring eyes and roving filthy hearts fall in love with a Crea­ture, but I came, I confess I know not why nor how, and God hath been in mercy pleased to change my heart and love, which is the best change [Page 191]I ever made; for this is the sweetest love I ever found. But it may be this is not yet the happy Case of some others, thereto to such I add,

V. When thou hast got this knowledge of Christ, willingly entertain him, and heartily receive him as offered in the Gospel, and resign thy self to him; and when he hath propriety in thee, and thou in him, love will arise in thy heart to him. Faith is the Root, and Love is the Flower that groweth upon it; and Faith thus implanted will quickly work by love, Gal. 6.5. When by Faith he is thy Christ, and thy Lord and Saviour, he will certainly be the beloved of thy Soul. The Foundation of Love is laid in the relation to the person that is the object of love, and propriety and interest doth beget it; you love that which is your own, because it is your own. Your Children, your Wife, your Husband, above all others. And you will love Christ, when once by Faith he is your own. Cant. 2.16. I am my beloveds, and my beloved is mine. Then all other things, which now are highly valued by you, will be accounted as dross. Phil. 3.8. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but dross in comparison of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.

VI. Pray much to God to work this Love in your hearts to Christ; it is the Fruit of the Spirit, and wrought by him. It is your Duty, but it is God's Gift; it is your Act, but it is God's Work. Eph. 6.23. Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith from God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only Peace is from God, that is the God of [Page 192]Peace, and Faith from him the Worker of it, but Love is from God that is the God of Love. Love to Christ must be had from God and Christ, or you will never have it. For this the Apostle prayed for others, 2 Thess. 3.5. And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ: And you may be the more encouraged to ask for this, because such a Petition is pleasing to God, that you beg an heart to love his Son, rather than for Riches, and Honours, and length of Life in this world, as in that of Solomon's, in asking for Wisdom, 1 Kings 3.9, 10. And in your praying be earnest for love to Christ, more than for your Life; for love to him will be to you everlasting Life; and take that Promise and turn it into a Prayer, and then most like to be effectual, Deut. 30.6. And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayst live.

VII. Improve the Principle of self-love to the pro­moting of love to Jesus Christ; and say, Do not I love my self? Have I not so much love to my own Soul, as to wish it well for ever? Would I have my self miserable and accursed for ever? If I be sick, do not I love my self so far as to desire health? If in pain, to desire ease? If in want, to seek supply? And is there any way for me to pro­cure good, everlasting good, but by Jesus Christ? I might love my self, to please my self in sinful de­lights, to destroy my self and damn my self, with­out loving of Christ: But such Self-love at last will prove Self-hatred; and is that the best love, I [Page 193]have for my self? Surely if I love not Christ, I hate my self.

VIII. Make use of the sense of natural and friend­ly Love to raise in thee Love to Jesus Christ. Thou hast some experience of the sweetness and delight there is in loving of a Friend, Oh then what will be the delight of love to Christ! Thou feelest what it is to love thy Parents, to love thy Children, thy Wife, thy Husband; if thou meetest with trou­bles, Love doth make them light. Is there so much sweetness in the love of a Creature, and will there not be much more in the love of the Saviour? If the Streams be sweet, is not the Fountain much more? I have found comfort and pleasure in the love of Relations, I will now try what is to be found in love to Christ the Lord.

IX. Improve the vanity and vexation of the Crea­ture, and all thy disappointments and afflictions, to raise and promote in thee the love of Christ. Thou hast let out thy love upon the world, how hath it proved? and what hath it afforded thee? Hast thou not found it to be a wearisom empty world? A world of Care, and Grief, and Pain? Thou hast looked for Ease, and behold Trouble; for Content, and behold Vexation; for Satisfaction, and behold Emptiness; and is this a World to be loved more than Christ? Is not it's Sweetness, sowre? It's Mirth, Sorrow? It's Riches, poor? Oh then I must love Christ, or have nothing to love, out Vanity and Deceit.

When by the Word this Love is not wrought, God might effect it by the Rod. When thou wast [Page 194]deaf to all Instructions, God can open thy Ear and Heart by some Affliction, and shake thee over the grave, if thereby he might shake the love of the World and Sin out of thy Heart; and by threat­ning thee by sickness, that thou shalt have no lon­ger room in the World, make room for the love of Christ in thy Heart; and by threatning to sepa­rate thy Soul and Body, he might part thy Soul and the love of sin. By some sickness he brings thee to the brink of the Grave, and bids thee look where thou must lodge; and then to the borders of Hell, and bids thee look where thou must lie, if thou wilt not hearken to his Son. He lays thee on thy weary Bed, and shews thee a sight of ano­ther World, and thy nearness to it, and doth threat­en a Divorce of Soul and Body, that thou mightest be willing thy sin might be divorced from thy Soul, that thy Soul might love, and be married to his Son; of which some have had such good experience, that they can say, This was healthful sickness, recovering weakness. The view of Death, the means of Love and Life. If I had not been sick, I had not been well; if God had not shewn me Death, I had never seen Life: If I had not been filled with these fears, I had past my days without hope; if I had not been brought into these straits, I had never been set at li­berty: If I had not been poor, I had never been rich; if I had not been empty, I had never been filled; if I had not been driven to feed on husks, I had never been feasted in my Father's House; if I had not found bitterness in the love of the Creature, I had never tasted the sweetness of the Love of Christ.

X. Improve all the mercies thou receivest from God, and look upon them as Love-tokens sent to gain thy love. Love-tokens often take our love; and such silent Gifts are very Rhetorical. The Cloaths upon thy back, thy Meat and Drink, thy Bed, thy Health, thy ease from Pain, bespeak the Love of thy Heart for Christ. By sin thou hast deserved thou shouldst have no Bread to put into thy mouth, that Sleep should depart from thine Eyes; thy Bed should be filled with Thorns, thy Body with Dis­eases, thy Conscience with Horrour, thy Heart with Fears, thy Soul with Sorrows, thy Life with Bitterness, but Christ hath bought good things for thee by his Blood, and hath given them to thee from his Bounty; and by all these he pleads with thee, that thou wouldst not deny thy love to him, that is so kind to thee.

Nay, thy very being on God's Earth, thy breath­ing in his Air, that thy Body is above ground, and thy Soul on this side Hell; that thou art not silent among the dead, nor crying out among the dam­ned, is a great Love-token indeed. For Justice would have cut thee down long since, Sin these 20, 40, 60 years hath cried to Heaven that thou may'st be pack'd to Hell; Devils have long desired the day of thy death, hoping it will prove the day of thy damnation; but this hath been Christ's love to thee, to beg for thee longer time, even time un­to this day; but for how much longer he might ask on thy behalf, is more than is known to thee or me, or any man.

And is not love in Christ the cause of all this good to thee? And should not Love in thee to [Page 196]Christ be the fruit and return of all this good from Christ to thee? As the goodness and long-suffering of God should lead us to repentance for sin, so also to love unto his Son. Doth not the kindness of a man shewn to another beget love from him that receives it, to him that doth confer it? And shall not the kindness, God for Christ's sake hath shewn to thee, far surpassing the kindness of men, allure and draw thy love to him? Dost thou ask, What shall I return to Christ, that died to satisfie God's Ju­stice, to make Salvation possible to me? I answer, Love. And what, for the tenders of mercy, and the offers of Grace made to me? I answer, Love. And what must I return for his patient bearing with me, that I am not dead and damned? I answer, Love, Love, Love. And what must I return to Christ for my hopes of Heaven, or eternal happiness? Or if I have not well-grounded actual hope, that yet I am not past hope, but live in hope, that by the use of means I may have a lively hope of an incorruptible Crown? I answer still, Love. Un­feigned Love, sincere and hearty Love. So love, and then hope; love strongly, and then thy hope will be lively. Love him thus, and then in the next and last Use I will tell thee what comfort and joy this love may bring into thy heart.

CHAP. XIII. Ten Springs of Spiritual Comfort flowing into the Hearts of the Lovers of Christ.

LOvest thou the Lord Jesus! Blessed Soul! Lovest thou Christ? Happy Man! Lovest thou him that is Lord, and Jesus, and Christ? Joy in thy Love. For great is the difference between the Lovers of Pleasures and the Lovers of Christ; be­twixt the Lovers of the World, and the Lovers of Christ; betwixt the Lovers of Sin, and the Lovers of Christ: For the Lovers of Pleasures shall be filled with pain, when their Pleasures are gone; but so shall not the Lovers of Christ, for their eternal Love to Christ, will be eternal Pleasure to them.

2. The Lovers of the World shall lose all they love; though they do not love to lose, yet they shall certainly lose all they love; but so shall not the Lovers of Christ; for they love and long to see him; and in seeing him for ever, shall have and love him for ever.

3. The Lovers of Sin shall be condemned for their Love, must to their Lodgings in Hell, where Love is a stranger; but so shall not the Lovers of Christ, but shall be taken up to their Mansions in Heaven, and shall dwell in Light, and Life, and Love for ever. Where Light shall be the Life of Love; [Page 198]and their Life shall be the Love of Light, and Love shall shine and sparkle in Light and Life for ever­more. Now we believe, but do not see Christ, nor ever have, for we walk by faith and not by sight; though we have not seen him, yet believing we love him; believing and loving without seeing brings rejoycing, unspeakable and full of Glory. Oh what will that Joy then be, when believing shall be turned into seeing, when we shall not believe and love, but see and love! That Joy that now pro­ceeds from Believing and Loving is unspeakable, but that Joy that shall flow from Seeing and Loving is unconceivable. 1 Pet. 1.18. Whom having not seen ye love, in whom though now ye see him not, yet be­lieving, ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

I promised to shew you the Comfort, the Bles­sings, the Joy that Love to Christ will bring unto you; but I confess plainly I am posed. It is above my shallow understanding; here is a Depth, I can­not sound it; here is an Height, I cannot reach it; here is a Length and Breadth, I cannot compass it. As in the love of Christ unto the believing Soul, so in the love and joy that proceeds from the love of the believing Soul to Christ; The one is without measure, the other is above my measure. How shall I speak that which is unspeakable? and utter that which is unutterable? Will ye excuse me then, if I do not what I did purpose to do? And will ye loose me from my Promise, when what I did pro­mise, I find upon the attempt of performance, it is above my Power? Or will ye tye me to do, because I promised, what I am not able? If so, will ye pardon my Weakness, wherein I shall come [Page 199]short, if I tell you a way, whereby ye your selves shall be able to supply my defect? That is, Do ye so believe and love, that ye might feel what I cannot speak, and find that by Experience which cannot be uttered by Expressions; and taste that in your selves, which I cannot declare with my Tongue. The Tongue is the Instrument of Taste, as well as of Speech; and if ye would know the sweetness of Honey, ye might do it better with the tasting of your own Tongue, than by the telling of mine. But yet that ye may see my Will to attempt, where I want Power, I will not be altogether silent con­cerning these unspeakable things: For as we should labour to know the love of Christ to us, which pas­seth knowledge, Eph. 3.19. so we may endeavour to declare things that be unspeakable: To speak things that be unspeakable is impossible; but to speak something of, or concerning things unspeak­able, (wherein I must acquiesce) is feasible: Tho' I do not undertake to bring you all things speak­able concerning these unspeakable things; but these few follow.

I. Love to Christ is an evidence of the sincerity of your Hearts, and of the truth of your Conversion. He that loves the World, is a world [...]y man; and he that loves his Pleasure most, is a voluptuous man; and he that loves Christ with a predominant Love, is a gracious, upright man. Cant. 1.4. The upright love thee. Such love to the second Adam is not sound in any man that is still growing upon the old stock of the first Adam. This love to Christ was not born with us, but wrought in us when we were born again. This new Love only is in the new Creature: Love to Christ is an evidence of your [Page 200]Interest in Christ. Such predominant Love to the Lord Jesus, so Spiritual, was never found in any Heart, that is only carnal: The Proof therefore of this predominant Affection, will be a demon­stration of your Spiritual Renovation. Christ sift­ing Peter concerning his sincerity after his Fall, when sifted by Satan, enquires after his Love to him, John 21.15, 16, 17. Rom. 8.28.

II. All the Promises of the Covenant of Grace shall be made good to all those that sincerely love the Lord Jesus. These Promises are many, great, precious, and all su [...]e to the Lovers of Christ. God in the Covenant hath promised he will be your God; and all that is contained in that Promise is unspeakable; for it is more, than that he will be your Friend, your Father, or bountiful Benefactor; or however, 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 [Page 201]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 d [...]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 [Page 202]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 [Page 203]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 no [...] Christ. While thou wast in thy Sin, thy Sin was in thee, as Lord and Ruler; but now thou hast changed thy Love, thou hast changed not only the Lodgers, but the Governours and Rulers of thine Heart, for now the Father is come, and the Son is come, and the Holy Ghost is come, and have taken up their abode in thee. Will God dwell in Hearts of Clay? Yes, if Love to him dwell there.

V. Christ will manifest himself unto his Lovers: He will discover his Love, and that in the worst condition ye can be in. While ye are in Prosperity, many may manifest much Love unto you, but when [Page 205]ye are afflicted, distressed, and stand most in need of their Help and Love, will with-hold it from you. Job 19.13. He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me. 14. My kinsfolk have failed, and my fami­liar friends have forgotten me. 15. They that dwell in my house, and my maids, count [...] me for a stranger; I am an alien in their sight. 16. I called my servant, but he gave me no answer; I entreated him with my mouth. 17. My breath is strange to my wife, though I entreated for the chil­drens sake of mine own body. 19. All my inward friends abhorred me, and they whom I loved are turned against me: But Christ that dwells in the Hearts of his Lovers, is to them a Bosom friend, that he makes the time of their greatest Troubles and Distresses, to be the time of the discoveries and manifestations of his love. Isa. 63.9. In all their afflictions he was afflicted, and the Angel of his presence saved them: in his love, and in his pity, he redeemed them, and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old. And if he with­draw, and for a time conceal his love, it is to make them more earnest in seeking after him, and for fuller discoveries of his love to them afterwards, Cant. 3.1, 2, 3.

VI. All things shall work together, for the good of them that love God and Jesus Christ: Nothing shall befall them, but first or last shall further them in their way to Heaven, and tend to their advantage. Many things seem to be against you, but all shall work for you. If you be in Prison, your Heart shall be the more enlarged. If you lose the things [Page 206]of the World, your Heart shall be the more set on the things of Heaven. If you be sick and weakly, it shall quicken you, and stir you up to make more haste to get ripe for Heaven. If you be Poor in the World, it shall further your Riches in Grace. Whatever be the Cross, it shall increase the weight of your Crown. Rom. 8.28. And we know that all things work together for good, to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

VII. Sincere love to Christ, is a mighty help against Apostacy. If a man be a Professor, and a Lover of the World, a Professor, and a Lover of Pleasure, of his own Ease, and Life, more than of Christ, when these come in danger, to keep them, he parts with Christ; but he that loveth Christ above all, will part with all, to cleave to Christ. Love to Christ, hath carried his people through great difficulties and dangers; out of love to Christ, they have contemned the Allurements, and laughed at the Affrightments of this World, have gone through Shame and Reproach, endured Stripes and Imprisonments, Bonds and Bondage, and Death it self. Rom. 8.35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? (Whether it be understood Active­ly or Passively, of the love wherewith we love Christ, or the love whereby we are beloved by Christ, is not material, for concerning both we might ask) Shall Tribulation, or Distress, or Per­secution, or Famine, or Nakedness, or Peril, or Sword? 37. Nay, in all these things ( [...], we over-overcome) we are more than conquerors, through him that loved us. 38. For I am perswa­ded, [Page 207]that neither Death, nor Life, nor Angels, nor Principalities, nor Powers, nor things present, nor things to come. 39. Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. If any leave Christ, it is for want of love; for so far as love prevails, we shall, in greatest Troubles and Sufferings for him, cleave unto him.

VIII. The Lovers of Christ shall be always un­der his Eye for good: He will be looking upon them, in order to the shewing of Mercy unto them. He looks upon the Lovers of the World, and Sin, with an Eye of Observation and Indigna­tion; he looks, and takes notice of their sinful love; he looks, and is angry with them for such love; but he looks upon his Lovers with an Eye of Com­passion, to pity, and to tender them. Psal. 119.132. Look thou upon me, and be merciful unto me, as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name.

God useth to do so, it is his way, his manner and custom of dealing so, with such as love him; it is not a strange thing to God, nor a thing that he doth but now and then, but it is his daily custom to look upon his Lovers, and shew them Mercy. Psal. 145.20. The Lord preserveth all them that love him, but the wicked (that do not love him) will he destroy.

IX. The Lovers of Christ have great preparations made by God himself, for their entertainment in the other World: For all the Lovers of the World, and Sin and Vanity, is Wrath and Hell prepared, but [Page 208]for the Lovers of Christ, such things as do transcend the most refined Wit to conceive, the most eloquent Tongue to express, or the ablest Pen to describe. 1 Cor. 2.9. Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entred into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

1. The Eye of Man hath seen admirable things, Coasts of Pearl, Golden Mines, stately Monu­ments, Kingly Palaces, costly Raiments, but never Eye hath seen such things as God hath prepared for them that love him.

2. The Ear hath heard of more than the Eye hath seen, and many hear of the joys of Heaven whose Eyes shall never see them.

3. The Heart of Man can conceive more than the Eye hath seen, or the Ear hath heard; it can imagine all Pebles to be Pearls, all the Earth to be a silver Heap, the Sea to be liquid Gold, the Air trans­parent Chrystal, every Star to be a Sun: And if all these were so, they would be but as a Sand to a Mountain, a Beam to the Sun, a Drop to the Ocean, a Grain to a Golden Mine, compared with the things that are prepared for such as love God and Christ, for those things are so great, they cannot be measured, so many, they cannot be numbred, so precious, they cannot be valued, so long and last­ing, they will never be ended; they exceed our Faith, they are beyond our Hope, above our De­sires, they might be possessed hereafter, but they can­not be comprehended here, because,

For Sublimity, they are Incomprehensible, for Transcendency Inexplicable, for Glory Ʋnutterable, for Sweetness Ʋnconceiveable, for Sureness Ʋnquestio­nable, for Fulness Ʋnmeasurable, for Firmness Ʋn­moveable, for Lastingness Ʋnchangeable.

1. For God hath prepared and promised such as love him, a Kingdom. Jam. 2.5. Hearken my belo­ved brethren, hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the Kingdom, which he hath promised to them that love him? A Kingdom is the top of Worldly Honour, and when those that love Christ shall be in Heaven, they shall be in their Kingdom, far surpassing all other Kingdoms, for it is the Kingdom of God, Mat. 6.33. 1 Cor. 6.9, 10. others are but the Kingdoms of Men: Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven, others, the best, but the King­doms of this World, 2 Tim. 4.18. Theirs is an everlasting Kingdom, 2 Pet. 1.11. others, in their greatest flourishing, are near to withering, and that which lasteth longest will have an end.

2. God hath prepared for his Lovers a Crown of Life. Jam. 1.12. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation, for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. A crown of glory, 1 Pet. 5.4. A crown of righteousness, 2 Tim. 4.8. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.

3. Such as have sincere Love, have lively hope of an Inheritance; all Christ-lovers are Heirs, and their Inheritance is Incorruptible, no end of it, and they live to enjoy it for ever. It is Ʋndefiled, no spot nor stain in it; no Sin nor Sorrow, no Grief nor Groans, no Troubles nor Terrors, to mosest and disquiet them. It fadeth not, it is always in the Flower; it doth always blossom, there is Summer without Winter, Spring without Autumn. It is [Page 210]safe in it self, it is reserved in a sure Hand, in Gods own keeping. It is sure to us, we are kept by the power of God, the Inheritance is reserved for us; we are preserved by God, that no sorce, nor fraud, shall make his sincere Lovers come short of it. It is in Heaven: The place where an Inheritance doth lye, addeth to the valuation of it; no place like Heaven, no Inheritance like that which lyes in Heaven.

4. God hath prepared Glory for the Lovers of his Son; Glory that now is a Mystery, and is to be re­vealed, Rom. 8.18. Eternal glory, 1 Pet. 5.10. Eternal weight of glory, 2 Cor. 4.17.

X. The Grace of God shall be with the sincere Lo­vers of Christ. Grace signifies sometimes the favour of God, and sometimes the good things that do proceed from his Grace and Favour; so that both the good will and kindness of God, and all manner of good that is the Fruit of Gods special favour, necessary to the life of Grace, and Glory, shall be to the Lovers of Christ. Eph. 6.24. Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen.

CHAP. XIV. The CONCLƲSION.

AND now (beloved Hearers) what is the issue of all that I have said, and ye have heard, upon this Subject? Have I gained any of your love [Page 211]to Christ? Or are ye still in love with the World, and Pleasures, and Profits, and Honours, thereof? Are ye in love with Sin and Self, more than with Christ, after all the Arguments and Pleadings of Grace and Mercy for your Hearts, and hearty Love, to be placed on the blessed Son of the most blessed God? Did ye love Sin, and will ye love it still? Did ye love the World, and will ye do so still? Did ye not love Christ, and do ye not yet, and will ye not? is this the answer I must return to him that sent me? Lord, I cannot gain their love unto thy Son; fain I would, but I cannot. I have asked them in thy Name, but they will not. I have studied for this purpose, and Prayed and Preached for this purpose, but I have studied in vain, and my Labour with so many is lost Labour. I have delivered my Mes­sage, but they will not hearken. I have entreated for their Love, not for my Self, but for thy Son, but many will not consent. Why, Sirs! Did I find you full of Love to Self, and Sin, and World, and after all, must I leave you so? I found you void of the Love of Christ, and must I leave you so? Why then did I Preach, and why did ye Hear? Did ye come day after day resolved, Say what I could, ye would do what ye list? Shall that blessed Jesus, that hath been set forth before you, be still thus despised, and set at naught by you? Did I find the Anathema upon you, and must I leave it upon you, till Maranatha? What if God should say, he that after all these Entreaties, Calls, Invitations, to love Christ, yet loveth the World, Let him love the World; and he that loveth Sin, Let him love his Sin, Let him love his Pleasures, Let him love what he will, since he will not be perswaded to love whom he [Page 212]oshuld? Oh dreadful Curse! Oh heavy Wrath! Oh sad presage of the Curse, that shall fall upon such Souls when Christ shall come, and after that, lye and abide upon them for ever!

Speak therefore in thy Heart, Sinner, and return thine Answer, for it may be this might be to thee the last time of Asking; Wilt thou give Christ thy Love, or wilt thou not? Thy sincere, not thy pre­tended Love? Wilt thou consent and promise, be­fore thou stirrest out of this place, to love Christ more than all, beyond all, and above all? Or wilt thou deny him such love, and keep it for, and place it still upon thy old beloved sinful Objects? Sayst thou so? What, must I, to my Sorrow, and thy Woe, as to thee, end as I did begin? I had ho­ped I might have bid thee joy of thy new Love, and matchless Match, in thy consenting to Love, and accept of this Blessed Jesus for thy Lord and Hus­band; but if thou wilt not, I must say what I would not. Lord, I am loth to say it, but it is what thou dost say, and I cannot alter it; yet, if I must say it, let it be with a pained, and a sorrowful Heart, and as my Mouth shall drop the Word, let mine Eyes drop so many Tears, whilst at thy command I must pronounce, If any man love not the Lord Je­sus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.

But must this be the Sentence I must leave upon you all, that at the beginning of this Text had no love to Jesus Christ? What, is there not one amongst you all that can say, Before I did love my Pleasures, but now I love Christ? I did love my Sin, but now I love my Lord and Saviour? My love is turned into another Channel? I have found another object for my love? I would not for a thousand Worlds have died [Page 213]before I had sincere love to Christ? Not only one, but many of you, can say so, or else ye have base­ly dissembled, both with God, and this Congrega­tion. Many of you that did not love the Lord Je­sus Christ, now do, or ye have been wretched Hy­pocrites, while ye have been Hearers of these Ser­mons; for what did ye mean by all those Bills that ye did give in, day after day, ten or twenty in a day, acknowledging your former Sin, till now, in loving other things, and not Christ? Why did ye say, Ye never were convinced of the necessity of loving Christ before? I beseech you, Why have ye so many, and so often, with such earnest Re­quests, even for Jesus sake, and as we had any love for your Souls, desire Me, and the Congregation, to beg with Importunity, that God would give you such an Heart now, that ye might love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity; above all, with a Superlative Love, with a Predominant Love, with all your Heart, and with all your Soul, that you might not be Anathema when Maranatha? Were not these your own Words? Did not the Congregation hear them Read? When I reviewed your Papers at Home, did not I sind these Words, and such like, whereby ye did ex­press the former Condition, and the present Desires of your Souls? Tell me then, were ye in good earnest, or did ye jest with God and Men, in desiring Prayers that ye might so love the Lord Jesus? If so, repent of your Hypocrisie; lament your double Dealings; bitterly bewail such cursed Dissemblings. If ye were in earnest, and your Hearts, as well as your Hands, did guide your Pens, in Writing such De­sires, and ye have indeed changed your Love; or rather, God hath turned your Love from Sin unto [Page 214]his Son, from the World unto himself, I shall have cause to bless God that I Preached, and ye heard what was spoken of this subject; then are ye my Joy, and Crown, and Rejoycing, both now, and at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And to you that have this love wrought in your Hearts so lately, and to all the rest that had like love to him before, I wish all the Blessings that are contained in that Prayer of the Apostle, with which he concludeth his Epistle; and I this subject, Eph. 6.24. Grace be with all them that love the Lord Jesus in sincerity. Amen.