THE TRIAL OF A CHRISTIANS SINCERE LOVE UNTO CHRIST. By Mr WILLIAM PINK, Mr of Arts late Fellow of Magdalen College in OXFORD. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Ignat. Ep. ad Rom. THE THIRD EDITION. AT OXFORD, Printed by LEONARD LICHFIELD, for EDWARD FORREST Anno Dom. 1636. TO THE HONOURABLE AND TRULY Noble Lord, the Lord GEORGE DIGBY, Son and Heir of the Right Honourable the Earl of BRISTOL. Right Honourable and my very Good Lord, THAT I have presumed to present to your Lordship's Patronage, these few Sermons of a deceased worthy friend, it is not so much the acknowledgement of those great favours and noble respects wherewith you were pleased to grace Him, and since his death have vouchsafed to extend to me your unworthy servant as a due consideration (if in Dedications matchablenesse be to be regarded (how properly and peculiarly they do belong to your Lordship both in respect of the Author and the Argument. The Author was one, whom, for his singular dexterity in the Arts, depth of judgement, sharpness of wit, and especially his skill in languages, Hebrew, Greek, Arabic, you were pleased to make choice of for one of your Readers during your abode at Magdalen College in Oxon, in which time you so obliged him by the abundant testimonies of your good affection to him, that He oft professed to me how great & just an interest your merits claimed in all his studies and labours. This which you here see is but an Essay to some masterpiece which you might have expected, if he had lived to finish what he attempted in the Greek Antiquities, & observations on the Hebrew Text. For the matter, it being a Theme of the weightiest business in Christianity, the groundwork of all; which if it be not first rooted in the heart, all other our conclusions and speculations in Divinity will be but like the building a Castle in the air, and may give the soul content perhaps, of a rare speculation, but cannot of a powerful, experimental, soule-quickning, and soul saving Religion: The Argument, I say, being such, as I could not harden myself against the requests of some who desired the publishing thereof for the good many souls might reap by it, so neither could I think any, fitter to Patronage a Theme of piety, than one who showed himself amongst us, both a Patron & an example of it. I would be as far from flattery as you are from the want of it, and I would not, you should look yourself in a false Glass: overweening in any man is a thing that exposeth to secret contempt, whensoever the weakness shall be espied, but Great men so much the more, by how much they are the more observed, and have occasion oftener to come upon the stage. You remember what manner of man he was, serious in his studies, devout & strict in an holy conversation, the things you loved in him, and imitated: A singular O men, when Noble men begin betimes to be countenancers of goodness and good men: so persevere to do like a good Obadiah * 1 King. 18. the Church shall bless you and God shall honour you, * 1 Sam. 2. 30. For those that honour him, he will honour, and them that despise him he will cover with shame, either by bringing on them some notable judgement, or by giving them up to such headlong courses and filthy vices, whereby their honour shall be stained, their estates wasted, themselves and their posterity ruined (it being not unusual with God to punish men by their own devices and sins wherein they delight.) And so doth your Lordship persevere to do, I will not load your modesty with a slender report of your own worth: What perhaps I ought to say, your Lordship may guess by what the people do say of you, and what I should commend unto you (if I were able or worthy) by what the world expects from you: I know there is nothing more vain then to live by opinion, by what men say or expect; opinion is but an ill rule and governess of our lives and actions (another man's measure being too long, or too short for me) yet this use we may make of it; when men begin to applaud and take notice of that which ourselves have the greatest reason to study & affect, it may serve to raise our virtues to an higher pitch, than our own privity could lightly bring them, the love & practise of any good increasing with the acceptance it finds abroad: But I forget what I have in hand, I close all with apprecation of all happiness to your Lordship: the God of joseph double upon you the blessings of joseph, * Deut. 33. 13. 6. Blessed let him make you for the precious things of Heaven, and of the deep that coucheth beneath, for the precious things of the Earth, & the fullness thereof, but especially, for the good will of him, that dwelled in the Bush: Do worthily in Ephratah; * Ruth. 4. 11. and be you famous in our Isreal: The seeds of Virtue and pious education wherewith your tender years have been seasoned, let them bud and yield their pleasant & wholesome fruit in their seasons. I still trespass. Moneo, quod facis Spondes digna tuis ingentibus omnia coeptis. Virg. Aen. 9▪ Shirburn. jul. 7. 1630. Your Lordship's humble and devoted servant, WILLIAM LYFORD. To the Reader. COurteous Reader: I here present thee with some pieces & fragments of an entire and just discourse intended by the Author, concerning that useful & worthy Argument, the sincerity and trial of a Christians love to Christ: It was the glory of the last age, that among other miracles, God blessed it with the resurrection of Leraning, it being being a time wherein lived and flourished men famous for learning and piety, who sent abroad into the world many large volumes for the vindicating of God's true Religion and worship from Barbarism, Error, and Superstition: And 'tis a part of the happiness of this our Age, that (beside the same truth still maintained) it hath sent forth many famous Treatises concerning the nature of faith, the power and practise of Religion. Amongst which, this would not have been of the least note, if the Author himself had lived to finish it: A continuation and perfecting whereof I cannot hope for from others, much less dare I presume to attempt it myself, as ever loathing that solecism, Hor. Art. Poet. — ut turpitèr atrum Desinat in piscem mulier formosa supernè. Take therefore these Sermons as they were delivered and left by him: What is done in them I had rather should appear to thy judgement in the serious reading, then from my opinion of them: only let me entreat thee to read them with the same spirit they were written (for that's the way to profit by other men's works) and content not thyself to trifle away some odd hour in them, but reserve them to some of thy most retired thoughts and severest meditations, so mayst thou by God's blessing find something to strengthen the assurances of thy hopes by Christ, and to increase thy future care and love to sincerity. In which respests, if they profit any into whose hands they come, I shall less blame the importunity of some who for that cause earnestly desired them, and the less regard the censure of others, who may haply mislike the publishing of them. As his conversation was sweet, so is his memory precious, to me as to any other: Neither can I think it any way stained by the service of love, wherein I chose rather to give life to some things of His, than that all should die with him. All the good be thine, and all the Glory, Gods. Farewell. Thine in the truest Bond. W. LYFORD. 1. COR. 16. V. 22. If any man love not the Lord jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha. SAINT PAUL being now to close up his Epistle to the Corinthians, and having thus far used the help of a Scribe is willing to give them the farewell salutation in his own hand-writing: The salutation of me Paul with my own hand, in the verse before my Text. His salutation in this as in all the rest of his Epistles is a solemn Apostolical benediction, wishing them the grace & favour of God in jesus Christ in the verse following my Text. But now knowing too well how many false brethren there were at Corinth, who were content indeed to profess Christ for some outward carnal respects, The misery of those that profess Christ for outward carnal respects. but did grossly dissemble with him in their hearts, lest such should misapply this comfortable salutation unto themselves, lest such dogs should imagine these holy things to be given them, he salutes them after another manner, and prevents their presumption by this terrible, thundering execration: If any man love not the Lord jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha. This Text is somewhat obscure by reason of the strange words which are in it which (setting aside all curiosity) I will unfold as nakedly as I can, that I may in few words lay open a plain way to the sense and instructive matter of this Scripture. The interpretation of the words Anathema Maranatha. The word Anathema is a Greek word: in English it signifies Accursed: The words Maran-atha are Syriack, & signify in English, Our Lord cometh. That the full meaning of the holy Ghost in the use of these words may more clearly be conceived by you; you are to be advertised that in this Text there is an allusion unto the jewish manner of Excommunication which was twofold. The jewish manner of excommunication is twofold. 1. The first kind of it called Nidduî was only a separation for a time, commonly for thirty days from all commerce or society with any man within a certain distance. This is thought to be that which is called in the New Testament a a casting out of the Synagogue. 2. The second more severe and terrible than the former was, when a scandalous offender with curses out of the law of Moses was in the public audience of the whole Church, without any limitation of time excluded from the communion of it. This is thought to be that which is called in the new Testament a delivering up unto Satan. This in Hebrew Cherem, in Greek is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which word you have in the Text. A twofold Anathema. This Anathema was twofold. 1. Simple when what I have now mentioned was performed. 2. With an addition, Anathema Maran-atha, when besides all other maledictions out of the law they added this clause, Our Lord cometh: By which form the excommunicated person as desperate & quite forlorn, without all hope of pardon or restitution, was left into the hands of the Lord to receive from him an heavy doom at his coming. This then being applied unto my Text the sense runs thus: The meaning of the Text. If any man love not the Lord jesus Christ, let him be accursed and that in the most desperate manner, expecting due vengeance from the Lord when he cometh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, with his holy millions to execute judgement upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly, as it is in enoch's Prophesy recorded by S. jude, to which this last degree of excommunication Maran-atha (or as the Syrians pronounce it) Moran-etho, our Lord cometh, may probably seem to have special reference. If any man etc. By any man understand any man that lives in the light of the Gospel, that professes and thinks himself a Christian; for to such S. Paul directs his speech; if any man thus qualified love not Christ jesus let him be accursed in the highest degree. It cannot be expected that such as sit in the darkness of Gentilism should love that Christ whom they have not heard: and therefore albeit their case be lamentable because they hear of no Saviour, yet sure theirs is far more fearful who hear him daily preaching in their streets, and take little notice of him, but neglect him and trample him under foot. If any man love not: some imagine an Hebraisme to lie couched in these words, Love not, supposing the sense to be, if any man hate; and indeed this is the sense, but in my weak judgement the conceit of an Hebraisme is needless, seeing that as our Saviour tells us Luk. 11. 23. He that is not with him is against him, and questionless, whosoever professes his name, and yet love him not, he hates him at the very heart. But if my conjecture deceive me not, my Text may receive excellent light from Ephes. 6. v. ult. Grace be with all them that love our Lord jesus Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in purity or sincerity. I suppose those whom Saint Paul curses in my Text to be directly opposed to those whom he there blesses; and seeing to the Ephesians he blesses those who loved Christ with an uncorrupt, unmixed, unfeigned love, it's likely that in my Text he bestows his imprecations upon those who▪ great shows of love unto Christ with their mouths, but undervalue and despise him in their hearts. The Text being thus explained (not to mangle it with an unnecessary division) affords this material doctrine. Whosoever he be that professes himself a Christian▪ and thinks himself verily to be so, and yet hath not the love of Christ jesus kindled and settled in his heart is in a most dangerous and cursed estate. Great variety of reasons and proofs might be produced for the enlargement and confirmation of this point: those which I intent to make use of, 2 General considerations premised for the confirmation of the point. I will reduce unto two general considerations which will sufficiently manifest both how fearfully and how justly he stands accursed, who professing Christ jesus with his mouth entertaineth him not with his best affections in his heart. 1 All the curses of the Law are due unto him, that doth not really love Christ jesus. 1. My first consideration is this, that whosoever hath not embraced Christ jesus with the sweetest union of real love, hath no part in him, and therefore all the curses of the Law stand in full force against him. I shall not need to insist upon the aggravation of the woeful condition of him who is yet in bondage to the law. Mark, I beseech you, the exquisite rigour of it comprised in that one sentence Deut. 27. 26. Gal. 3. 10. Cursed is every one who continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the Law to do them. O then how infinitely accursed are all of us naturally, who on the contrary, have continued in the violation of all things which are written in it. I am persuaded (howsoever some proud heretics of these times have prated) that there is no man so stupid, or senseless of the misery of being tried by the Law with out any appeal unto the Gospel but in his serious moods when God shall in some measure awak his conscience, he will confess it had been better for him never to have been borne, The woeful estate of him to whom the Law shall be a judge. then that God without the mediation of his Son should call him to a punctual account for the most harmless and unoffensive day of his whole life. Now what can a man have to comfort and secure his soul in these sad meditations but this, that God is superabundantly merciful, in so much that he sent his own Son to redeem us from the curse of the law, and to be made a curse for us, Galat. 3. 13. These indeed are heavenly consolations and such as never fail those who are rightly qualified for them: But now they appertain not to such as love not Christ jesus, to such as know not how to value and worthily esteem the glorious purchases of his passion. It's true; God's mercy excludes not his justice. God is merciful infinitely above all finite conceit, but so is he just too: Magnify his mercy as long as thou wilt, thou canst never do it enough, but when all is done thou mayst say as much for his justice as S. Paul, Rom. 11. 22. equally admires the goodness and severity of God. Whosoever he be then, who looks for mercy from God without Christ, who only hath satisfied his justice, dreams not so much to find God merciful as to find him unjust. Now to come nearer to the point, can any man be so sottish or impudently presumptuous as to hope to far the better for Christ who sees nothing desirable in him? Who is so far from counting all things dung, that he may win him, as S. Paul did, Phil. 3. 8. that he even prefers dung the basest trash and vanities of the world before him? They can ●aue no benefit by Christ who prefer pleasure or profit before him. Is it likely that he should have any relief from the Gospel, who is so far from counting all things loss for the excellency of the knowledge contained in it, as Saint Paul did, that he can taste no such excellency in it, that he should lose one farthing, forbear one pleasure, forgo one vanity for it. Our Saviour himself, Mat. 10. 37. expressly tells us, He that loveth Father or Mother more than me is not worthy of me, that is, whosoever loves what he hath best reason to love in this life more than his Saviour, is not worthy to have any benefit by him, to have any share in his merits? What then think we, can they expect from him, who are so coldly affected towards him, that they prefer every trifle before him? All the promises of God (saith the Apostle) 2. Cor. 1. 20. in him (in Christ jesus) are yea, and in him Amen, that is, sure and infallible. But still in Christ jesus. And what's this to any man if he himself be not in him? And how can he be in him but by loving him. The accursed estate of the falsehearted Christian who presumes much upon CHRIST, whom indeed he hath nothing to do with, will more affright him if he would but consider it in other men. Who is there amongst us but will much pity and bemoan the lamentable condition of the poor Indians, The lamentable condition of the savage Indian. and other Savages of the unchristian world, whose souls are over clouded with the blackest mists of irreligion that the Prince of darkness can possibly inwrap them, who come into the world knowing not wherefore, and go out of it dreaming not whither, but live here a while without God in the world, and then go to the generation of their fathers, where they shall never see the light to use the words of the Psalmist, Psal. 49. 19 A heavy case indeed beyond all expression of a Tragedy, A formal Christian is in as bad a case in respect of the world to come as the Silliest Indian. and which cannot be sufficiently bewailed with an ocean of tears of blood. But now whosoever he be within the Paradise of the Christian Church who hath nothing to distinguish him from these miscreants but his outward conformity to the laws and customs of the place where he lives, who hath nothing to prove himself a Christian but outward formalities, the charity of other men and his own sleight imaginations whosoever he be that hath not as yet espied something in Christ. jesus so amiable as that in earnest it may challenge his whole heart before all the pomp and pleasure in the world, I say that man whosoever he be may keep his moans and tears for himself: it's his own case: for, for the present until the spirit of grace shall startle him unto more sense of the mercies of Christ, he is in as bad a case as the silliest Indian. I mean in respect of the world to come, for for in this life the most dissembling Christian is partaker of many sweer blessings which the Gospel uses to carry about with it from country to country, by which it civillizeth and polisheth the most rude and barbarous nations. But for the joys of eternity, what better claim can he lay unto them then the wild American? He hath no more to do with Christ then the other. He hath lived indeed where he hath heard much talk of Christ, of redemption, and the glorious liberty of the Sons of God; but what's all this to him who could never relish any of these things, who never took them to heart, It is a pure sincere love of Christ that distinguisheth us from Infidels. never could find any sweetness in them but passed them over like some uncouth mystical fables? Beloved we must not think that living, within the air of the Gospel, amongst Churches and Bibles, can distinguish us from Infidels, exempt us from the rigour of the law, and entitle us to Christ? No such matter. Christ came unto his own but his own received him not, saith S. Iohn● were his own then ever the better for him? Not a whit. Our Saviour whilst he was talking with the jews, joh. 3. 40. tells them. Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life: He was come unto them, but they would not come unto him. Albeit then Christ visit us never so frequently, if we welcome him not with that joy with which Zacheus once did, though he pass never so often by our hearts, if we invite him not in, and get him to sup and lodge with us, we must look to get no more by him then those unhappy miscreants who never heard of his name. It's considerable to this purpose which S. Paul hath, Gal. 5. 6. In Christ jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth any thing, but faith which worketh by love, that is, outward marks or privileges advantage a man nothing in Christ jesus unless he be so sensibly persuaded of those miracles of compassion which Christ hath performed for his soul, that upon this persuasion he thinks he can never love him enough and therefore submits his whole soul unto him in a universal obedience unto his will. To draw towards a conclusion of this point, An explanation of Psal. 2. Kiss the Son, etc. let us scan a little Psal. 2. 12. Kiss the Son lest he be angry and ye perish from the way● and this Psalm contains a clear prophecy of our Saviour and such great ones of the world as should oppose themselves against him, whom yet the Prophet vouchsafeth to direct, v. 10. For all this they might make their peace with God: the chief part of the direction is set down in the words which you have now heard; Kiss the Son, that is, reverence, respect, embrace the Son of God. Why so? Lest by his anger ye perish from the way: from what way? The Syriack interpreteter tells you m● urkeh from his way. He himself is the only way unto his Father, to whom no man cometh but by him, as himself tells us in the Gospel. Whosoever therefore stands off from Christ jesus, and strives not to kiss, that is, to be united unto him by the choicest twins of dearest affection must needs perish out of the way to life, continue still in his sins expecting all the curses of the Law to fall upon him. The law was our Schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, saith the Apostle, Gal. 3. 24. What to bring us within the sound of his name? To bring us to talk and discourse of him? More than so, to amaze us with the horror of our sins, and to make us ●eele what need we have of a Saviour, and having one offered us, to lay fast hold on him whatsoever it cost us, and to prise him above all the jewels in the world. But if the Law▪ cannot prevail so much with us as to make us groan for a redeemer, to make us come crouching under our burdens unto Christ jesus, we must continue still under the lash, It's true which the Apohath, v. seq. that after faith is come we are no longer under a Schoolmaster: But if this faith which is inseparably joined with love never come, we are sure to smart under his heavy hand through all eternity. You have heard the first part of his burden who in the light of the Gospel does not really love Christ jesus to wit, that he has no part in Christ & therefore all the curses of the law belong unto him. One would think there needed no more to be said to prove him accursed who loves not Christ jesus seeing this having no part in him includes more horrors and terrors then it's possible for the brain of man to shape the Ideates of. But I must tell you that as heavy a doom as this is, yet is it but light in comparison of which I shall describe unto you in a second consideration, 2 Consideration. to wit, Great plagues remain for those that do not sincerely love Christ but do contemn the Gospel. whosoever he be that is Catechised and brought up in the Christian profession and yet doth not heartily and sincerely affect Christ jesus besides all the curses due unto his sins against the Law, he treasures up unto himself a far more complete vengeance for his disesteem and contempt of the Gospel. It were well, beloved, if when Christ jesus comes unto a man and that man receives him not, if he left him in no worse case than he found him, though that were unconceavably miserable: But it's never so. For if he entertains not Christ as a Saviour, he is sure to have him hence forth his accuser, and if he will not admit him ad salutem, he shall have him whether he will or no ad Testimonium. It's true which our Saviour told Nicodemus joh. 3. 17. That God sent not his Son into the World to condemn the world, but that the world through him be saved: Christ doth not knock at any man's heart with that intent that he may have the more advantage against him if he let him not in, no he comes with purpose and desire to brined in salvation with him, but if he and his salvation be so little regarded that we entertain him only with a few cold compliments at door, as I may say, and so dismiss him. O than he goes away in a rage, complains to his father that for such ungrateful wretches he shed his dearest blood. And therefore though God sent not his Son into the world to condemn it, yet it follows in the next verse, He that believeth not is condemned already, because he believeth not in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Condemned etc. he believeth not. Why? the Law had sufficiently condemned him before. True, but now God offers him a pardon by his Son to exempt him from condemnation, which seeing he scorns, or cares not to accept, God will now not only have the other condemnation to continue its force against him, but he will load him with another more heavy, which shall never be reversed by any pardon. This is made more plain by the verse following, This is the condemnanation that light is come into the world and men love darkness rather than light, that is; For this is that great and final condemnation, which can never be remitted, as that of the Law may, that Christ is come into the world bringing redemption with him, The contempt of the Gospel of Christ can never be remitted. and men are so little sensible of it, so dully affected with it, that they care not for making any use of him, but had rather continue Satan's prisoners still, then come forth into his marvellous light. So that the neglect of Christ jesus and his Gospel, is that which makes a man completely Anathema Maranatha, because if we pass by him there remains henceforth no more sacrifice for sin but a fearful expectations of Judgement: Hebr. 10. 26. Mistake me not beloved, when I say there remains no more sacrifice for sin to those who have passed by Christ jesus, I mean such as have passed him by for good and all, such as are not entirely incorporated into him before they are snatched out of this life. For indeed we have a redeemer so sensible of our infirmities that when he comes a wooing unto our souls, he will not be driven away at the first denial. Alas, if he should be so touchy, there would hardly ever any soul be espoused to him, seeing all of us naturally hang back, find excuses, and make many pauses▪ and demurs, before we give our consent. But our Saviour is so patient towards our follies, that for all his repulse he will vouchsafe to come again and again, wait our leisure, The woeful estate of those that deny the gracious proffers of Christ jesus. take all opportunity solicit the business by his holy spirit. But here is no ground for presumption. For whosoever denies him so often, or so peremptorily, that he is forced as if it were to leave of his suit, during the life of the party, or whosoever dallies so long with him, that he is called out of this life (as who can promise himself an hour) before the match be made up, I say whosoever shall slight his Saviour, or neglect him after this manner, it had been a thousand times better for him, that Christ had never been borne into the world, or at least that himself had been borne in such an obscure corner of it, that he had never heard of him. For his outward profession of and with all the prerogative, of it, with which he contented himself without any hearty love unto him, the fair offers of salvation which he had, and made nothing of, shall press him more heavily at the day of judgement, than all his sins against the law, though they were murders, and adulteryes; when for these very reasons it shall be easier for Turks, Americans, and Virginians then for him. If you demand the reason of all this mischief, The reason of all this mischief that falls upon the contemners of Christ●, is because the contempt of the Gospel is a sin against all Persons in the Trinity. it is because the not laying to heart of what Christ hath done for us, and the not-receiving him being offered us with the thankful affections of love and reverence, unmixed delight, and complete content in him is the highest dishonour, and basest indignity (except wilful Apostasy, or malious blasphemy) which can be offered by a sinful man to the most blessed and glorious Trinity. Should I stand ●o recount and amplify every circumstance of it, I think I should both weary and amaze you. Suffice it therefore only briefly to consider how contempt offered to Christ and his Gospel reflects upon all the Persons of the Blessed Trinity. For the Father, 1. Against the Wisdom of the Father. whosoever sets light by his Son doth most grossly undervalue both his wisdom and his goodness. For his wisdom. The contriving of man's redemption by the death of his Son in the fullness of time is, so far as is revealed to us, the masterpiece & chief plot (with reverence be it spoken) which hath been from all eternity thought on by that infinite boundless wisdom of God blessed for ever; God intended to get him more glory by the redemption than the creation of mankind. whereby he purposed to get himself far more glory than he did by the creation of the world, when by a deliverance so superlatively admirable he should both save mankind, and astonish it. This is that for which the Gospel is so often called the wisdom of God unto salvation. This is that mystery of Godliness which is great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the confession of all without controversy 1 Tim. 3. 16. This is that illustrious mystery of salvation which the Prophets enquired after, and searched diligently with the Angels to look into 1. Pet. 1. 10. 12. Lastly this is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that wisdom of God which hath such curious variety in it Ephes. 4. 10. Well then to come to the point when the time is come (as it is come to us, who live in this blessed noontide of the Gospel) that God reveals to any man this astonishing mystery of his infinite wisdom, when he pleaseth to show any man how admirably he hath contrived his salvation for him, by sending his own son to satisfy his justice, and therefore expects abundance of glory by it: if that man now abase varlet, created by God that he might applaud his lesser works of creation, shall behave himself so stupidly, that he, forsooth, can scarce have patience to take a full view of his Son, if he can espy no such art in the contrivance as may ravish him, no such wonders as may withdraw his mind from those baubles, about which it was before busied, O beloved, this is an indignity to the glorious wisdom of God the Father, beyond all expression of mortal eloquence. 2. For his goodness and mercy. 2. Against the goodness and mercy of the Father. God the Father from everlasting beholding mankind in the ugly mass of corruption, through their own wilful rebellion knew he must be just, and yet desired to be merciful. And when nothing might make these two stand together, but satisfaction from one as infinite as himself, that he might commend his love to us, as the Apostle speaks Rom. 3. 8. he resolved not to spare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the son of his Love as he is called by a significant Hebraisme, Col: 1. v. 13. but to send him in similitude of sinful flesh, to undergo that heavy business for us, presuming as it is in the parable that howsoever his other messengers had fared but ill in the world, yet his Son the heir should be entertained with reverence. O then can we imagine with what hellish contempt they even defy the love of God towards them, who look strangely upon his Son, who behave themselves towards him, as if his Father had sent him in a needles err and into the world, or as if there needed not to have been all this care taken for them. 2. In the next place it would be an endless business to rehearse the indignities which are offered to the second person in Trinity Christ himself by such as call him Lord, 2. Against the Son because his death and passion is vilified and contemned. Lord, but yet deal not honestly with him in their hearts. Greater love than this hath no man, then that he lay down his life for his friend saith our Saviour joh. 15. 13. True Lord, it's the greatest love that one friend can show another, but yet thy love was greater unto us in that thou laidest down thy life for thy enemies, yea in that thou vouchsafedst for our sakes to take such a life which thou mightst lay down. Consider in brief I beseech you, how the Son of God out of mere obedience unto his Father and compassion unto us rebellious worms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 emp●tied himself of the lustre of his Deity, and in the form of a servant humbled himself to the death ●uen the most painful, and shameful death of the Cross Phil. 2. 8. Peruse the history of his passion, yea of his whole life which was little better than a passion, The bitterness of Christ's Passion. observe how throughly the sad predictions of a despised life and ignominious death Isa. 53. were fulfilled in him, how in every point he was made isch enacc●both a man of sorrows, draw into a Catalogue the rude discourtesies, churlish affronts, the reviling, buffeting, spittings, torments, agonies and the contradictions of sinners all along (that is) of sinful caitiffs which he endured with patience. Lastly remember that all this befell him only because the Lord laid upon him the iniquity of us all Isa. 53. 6. where the Hebrew phrase is elegantly significant, hiphgiah, he hath made the iniquity of us all to meet, on him, as our translators have rightly expressed it in the margin. Remember still I say that all this was but what we had deserved and therefore we may well suppose him with pitiful moans crying out unto us upon the Cross in the moving language of jerusalem Lam: 1. 12. Is it nothing to all you that pass by; behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow. Now beloved whosoever he be that hath read or heard all these things so punctually set down in the Gospel that he hath had his saviour even crucified before his eyes, whosoever is conceited and he believes this history and yet cannot bleed within or weep without for his sins which were the cause of it, but can be moved to more tender passions by a Tragic fable created by the brain of a Poet cannot sympathize with his Saviour in that passion which should have been his, Christ is more tormented by our ingratitude than he was by his passion. cannot by his serious compunction share with him in those agonies which should have been all his own, cannot take these mercies so deeply to heart as with the earnest pangs of yerning affections to desire to be crucified with Christ as S. Paul speaks of himself Gal. 2. 20. and to live the rest of his life in the flesh by the faith of the Son of God; who loved him and gave himself for him, questionless that man offers his Saviour the most cutting injury, and does him the most villainous spite that it's possible for a mortal wretch to offer unto the Lord of Glory. That man's ingratitude is more painful unto Christ jesus then all the thorns were in his head, and wounds him more deeply than the nails did his hands and feet; and therefore we cannot imagine a lighter curse than Anathema Maranatha to be due unto him. For by his sottish neglect of that death of which his sins aswel as any man's else were a cause, he becomes guilty of the murder of the Son of God, yea one of those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, I understang 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and English it, who crucify as much as in them lies the son of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and expose him like a● malefactor to public shame. Heb. 6. 6. 3 Lastly whosoever instructed in the Gospel doth not in earnest love Christ jesus he vexes & grieves the third person in Trinity the Holy spirit, 3. Against the holy Ghost because his labour for love to Christ is in vain. whose chief business here below is to work our our hearts unto the love of Christ, and as I said before to solicit the match between him and our souls. And this is one reason why our saviour being to leave this world, speaks so much in Saint john of what the comforter should do for him after his departure. He shall testify of me john 13. He shall glorify me 16. 14. Whosoever therefore makes the Holy spirit to labour in vain not suffering his persuasions to make any impressions upon his heart, or to get thence any glory for him whose agent he is but thinks he does Christ jesus kindness enough in that he suffers himself to be called a Christian rather then a jew or a Mahometan, or Protestant rather then a Papist. In what a fit of discontent, in what a chafe (may we think) doth that man send or rather drive away the spirit of Grace. All that I have said in this second consideration is comprised in that terrifying place Hebr. 10. 28. 29. which I know is there applied unto Apostates, but we must note that all hypocrites, are Apostates in God's fight, and therefore what we may apply unto an Apostate in particular, because he discovers the rottenness▪ of his heart in the sight of men, we may apply unto hypocrites in general because there is in them the same evil heart of unbelief though we cannot so particularly smell them out: the words are. He that despised Moses Law, died without mercy, under two or three witnesses, 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (as the blood of a common man, or a malefactor not as the blood of a sacrifice) and hath done despite unto the spirit of grace. Applic. You see the fearfully accursed estate of those professors of Christianity who deal falsely with their Saviour, and love him not at the heart, you see upon what slippery terms we stand between the greatest curses, and the greatest blessings. 1 The benefit of embracing Christ and his Gospel. If we have indeed made Christ jesus our portion, if we have been so feelingly affected with his favours towards us that now with the Spouse in the Canticles we are even sick with love of him. If as the Apostle prays for the Ephesians, We are so rooted and grounded in love that we can bring good proofs, that with a constant resolution we prefer the intellectual pleasures which issue from his reconciled countenance before whatsoever else is most precious and dear unto us, O then we may hug ourselves as men overjoyed, for as sure as God is God, all his rich promises in Christ jesus shall be yea and Amen unto us. But on the contrary if those heavenly raptures and glorious trances of sweetest intercourse between Christ and our souls sound as Fantastic dreams & harsh Paradoxes unto us, 2. The danger of a mere outward profession of Christ's Gospel. if we stupidly content ourselves with an empty profession of his name and heartless conformity unto the outward garb of the Gospel, never striving either to express or to feel the inward power of it, if we go on in a heavy, sluggish dull manner, never retiring unto our Saviour but in some melancholy moods which we are quickly weary of, blindly presuming of much from him, and caring not how little he hath from us: O than we most grossly delude ourselves: for the curse of curses Anathema Maran-atha doth most certainly belong unto us, I presume almost there is not any man in this assembly but would think himself much wronged if one should seriously tell him he did not love Christ jesus: Not love Christ? Why we imagine we all do it naturally, we take it as the custom of the country to say so, It is not my purpose to dishearten any man, would to God that the least spark of love unto Christ in any man's heart here were a glorious flame. But yet I would have no man to deceive himself in this point then which nothing more easy, nothing more dangerous. God is not mocked, he requireth truth in the inward parts and the exactest kind of love that can be imagined. Do you think beloved but that the jews in our Saviour's time were confidently persuaded that they loved God: they persecuted our Saviour indeed because they could not apprehend him to be the son of God, but for God himself they made full account that they, and none but they loved him aright. Here was, I dare say, as strong a persuasion of love to God, It is dangerous to be confident in a customary love to God. if confidence would bear out the matter as in the greater part of Christians of their love unto Christ. But behold how miserably they were deceived Joh. 5. 42. our Saviour expressly tells them, But I know you that ye have not the love of God in you. The like gross deceit of the jews may be observed in the same chapter about their love unto Moses, why they were 〈◊〉 and nail for Moses. The Law and name of Moses was the glory of their nation for which no doubt but many if they had been put to it would resolutely have lost their lives in our Saviour's time as their ancestors had done before or their posterity since, so that one would have thought he might have sworn they loved Moses, but yet when the matter comes to scanning you shall find there was no such matter, for indeed they were so false hearted to Moses that at the last day he shall be their chief accuser, witness our Saviour verse 45. There is one that accuseth you in whom ye trust, that is, on whom ye presume, for had you believed Moses etc. Lastly, to rouse us out of the slumber of our presumption, let us take notice of one example more taken out of Mat. 7. 22. Luc. 13. 26. where we read, that many shall come at the last day unto Christ, presuming upon their familiarity with him, some telling him they had eaten and drank in his presence, some expostulating with him, Lord have we not prophesied in thy name, cast out devils, and done many wonderful works. Would you imagine all this could be without great love unto Christ: O how confident should we be if we had such evidence of our union with him. How safe should we think ourselves, could we challenge acquaintance with him upon the same te arms when he shall come in his glory to judgement. But yet you see all this might do us no good, seeing our Saviour will send many such packing with an angry protestation that he knows them not, and if he will not know them, you may be sure they were such as had not for all these flourishes dealt kindly and lovingly, with him. Wherefore beloved, you see how much it concerns us to pause a while on this matter▪ We all think we love Christ jesus: it were well if thinking would serve the turn, but we see that many, who thought as confidently as we, and perhaps upon better grounds, shall then perceive themselves mistaken, when it shall be too late to remedy it. O then let us not venture ourselves upon such groundless surmises, but while we have time to make all sure. Let us make it a business to settle the estate of our souls which hang upon such nice points, let not our shallow presumptuous conceits of our love to Christ, let not the laziness and untowardness of our flesh hinder us from a speedy, impartial, industrious examination of our hearts, whether they have indeed the love of Christ in them or no. If upon due enquiry we find in ourselves the true ground of love unto our Saviour, The infallible notes of real love unto Christ. to wit a tender affectionate apprehension of our infinite deserved miseries, and his infinite undeserved mercies, if we feel the fruits of it a constant, even, universal resolution to please him in all things, at all times, in all companies, a disesteem of whatsoever is honourable or pleasant in the world in comparison of his favour, a continual hunger and thirst after a nearer and more sensible communion with him, I say if upon exact trial thou find in thyself these infallible notes of real love unto thy Saviour, than I hope it will not repent thee of thy labour. For now thou knowest upon what ground thou standest, now thy joy may be full, assuring thyself that thou shalt have a confidence which shall not deceive thee before thy Saviour at his appearing. chose if when thou interest into thy heart, thou findest no sacred fire upon the hearth but all cold and uncomfortable, if thou hast not yet been acquainted with those prickings of heart and affrightments of conscience for thy sins, which usually put poor humbled souls into those vehement fits of love unto our Saviour, If thou canst give no reason of thy supposed love unto, Christ from any thing that thou hast felt in thyself but only from what other men say, from the Laws & customs of the place where thou art a subject, than thou findest thyself but in an unhappy case; yet thou art happy in this that thou knowest the worst of thyself, and mayst seek out betimes for an effectual remedy. If this be thy case consider seriously that thou art yet under the heavy curse in my Text, and therefore impatient of this accursed estate, recollect thyself and call a speedy assembly of thy best wits, and then bethink thyself that Christianity is no lu●dicrous, or jesting matter, that the profession of Christ the most serious business in the world, that therefore questionless there is a great deal more in it, than the formalities of coming to Church, carrying a bible, hearing a sermon, that without doubt Christ requires a real inward disposition of the soul which should season all these compliments and make them acceptable. 3. Consider in the next place the sum and scope of Christianity which is only to show how miserable thou art by sin▪ The sum and scope of Christianity. and how happy thou mayst be in Christ. When thou art come thus far, set the lookingglass of the Law before thee and terrify thyself with the ugly deformities and loathsome stains of thy soul through the guilt of sin, then turn unto the Gospel and consider how Christ jesus out of the abundance of his love with which he loved thee being his enemy, shed his dearest blood to wash away these stains from thy soul as very a wretch as thou art as well as any man's else. 4. Lastly, Prayer the best armour of a Christian. having thy soul attentively fixed upon this, betake thyself to earnest prayer, & with strong cries & groans improtune the spirit of grace to enlighten the eyes of thy understanding, that thou mayst be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth, length, and height, and depth, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, Eph. 3. 19 Do this from thy heart, and continue in it a while with an eager patience, and then I dare be bold to say that thou shalt feel a strange alteration in thyself, then shalt thou feel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not one simple commotion in thy soul but an assembly and throng of passions, then shalt thou be acquainted with those scalding affections to Christ jesus which holy men have felt in all ages and strived to express in their soliloquies but could not, yea the greater sinner thou hast been the more wilt thou with MARIE Luc. 7. lay about thee with tears of sorrow, and tears of joy, and in a holy kind of distraction strive to love much because much is forgiven thee. Lastly thou wilt plainly see how villainously hitherto thou hast dissembled with thy Saviour, and what a deal of Angelical comfort thou hast lost by being a stranger unto him, and having once after some cloudy scuds of penitent sadness recovered the light, thou wilt rejoice as the wise men when they recovered light of the star with exceegreat joy and follow it through thick and thin, through all difficulties and oppositions whatsoever till thou shalt come to see him as he is in incomprehensible splendour amongst infinite million of glorified Saints and Angels; To whom with the Father and blessed Spirit the three glorious persons and one most infinite Deity be ascribed all honour, power, might, majesty and dominion now and for ever, Amen. FINIS. EPHES. 6. V. 24. Grace be with all them that love our Lord jesus Christ in sincerity. NOr to misspend any good time in a needless preface, my text is part of the farewell close of an heavenly Epistle, wherein the composer of it in the solemn form of a benediction wisheth Grace (that is) all those precious mercies and glorious benefits which flow from the grace and favour of God, unto all such as love Christ jesus in sincerity. The original hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in incorruption, as our translators have expressed it in the margin, the sense is all one, for to love Christ in sincerity, is to embrace him entirely without any rottenness of heart, without any unsoundness of affections, without any mixture of hypocrisy. The Greek Scholiast conceived the Apostle by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have required not so much the sincerity, as perpetuity of love unto Christ in those whom he blesses, and therefore he expoundeth it by the adverb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, understanding it not so much of a pure uncorrupt, as of a constant incorruptible love, which yet always presupposeth the other. I confess the word may very well sit under this interpretation, but yet I prefer the former before it, and both a great deal before Beza's (with due reverence unto so incomparable a man) who hath turned all quite another way, referring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to love but to grace, and taking it for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad immortalitatem, as if the sense were to be, Grace be with all them which love Christ jesus, until they come or to bring them unto immortality. The construction of the word which our translators have made choice of, he rejects because he could not remember, that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had any where that signification, I confess it's a very rare one, and for that reason I have insisted upon it, being perhaps not to be found in the new Testament, but if any man please to look in the 2. to Tit. v. 7. he shall there find the word, and hardly capable of any other construction. Beza indeed suspecting that it crept out of the margin into the text, hath there left it quite out, which I wonder at, seeing himself confesses that he found it in the ancient Greek Copies, wherefore I suppose without any prejudice to the discourse which I shall build upon this scripture I may proceed confidently according to our own translation especially seeing I know some six more of good note which all read either in, or with sincerity: In brief then, the meaning of my text is this, Let the favour of God & all those blessings which issue from it, rest upon those who do not by groundless presumptions flatter themselves or counterfeit appearance persuade others that they love Christ jesus, but do in very deed & good earnest love him with all their hearts, and with all their souls. Or thus, Let the gracious promises of God in Christ be fulfilled upon them and them only, who embrace and obey his Gospel with sound and honest hearts, who are true Christians in whom is no guile. For we must note that as the whole Law of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle speaks, is summarily comprised in the word Love, Love to our neighbour, including all the the duties of the second table, and love to God the duties of both, though more immediately those of the first, even so our love unto Christ compriseth all the duties, all the respect and homage which we owe unto him and his Gospel. It is not my purpose to dismember my text by the untoward curiosity of a division: I have not as yet learned that piece of method. The reasons inducing me to the choice of this Scripture arose from a serious consideration of the spiritual estate of these times. We live in an age of most peremptory presumption, and we may observe that our presumption of the end is upheld by our presumption of the means. ●n this age ●uery one ●resumes 〈◊〉 shall be ●●ued only because he ●hinkes himself to ●e a Christian and ●ne that ●oues Christ. No man but thinks he shall be saved, and why? because every man thinks himself to be a Christian, to be one that loves Christ, which to speak more rationally is but our presumption; for it is no presumption for a man to believe that he shall be saved unless he be unassured of this supposition that he is a Christian. In a word, whereas there is a twofold grace of God: his promising and rewarding grace, and then his qualifying or sanctifying grace, we presume upon that because we presume upon this, we make full account of his mercies and promises, because we make no question of those holy qualifications in ourselves which dispose us to believe in him and to love him. Now then seeing we all suppose that the everlasting favours of God do most unfallibly appertain unto all and none but such as love Christ jesus, 2. that ourselves are all such, the first supposal being clear out of my text, all our care must be for the second, to see that we are not mistaken in our account of ourselves. The trial of all, lies in this sincerity, whether we are indeed those men in respect of Christ which we verily think ourselves to be. That therefore I may acquaint you both with the necessity and method of this trial, that I might show you both what need we have to examine the sincerity of our love unto Christ and Christianity, and after what manner we ought to go about, that if it may please the opener and turner of hearts to effect any thing by so contemptible an instrument, I may awake some one out of that pleasant, but deadly slumber which possesseth thousands in this land, and cause him to look better to his standing. The division is into three most considerable points of our love unto Christ. I have resolved by the assistance of the spirit at several opportunities to discourse unto you of three general heads, or most considerable points in our love unto Christ; 1. the ground or foundation of our love unto Christ; the reasons wherefore we are Christians. 2. the degree or intention of our love unto Christ; how much we ought to love him, or in what pitch of resolution to resign ourselves unto him. 3. the effects and operations of our love unto him, or the special fruits of our sincerity. In my discourse of the ground of our love unto Christ I have proposed unto myself this method 1. I will discover two deceivable insufficient grounds which at this day betray thousands unto perdition, causing them to fall short of those glorious hopes which were built upon them. 2. I will lay open the true ground & proper original from whence all sincere affection unto Christ ariseth. The first of those deceivable grounds, is custom, the discovering of which will take up as much time as your patience will be willing to allow me at once. The fall of man hath not so far worn out of his heart the impressions of a Deity, and the engrafted notions of religion, but that we all bring into the world with us those restless instincts, and importunate impulsions which will not suffer us to be at quiet until we are initiated into some Religion or other, The Ancient Epicures though it were the scope of their damned profession to be altogether irreligious, and the most contenting perfection they could project unto themselves, yet as we may perceive by such writings as they have left us they could never fully attain unto it, The very Epicures felt often the gripes of conscience. but in spite of their affected Atheism they were forced to betray many shrewd grudge and terrible gripes of natural conscience. And though in the denial of divine providence upon the supposal of which depends all religion, they put a good face upon it, and seem to laugh at the matter, yet we may perceive they were still gawled with that formido oppositi and by those engraved principles were ever and anon stung to real fear of that truth which they would fain have mocked out of the world either as an ancient invention of policy to keep men in awe, or as an inveterate slavery of vulgar ignorance. The same inbred seeds of religion by which it pleaseth God to force a manifestation of himself even upon those who would fain have no notice of him, and in the most reprobate minds to make Atheism rather a wish then an opinion, after so many successions of ages are no whit decayed, but continue still as stirring and active in the hearts of men as ever they were since they received that unhappy crush by the first transgression. For the Creator of all things as the Psalmist tells us Psal. 33. 15. fashioneth the hearts of all men alike, the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which signify together at once, intimating that the hearts of all men though separated from one another by never so vast a gulf of time or place, The necessity of a Religion. are as exactly alike in respect of their original inclinations, as if they had been all moulded at the same time. According to the custom of the country so is our worship. The worship of a God then, some kind of religion is necessary unto us, we cannot shift it of: but now the propensions of nature being blind and confused, and there being a various multiplicity of religions in the world, here ordinarily step in the laws and customs of the country, into which the womb of nature first empties us, which shape our general inclinations either to worship the true God, or this or that Idol, and the true God after this or that manner. Look abroad into the world and observe the swarms of diverse & contrary religions which either fill places apart by themselves or are promisevously exercised amongst one another, & you shall perceive them to be nothing but the natural instincts of religion in general, specificated into divers forms and fashions by birth and education. For albeit there may be many occasions of, and difficulties in the first bringing in of a religion into a country, yet after it hath once by countenance from supreme authority and other plausibilities insinuated itself into the acceptance and approbation of the multitude, it thenceforth becomes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to use St Peter word, and with an easy descent runs down the stream of succession, being delivered from Father to Son as naturally, as the proper language, manner of diet, fashion of apparel, or any other customs of the country. Now amongst so many religions as in several parts of the world are by custom conveyed and passed from one to another we suppose there is but one which we may dare to trust for our happiness, There is but one true religion by the which true happiness is attained. but one that can certainly do our souls that good which most of them would seem to promise. What true Religion is. Neither will we seem to doubt but that this one saving religion is that which consists in the knowledge of the only true God, and whom he hath sent jesus Christ, and therefore we will all seem to be much in love with this heavenly profession before any other whatsoever. If then we will be sure not to cozen ourselves in these persuasions, not to over-reckon ourselves in our love unto Christ and his Gospel, here is a main business for us, punctually to inquire how we came by this love and liking unto Christ, upon what motive we have preferred this profession of Christ before such a multitude of Religions in the world. The motives or reasons of our embracing of Christianity before all other Religions. You know that no art or invention can force waters to mount above their spring head: in like manner, it's impossible that our affections unto Christ should be more elevated, more heavenly and spiritual than the original from whence they stream. If then being put to it by ourselves or others we can think of no better reasons for our choice of Christianity then such as these because we had the fortune to be born in a place where Christ only was talked of, because we have heard Turks, jews, and Papists much spoken against, and were ever told that this is the best religion, because the King and Laws have banished all other Sects, and have established this profession of Christ which we have always been brought up in, and could never see any harm in it, if such sottish, senseless stuff be the best defence we can make for ourselves, it appears too plainly that our religion is nothing but those common relics of natural instincts which I spoke of before▪ christened, as it were by humane laws & customs, and that we are Christians upon no weightier inducements, than we might have been Pagans or Idolaters. I tremble to speak it; if an Indian should be demanded why he worshipped the Devil, changing only the circumstances he might give as sufficient reasons as these for his most fearful and horrible Idolatry. But this example though it might square but too well to my purpose is too odious to be insisted upon. Ask a common jew why he blasphemes our blessed Saviour, why he expects another Messias, a Turk why he is circumcised, why he is so devoted to Mahomet, they will both in effect give the very same reasons of their blaspheamies and superstitions, which a common ignorant Christian will give why he is rather a Christian than a jew or a Turk, justify their damned hatred and detestation of Christ, by the same arguments, which cause him to profess special love and service unto him. Nay you will say there is no Christian so barbarously ignorant but he may say more for himself then any of those unbelieving misereants can, he hath heard the holy Scriptures read, been made partakers of the blessed Sacraments he hopes to have his sins forgiven him by Christ, & though he be not able to prove it by formal argumentation, he knows well enough that Turks and all such as speak against Christ are accursed infidels. I think indeed there are not many Christians but may say so much and perhaps more, by wrote, and taking it up upon trust, but this is quite besides the purpose. For I do not now question the Christian in the duties or opinions of his religion, but I call upon him for his special reasons which cause him to perform those duties, or embrace those opinions. He hath been partaker of the blessed Sacraments, but what better reason can he give why these Sacraments can do his soul good: then a Turk may, why his circumcision should be beneficial unto him; he hath heard the Scriptures read and expounded, but what better reason can he give, why he supposeth the Scriptures to be the word of God, than the Turk will, why he is so confident that the Alcoran came down immediately from heaven, in that laylatto-Hanz●li, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they call it, the night of demission; Lastly, he stiffly conceits himself to be one of the only true faith and all Turks to be abhorred infidels, but what peculiar evidences hath he that the Turks are mistaken and not himself, seeing they are as confident on the other side that Christians are Cafirouna, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Infidels, as they term us, & that themselves are the only Moslimina or Musulmans (that is) right believers? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If then the Christians being pressed with these demands can produce nothing from any supernatural alteration which he hath felt wrought in himself, if he be not able from spiritual self experience of that cutting convincing power of the Scriptures, and of those admirable virtues & comfortable influences of the Sacraments, if he be yet altogether unacquainted with those celestial flashes, irradiations and inward testimonies of the spirit, which use to put all these things out of question in souls truly Christianized. Lastly ', if for want of better Apology he be forced to retire to those poor, dishonourable, impertinent, To plead custom & law of the country is rather an excuse then a reason of ones religion. rather excuses than reasons of his religion, taken form the laws and customs of his country, it is too too manifest that he adheres unto Christ upon no better motive than others blaspheme and persecute him, and even spit at the motion of his name. But here some may put in; Object: howsoever such a Christian may be outbraved, yet that which he says and thinks is true: he is in the right though he cannot demonstrate like a Scholar how he came to it, & therefore he is sure howsoever men may prate, to speed well enough. No such matter, Answer. it is a very disputable case, whether such a one as lives and dies a Christian upon custom, or a Turk be in the grosser error. This may seem very harsh, Little difference betwixt a Christian & a Turk, if the former be so only upon custom. but you may easily espy the truth of it if you please to remember, that both the assent of our understandings, and choice of our wills may be misguided into error two ways: either by assenting unto, and approving that as true and good which in itself is false and evil, or by assenting unto, or approving that which is both true and good in itself, upon weak, incoherent, insufficient inducementes, I cannot stand to comment upon this distinction, and it is so trivial that I conceive it need not much to be exemplified. Applied unto my purpose it clearly shows the ignorant Christian not to be a whit more in the right then the Turk▪ The object of his assent and love is most right absolutely in itself because it is not an object unto him for that truth and goodness by which it's distinguished from all other objects, but for those common corrupt grounds, which abstractly considered, equally incline the soul to any object, as well to the grossest errors as the purest truth, to the extremest evil, as to the chiefest good. So that this comparison is like to light most heavily upon the Christian, seeing the goodness of the object will not excuse or justify, but rather shame and condemn him, who professing much love unto it, passeth by that which alone was lovely in it. For the present indeed the Christians case is infinitely the better, The Christians case is the better, only by reason of the opportunities of correcting his error. because he may with more ease correct his error, and hath all requisite opportunities to that purpose, but if he neglect to do it hereafter, the Turk will get the better of him, when at the day of judgement, he that hath died such a Christian, will be glad to change places with him. In the mean time, there is not any difference in their errors discernible to reason, for this is certain, that diversity of objects cannot put any difference in the assents, where the grounds are exactly the same, yea if some of the acutest modern disputers have rightly determined, that the assent unto the premises, and the conclusion is but one and the same assent, being originally to those, and terminatively to this, I can scarce allow the difference to be so great. For than it skills not how false or true the conclusion be absolutely in itself, but how strongly or weakly it's inferred out of its premises, and therefore though one conclude an infallible truth, and another a monstrous falsehood out of the same faulty premises, the error of both is the same, if they assent unto their conclusions upon no other medium than this insufficient one, The ignorant Christians assent unto the Gospel, & the Turks to the Alcoran, proceed both upon the same grounds. upon which they both agree. For example, the principle upon which the ignorant Christians assent unto the Gospel stands, is this: That Religion which my Parents have taught me, my Sovereign commanded me, and the common cry of my country approved is surely the best. The Turk changing only the appropriating circumstances, supposeth likewise, that religion which his Sultan, Parents and Country men have commended unto him to be questionless the best. Both then proceed upon the same medium, and therefore though by the intervention of other casualties, the Turk be cast upon execrable blasphemies & impieties, and the Christian upon heavenly and holy truths, their error is directly the same, though more fortunate in one then in the other. And howsoever such a Christian hath his assent & imaginary love by lot of his birth and education, actually fixed upon saving truths yet until he bethink himself of more proper and solid reasons for his choice, he retains still in his breast habitually and implicitly the seeds of all those hellish impostures, which by other men, in other places, have been entertained and swallowed upon the same occasions. Suppose a Christian, who can make no better defence for his profession then such a one as I have laboured to make him ashamed of, immediately after his birth in England had been conveyed into Turkey, and there instead of Baptism circumcised after the Turkish manner, and there so cunningly trained up in the Turkish superstition, that he had no occasion given him to suspect himself not to have been borne a Turk: no question but he would have been as zealous there for the rascal Mahomet: as now being bred in England, he is for the blessed Lord of the world. And no marvel, for the very same occurrences which have made him a christian here, must needs have made him a Mahometan at Constantinople, seeing that whatsoever arguments drawn from laws, customs, birth, education, plead here for Christ would there persuade as effectually for Mahomet, Neither speak I this as if this would argue any notorious imperfection in the man: for doubtless this would be any man's case: Suppose any of those renowned Champions of Christ whom Queen Mary sent to heaven in fiery Chariots, had been nursed and brought up amongst the Saracens, unless God had vouchsafed them a miracle for their conversion, we cannot imagine but they would have been Saracens. Suppose the devoutest Saint of God at this day breathing had been trained up at the feet of some jewish Rabbin if we look no higher than ordinary means, we must needs conceive that with the hellish malice of a jew he would have defied that blessed Saviour of his, whom now he worships day & night. I mentioned not that therefore to show the weakness of the person, but of such reasons of his Christianity, as changing only the scene of his nativity and education, might have made him hotter against it them now he is for it. So that the only fundamental reason why such a Christian is rather a Christian than a jew, Turk, or Idolater, is because Christianity bespoke him as soon as he came into the world, and permitted not those mad superstitions either to speak with him at all or not till itself had prevented them and gotten possession. For we may observe that albeit generally in the world error keeps truth out of the souls of men by anticipation, A formal Christian is a Christian by education only, & the custom of his country damning up all the passages by which she should enter with base preconceipts and odious prejudices, yet in some corners where divine providence hath been pleased to allow truth an authorised, settled residency, it gets the start of error, and prevails as much by prepossession here as error doth in other places, beating that away with the same clamours and out-cries by which itself is elsewhere baffled. But this to speak more punctually is not a fight between truth and error though by the undiscerning vulgar it be mistaken for it, but a kind of blindfold combat between prejudice and prejudice, or of custom against custom. For in these cases though truth block up errors way, and so keep that from stealing into the soul, yet doth not she presently enter in herself, but stands, as it were, before the door displaying her resplendent rarities and admirable perfections, and if for their sakes alone she be not earnestly invited to come in and importuned to take up her lodging there, she vouchsafeth not to enter but at last flings away in disdain. Men may imagine she is gone in because they cannot hear or see heresy or superstition stirring with in, but for certain saving truth never presseth into any soul upon the bare advantage of being the first comer, but for her own singular worth she looks to be wooed, importuned, and with some violence haled in, as the blessedst guest that could possibly have come first or last. But here may some demand, if the sum of all this that hath been spoken be true, to wit, The benefit of our birth and education amongst Christians. That our love unto Christ and his Gospel be not gotten by our birth and education amongst Christians, what benefit is it to be borne within the visible Church? What prerogative to be bred in the light of the Gospel? I answer, that it's an advantage of inestimable value, for which we all owe more thanks and praises unto the Lord then our shallow brains and narrow hearts can possibly conceive. But we must wisely consider the proper end and use for which it hath pleased the Father of lights to afford us this blessed privilege, which is not that it should be a cause, but a means, not a ground but an occasion of our love unto his beloved Son. In our common friendship we can easily distinguish between the contingent occasions of our acquaintance with a man, and the immediate reasons of our affectionate love unto him: those are accidentally offered from without, these are some special excellencies apprehended by us to be inherent in the person we affect, those are but means to bring us to the knowledge of these. Even so in our spiritual love unto Christ jesus blessed for ever, the Lord hath graciously planted us within the sound of the Gospel, given us education in Christian rites and fashions, and provided us the testimony of the Church to tell us that there is such a Saviour come into the world, and to bring us joyful news what unvaluable treasures of mercy and glory he hath brought with him to enrich all such as shall come unto him, pinched with the sense of their spiritual poverty; Those are the means appointed to give us notice of these, but these only must be the grounds of our affection unto him. To conclude this discourse, albeit our love unto Christ be gotten by our natural birth & education, be nothing worth in itself, yet is it the ordinary road which leads us to the sight and sense of those transcendent perfections in him which will ravish us with a more transcendent love of him: Happy are we if that base vulgar love be in time swallowed up in a love more celestial and divine, if that which can do our souls no good while we rest upon it become a manuduction unto that which will certainly make us blessed. Had not the Samaritans believed at first upon an insufficient ground, the alarm of the woman, they had not come to believe upon the true, their own knowledge & experience. Had not the faithful soul, which is now most sick of a spiritual love unto her Saviour, first loved him upon hearsay and custom, she had never felt, in all probability, those heavenly trances and unutterable ravishments with which now she is transported. All that love which we profess unto Christ between our first birth, and the first pangs of the second, is a love arising only from nature and custom, & is tolerable in us while we are children, being not so properly an error as an introduction unto truth: I say it's a hopeful preparation in children which are not yet come to that ripeness of their natural faculties that the ordinary means of grace, the preaching of the Gospel, may work upon on them. But after they have attained to maturity of reason and should begin to have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as the Apostle speaks, their senses exercised to discern between good and evil, if they proceed still in such childish conceits of Christ jesus, & drowsy affections unto him, as they sucked from their nurse's breasts, their love begins now to be grossly sinful, and whensoever it shall please the Lord to thunder them out of that sleep of death, wherein now they enjoy some contenting dreams they must penitently bewail it amongst the other sins of their unregeneracy. I have done with my discovery of the false ground of love unto Christ, by natural instincts of religion, restrained to Christianity by birth and education. Before I proceed to an application of this discourse, I will insist upon some opposite places of holy Scripture, which will add both light & strength unto the precedent discourse, and I hope prepare your hearts to the ensuing application. And first we have an excellent place, Cant. 5. v. 9 where the Spouse, that is the faithful soul hath this interrogatory doubled unto her, what is thy beloved more than a beloved; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mahdodek middod, what is thy beloved more than a beloved, that is, what transcendencies, what singularities of alluring perfections, are so peculiarly remarkable in that Saviour of them, on whom thou art so strangely enamoured, as if there were nothing lovely besides him? But what hath the soul nothing now to commend in her Saviour, but what might be paralleled in some other? Yea, from that verse to the end of the Chapter, she runs on in a description of his rarities; a description so stuffed with the choicest delicacies of expression, that I am persuaded it cannot be matched out of any of those Poets which have flown highest in amorous inventions; I cannot stand to unfold them unto you: that which makes most to my purpose in it, is the superlative preeminence which she gives him, v. 10. He is the chiefest, or as it is more elegantly in the original, He is an ensign bearer amongst ten thousand, for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dagull, properly signifies, v. 16. He is altogether lovely; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cullo machamaddim, he is all entire, he is all composed of loves, whereupon she concludes with a triumphant Epiphonema, This is my beloved, and this is my friend, o ye daughters of jerusalem. Phil. 1. v. 9 10. A second memorable place is Phil. 1. v. 9 10. S. Paul speaks thus, And this I pray that your love, (to wit, to Christ and his Gospel) may abound yet more and more in knowledge, and in all judgement, that you may approve things that are excellent. that ye may be sincere and without offence, till the day of Christ. The Apostle praying for the confirmation of their love unto the Gospel, and as an especial means of that he prays, they may abound in all judgement, by which they may be able upon good grounds to approve the real excellencies of truth before the plausibilities of error, that so they may be sincere in their love unto it, to which purpose also he prays for the Ephesians, that they may be rooted and grounded in love, Ephes. 3. 17. A third cousiderable place is, 1. Cor. 12. 3. 1. Cor. 12. 3. Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost, that is, no man can with the fiducial assent of his heart, acknowledge Christ to be the only Lord, which he is to worship by the same impulsions, by which another curses and blasphemes him, but by such peculiar motives as are suggested and revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost. There is no man in this assembly but would think it very strange, if one should tell him seriously, he could not say, no not so much as think, that jesus is the Lord. But if he think and say him to be Anathema, his saying will do him no good, though he make it his only work to reveal it as long as he lives. The last place shall be that eminent one in S. Peter, 1. 3. 15. But sanctify the Lord in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you, What reason? Such a one as may be retorted by those who question us? Such a one as may perhaps make more against us then for us? Such a general one as might be given for any presumption in the world? No▪ a reason from a clear distinct knowledge of the peculiar grounds, and experimental sense of those encouraging foretastes of our incorruptible hopes by the Gospel: which though it cannot convince such Heretics and Infidels as examine us, because the God of this world hath closed their eyes, yet it may strengthen us to possess our souls in patience, and to hold fast our confidence which hath such great recompenses of reward in spite of all the terrors of Men or Devils. Use. 1. Use 1. Is to examine yourselves whether ye be come out of this customary love unto Christ, into a spiritual, or no. To admonish every man here present with all speed and diligence to commune with his own heart, & to examine whether he be as yet come out of his customary love unto Christ into a spiritual, or no. Beloved, we are all confident that we love Christ jesus, and if one should in earnest tell us we did not love him, we should take it as ill, and interpret it as if he told us we were damned. Seeing then all our glorious hopes of a better life are built upon this supposition: that we are the true disciples of Christ, as we would not be called to after-reckoning at that solemn day of accounts, or have a flaw found in our evidence, which should eternally dash our expectation, even then when we should take possession, as we would not have our hopes to vanish in amazement, and confusion at that terrible day, when it shall be too late to recall or rectify any thing which hath been formerly amiss, as we would not have our confident conceits of Christ's love unto us, and ours unto him give us the ship at the hour of death, when we should have most use of them, and leave us to a fearful expectation of judgement. Let us, I say, if we have any regard of sense of these things deal ingenuously with our own souls, and impartially examine what better ground we have for that supposition which upholds all our well fare, than such as I have demonstrated to be miserably insufficient. Christians we are all by education, by country & custom, by conformity unto laws and fashions: but is this all? have we proceeded no farther? why this will advantage us no more for heaven then that we are Englishmen. All this is but the outside of Christianity. Christianity thrust upon us by our natural birth before we were aware of it, and settled on faster by custom, and as it were riveted in while we perhaps never thought of it. What saith the Apostle 2. Romans, 28. He is not a jew which is one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that which appears outwardly. What not he a jew which is borne and bred a jew? yea he is a jew in all outward visible respects whatsoever. But all these will give him no title to those everlasting promises which are made unto Abraham and his seed according to the faith. He is no jew in respect of them. In like manner he is no Christian, who is but outwardly one: who slides insensibly to himself into the visible garb of Christianity; by natural generation. He only is a jew, who is one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the secrets of his heart, and he only is a Christian, who hath been made one by a second birth of his soul, invisible to others; but admirably sensible unto himself, being borne not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God, as S. john fully expresseth it, c. 1. v. 13 Well then, if thou wouldst not be mistaken in thyself, if thou wouldst be ascertained whither or no thou lov'st Christianity upon any other motives than such as nature and custom may suggest. First of all look back upon the estate of thy soul ever since thou hast been able to rememeber. Reflecting thus upon so much of thy life as is gone, canst thou not remember a time wherein thyself being judge, thou didst but dissemble with thy Saviour, when thou thoughtst of him but very seldom, and then but perfunctorily, without any heat of affections, when thou tookest not much to heart any thing he hath done for thee, when thou tookest no conscionable care to live unto him, because he had died for thee. Reflecting thus upon thee time past, canst thou not discern but that thy love unto Christ hath been spun out in an even thread even from the cradle until now, but that the pulse of thy affections unto him hath always beaten much after the same manner, without any notable variation. In a word canst thou not remember but that thou hast loved him always as well, if not better, than thou hast in the latter time of thy life past. I say if the case be thus with thee, it's a thousand to one but thou lovest him only upon that deceivable ground which I have laboured to discover. To direct a little farther in this examination. Suppose the wind which now sits in thy back, and kindly blows thee on towards Christ, should turn upon a sudden and furiously bluster in thy face. Suppose those laws and customs which hitherto have encouraged thee to proceed in Christianity, The back sliding of others cannot seduce the sound Christian. should command thee back again, and tell thee they were mistaken: suppose all the men thou knowest or hearest of, should change the fashion of their religion, and leave thee as much alone, as Elias once thought himself to have been: and holy Athanasius was when he held up against a world of Arrians; I say if the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that special excellency of the knowledge of Christ, which made S. Paul to count all things dung, that he might win Christ, hath not furnished thee with unanswerable reasons, why these supposals should not pull thee back, it's a plain case, that only the opposite encouragements set thee forward. To be brief, art thou not sure that thou hast such special peculiar reasons for thy religion as could not have suffered it, much less have caused thee upon any supposals to have been of any other. Hast thou not with an enlightened understanding espied in Christ jesus those un paralleled transcendencies which put an infinitely vast difference between him and those many Antichrists in the world. Lastly, hast thou not at some time or other, in some measure had thy conscience convicted of sin, revived with such gracious influences distilling from his lovely countenance, and refreshed with such words of eternal life from him, as thou knowest (go whether thou wilt) cannot be expected from any one else. If thy heart answer no to these interrogatories, assure thyself thou knowest not yet what this means to love Christ, I should but flatter thee to tell thee thou art a Christian, yea I should in some sort mock thee, by giving thee a glorious title, which if thou continue as thou art, will no way benefit thee, yea it will not only keep thee out of heaven, but sink thee deeper into Hell. Give glory unto God that thou livest in a time and place where thou hast all encouragements, opportunities, invitations to be more entirely acquainted with thy Saviour, and to grow as intimate with him, as any man else, but for the present be content to consider that thy love of him hitherto hath been built upon a rotten foundation; give no rest unto thyself, until thou hast learned to love thy Saviour upon such inducements as he would have thee, even because he hath loved thee. Give not over importuning the spirit of grace to direct thy heart into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ, as the Apostle divinely prays for the Thess. 2. Ep. 3. 5. Give not over I say, until thou hast attained unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ, as the same Apostle sweetly prays for the Colossians 2. 2. Use 2. Let me bespeak all such, Use 2. th●● those that are made partakers of the heavenly calling take two things to heart. as by the tender mercies of God melting their hearts, have been made partakers of the heavenly calling, and begotten again unto a lively hope, let me I say, if there be, any consolation in Christ, 1. The infinite dishonour that is done unto Christ by the customary profession of his glorious name and Gospel. if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, let me beseech them to take two things deeply to heart. First, the infinite dishonour which is done unto Christ, the author and finisher of our faith by the customary profession of his glorious name and Gospel in this kingdom. It's above three score years since the Saviour of the world hath vouchsafed after a most especial manner to reside amongst us early and late, to call and cry unto us, to take notice what need we have of him, to bethink ourselves of our infinite wants, which none but he can suppl, counselling us as he did the Church of Laodicea to buy of him gold tried in the fire that we may be rich, and white raiment that our nakedness might not appear an eye salve, that now in this our days we might see those things which belong unto our peace, and all this without money: now that after all this there should be thousands amongst us, who being asked a reason of the hope that is in them, cannot speak tolerable sense why they are Christians rather than professed Infidels; that there should be whole parishes which cannot afford one wise word toward the defence of our most holy profession, that many who will take it very ill, if they are not accounted as good Christians as the best, should think no otherwise of Christ, than some do of S. Patrick, and S. David, and other of the Saints of their country. Lastly, that those great and precious promises which Christ hath purchased for us, with the unvaluable price of his own dearest blood, by those who one day think to have their share in them, that they set as slothful, ignorant, heartless affections upon them, as professed infidels do upon those poor imaginary, deluding hopes which Satan is permitted to abuse them with, questionless it becomes not any man, who hath resolved the rest of his time in the flesh, to seek the things of Christ jesus, and hath felt in his own soul what good reason he hath for it, I say it becomes not any such to think of these things which grate so mercilessly upon his Saviour's wounds, and even make them bleed a fresh, without sighs and groans, a bleeding heart, and a great deal of secret mourning. Between the millions of men who hate the redeemer of the world, and the multitude which love him they know not wherefore, 2 To commiserate the lamentable condition of their poor ignorant ●ethren. O how few are there which love him in sincerity! The second thing which I would entreat of those who understand what a woeful thing it is to be a stranger unto Christ, to be yet unreconciled unto God by him, is that they would with yerning bowels commiserate the lamentable condition of their poor ignorant brethren which they shall meet with every where, especially in most country Villages. I have observed upon occasions much table merriment which hath been made by tales which pass about of such absurd, senseless answers as silly Christians have given, being demanded a reason of their faith, perhaps upon their deathbeds or at their coming to the Lords table. Let such unnatural mirth be far from those who are to strive to have the same mind in them, which was in Christ jesus. You, who by the blessed change wrought in your souls, have passed from death unto life, consider with a thankful reflection upon the Father of lights, that had not he vouchsafed you a more ingenuous education, fairer opportunities to grow acquainted with the mysteries of grace, more distinct call of his fanctifying spirit, and more illuminated apprehensions to discern them, you might have groped and stumbled in a thicker mist of stupidity then now befools your unnurturd brethren, you might have dishonoured that blessed name by which you are called, by as wild misco●●●its and horrid follies, as any come from them, and whatsoever is ridiculous in them might have been more prodigoius in you, you know what price to set upon your own souls. You know the soul of the meanest idiot is of equal value with yours, and that it cost the redeemer of the World as many stripes and wounds as yours, O then pity thy brethren so likely to perish, for whom Christ died, yea the rather, because they being stuffed with sottish conceits, will be ready to laugh at those who shall pity them: Take all opportunities to do them some spiritual good as occasion shall be offered, conferring with them and praying for them: and let Christian sympathies be the least you can afford them; you know what you mean, when you pray daily that God's kingdom may come; remember, you pray not in earnest, unless you do your faithful endenuour to help it forward, as in your own hearts, so in the hearts of your brethren, with which at any time you converse. Consider I beseech you, what, a dismal fog of Popery doth yet darken this Island, Popery which few thinks of, I mean that blind absurd implicit faith of believing, as the Church believes. For there is not a pin to choose between him that believes in gross, what the Church of England believes, and him that believes as that synagogue of Satan the Church of Rome believes, it neither knows any thing explicitly, what either Church believes. Meditate on this, and what zeal, what conrage, what indignation you feel in your breasts against the Antichristian impostures of Rome, let them fly I beseech you upon all occasions, against this Protestant Popery. But I see no hope but that the Collier's faith will have the greatest number of professors, whilst accurate Catechising of all sorts of people, which did so much good in the primitive Church, is in ours so generally neglected. But I conclude, bespeaking you in the words of S. jude, But ye beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the holy Ghost. Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercies of our Lord jesus Christ unto eternal life. And of some have compassion making a difference. And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire: hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. O thou father of mercies and God of all consolations, look down from thy throne of eternity, and take notice of us thy poor servants, who do now desire to muster up all the faculties which thou hast given us, and to employ them in an acceptable thanksgiving unto thee. O Lord we desire to spend our best spirits even to exhale our dearest souls in thankful ejaculations unto thee, for that most incomprehensibly admirable contrivance of our salvation, by the death of the son of thy love: O Lord we desire to be transported with a holy amazement, as often as we think of this mystery of mysteries, and even to empty our hearts of their secrets in hallelujahs, and voices of exultation. Most holy Lord, we praise thee, for the marvellous light of thy Gospel, which hath acquainsed us with those wonders of mercy, which thy Christ hath performed for our souls, for those comfortable evidences of our justification by him, with which our bruised consciences have been most graciously revived. We praise thee likewise for those wounders of a new creation which thy blessed spirit hath begun in our hearts, for that it hath begun to weaken and waste the body of sin, to crucify those corruptions which heretofore hath been most insolent in us, to wean us from those vanities, which heretofore have been our chief comforts, and to make us more willing to be kept within a holy compass. O Lord we desire, we desire with most enlarged hearts, to bless thy infinite goodness, for all those ravishing irradiations and glorious Prefaces of our blessed immortality, by which thy comforting spirit hath so often encouraged us to patient continuance in well doing. We bless thee for all the heavenly thoughts, affections, desires, & resolutions which thou hast put into us at any time, we praise thee for that portiou of thy good word which thou hast afforded us at this time, O thou that delightest to pardon abundantly, pardon all the errors & imperfections which have come either from me in delivering, or any of thy people in entertaining thy message. Let it not be a savour of death unto death, unto any man who hath been within the sound of it, but let it some way or other be beneficial unto him in respect of thy kingdom. And now oh thou that dwellest in unapprochable splendour, quite out of the ken of mortality, seeing thou hast suffered dust and ashes to approach so near to thee in thy ordinances, dismiss not any one of us, we beseech thee, without a blessing, send not any one of us without a comfortable beam of thy countenance shining into his heart; Thou art the fountain of holiness, send us not therefore out of thy presence without some more clearness in our apprehensions of thy saving mysteries, and heavenliness in our affections unto them. Send us not from thy throne of grace but with a heavenly calm in our souls, or with such tempests of repentance as may prepare us for an everlasting serenity, O Lord send us not away but either with that joy which passeth all understanding, or that godly sorrow which may prepare us for it. To thee O Father with thy beloved Son and blessed Spirit, three most glorious Persons, & one infinite Deity, be ascribed all Honour, Power, Praise, Might, Majesty, and Dominion, by us poor sinners here militant on earth, and all the glorified companies triumphant in Heaven, from this time forth for evermore. Amen, Amen. FINIS. THE TRIAL OF our sincere love to Christ. EPHES. 6. V. 24. Grace be with all them that love our Lord jesus Christ in sincerity. I WILL not discourage your attention with a tedious repotition of what I have heretofore in another audience delivered upon this Scripture, something must needs be recalled to guide your attention into the ensuing discourse & to knit that unto a former: but I will not trouble you with a word more, than the necessity of method shall enforce me unto. To wind up then as much as is necessary in a brief introduction. We live in an age of a Presumption as peremptory as universal: they are rare men that make any question of their salvation, and which is most to be pitied, they are for the most part such as have least reason. I am persuaded, there was never yet any time when men were generally more confident in their hope of heaven, or less able to give a wise reason for it; insomuch, that it may be but too probably conjectured, that to one that perishes through despair, there miscarry hundreds through presumption. This general presumption stands upon these two general suppositions. 1. That Grace, that is, all the gracious, precious promises of God concerning a better life, do infallibly appertain to all such as love Christ jesus in sincerity: that is, to all such as are true, serious, resolute Christians. 2. That we ourselves are all such men, that we are all Christians good enough to serve the turn, though we are not so forward and exemplary, though we keep not such stir with our profession as some others do. The first supposition is out of all question, and can never be brought into disputation by those which submit to the Scriptures, it being the scope, not only of my Text, but also of the whole Gospel, ye a of the Law and the Prophets. So that (with reverence be it spoken) it shall be as possible for God, that is the eternal truth itself to lie, as for that supposition to fail any man, who observing the conditions of it, casts himself upon it: so that in strict propriety of speech, it is not of itself any prop of presumption, but only by accident as its subject to mis-application by us. Well then, presumption stands more directly, and leans more heavily upon the second supposition, and therefore all our care must be every man for himself, to see that we are not mistaken in our account at home, to be sure we are all such men as we deem ourselves to be, that is, such Christians, as may upon good sufficient grounds, lay claim unto, and plead interest in all the glorious promises in Christ jesus. Upon this I observed all the conditions required on our part, and by consequent, the whole trial of our assurance, to be comprised in this sincerity of our love towards him; and farther, for the exact trial, and through examination of this, I imposed upon myself the handling of three most considerable points which make up itself, and evidence unto us the sincerity of our love unto Christ. 1. The true immediate ground, or original of it. 2. The requisite degree or intention of it. 3. The especial fruits and effects of it. Concerning the original of our love unto Christ, amongst many insufficient deceivable grounds of it, I undertook the discovery of one which I found to be most dangerous and universal: to wit, natural instincts of religion in general restrained to Christianity by birth & education. This discovery, I have already elsewhere at large, as God enabled me, performed. In the second place, I promised a declaration of the true, proper, and sure ground of sincere love unto Christ: & this by the assistance of the blessed spirit, you shall have paid at this time. Well then, what is the most immediate and proper ground of the sincere love of a poor sinner unto his Saviour jesus Christ? I answer out of the question, when in earnest he finds himself to be a miserable sinner, and apprehends Christ jesus to be his gracious Saviour, and one of whom he stands in infinite need. Or to to deliver it more fully, it is a clear, The ground of a Christians love to Christ. distinct, particular, tender apprehension of his own infinite wants and miseries by reason of sin, & of those miracles of love & mercy which Christ hath performed to cure these and supply those, & that as freely & purposely for him, as for any man elf. To clear and confirm this excellent point I will, as God hath directed my meditations. 1 First prove it to be so. 2 And then demonstrate why it is so. That it is so, appears by sundry places of holy Scripture, out of which I will cull some few, which seem to me most pregnant and pertinent. First, I love the Lord, saith holy David, Psalm. 116. 1. mark his reason; because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. But what kind of supplications were these? upon what occasion were they made? you may see both, v. 3, 4. The sorrows of death compassed me about, and the pains of hell gate hold upon me: then called I upon the name of the Lord, O Lord I beseech thee deliver my soul. These were my supplications, which the Lord hath heard, and therefore I love him, yea, because he hath inclined his care unto me in these my spiritual agonies, I will call upon him as long as I live. 2. we have an eminent place, 1. joh. ●. 19 We love him, mark his reason, because he first loved us. True, some may say, God hath loaded us with innumerable expressions of his love in our creation and preservation, and we do reciprocally love him for them: but what's this to the love of Christ? To omit as impertinent to this place, that in some sort we owe both our creation & temporal preservation unto God's love in Christ; seeing it is not probable, but the whole frame of nature should have been dissolved presently upon the fall, had not God of his mercy intended a Redeemer for mankind to be revealed in the fullness of time: but to let this pass, S. john in these words, because he first loved us, understands that love of loves, that boundless, incomprehensible love of God wherewith he hath loved us in Christ: as it plainly appears by comparing 9 & 10. veries. In this (that is) in this infinitely more, then in any mercy of creation or preservation, 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. Herein is love (that is) herein infinitely more than in any thing else, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. To recollect, and to bring it home to the point in hand, when as the fame S. john speaks v. 16. We have known and believed the love that God hath to us, when we find ourselves to have been eeven dead men, and that God sent his Son, that we might live through him; when we perceive ourselves overloden with sins, and that Christ was sent purposely to be a propitiation for them; O here is the true original of our love unto him, now we love him, because he first loved us. A third place, & I'll trouble you with no more, is Luc. 7. 37. where we have a whole parable to this purpose, delivered by our Saviour himself to make the Pharisees understand what that poor woman meant by those strange distracted & seemingly mad expressions of her love unto him in washing his feet with tears, and wiping them with her hair, etc. The parable is of a Creditor & his two debtors; I need not repeat it, most of you know it already, others may peruse it if they please. The application of it is, that then sinners do indeed fall in love with their Saviour when they perceive themselves to be over head and ears, as we say in debt unto God, and themselves most unable to discharge one farthing, when they feel that God begins to put his bond in suit which they had forfeited long before they were borne, when he sends an arrest for them by the terrors of his Law, their own consciences, & the spirit of bondage. Lastly, when they feel themselves even haled towards that prison from which never any man came out, which was once in, and then most opportunely comes in Christ jesus with his merits, satisfies his father to the full, rescues them out of the sergeants hands, that they being delivered out of the hands of their enemies may serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of their life. Indeed the conclusion of the application vers. 4▪ 7. seems to thwart and unsay all that which I have said. Her sins which are many are forgiven her, because she loved much. I deny not but the words as they are, admit a pious sense, neither am I ignorant with how little ado they may be reconciled which have been hitherto spoken. But if I might be worthy to deliver mine own opinion, with due respect unto the translators, I would alter one word in the translation, which I suspect should run thus: The ordinary translation corrected. Her sins which are many are forgiven, therefore she hath loved much. The sense requires this construction. 1. Because the whole scope of the parable is to show that he loves most to whom most is forgiven, and not contrarily, that most is forgiven to him that loves mo●t. 2. The antithesis in the same verse requires it, the words, but to whom little is forgiven he loveth little, supposeth this thesis; because many sins are forgiven her she soveth much. Now as the sense requires this inter pretation, so the conjunction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 admits it: for albeit not in the pure Greek idiom, yet in the Helenisticke use of it, answers to all the acceptions of the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which hath sometimes the signification of ideo, quapropter, etc. Neither may it prejudice this interpretation, that our Saviour after all those expressions of love from the penitent woman, and his apology for himself and her to the Pharisee, tells her that her sins are forgiven her: this was but that sentence of absolution for her greater comfort, and assurance outwardly pronounced, of which no doubt but she had before some gracious inkling within, and the virtue of which she had already tasted, though not in that comfortable measure, or distinct manner as she desired. But now I would not willingly be mistaken in the point as if my opinion were, or I intended to prove out of the aforecited places, that there is no true love unto Christ, but what is grounded upon an actual persuasion of the remission of our sins by him. Alas how many poor souls even languish with a spiritual thirst after him! how many bleeding hearts both feel and express most vehement pangs of importunate love towards him: how many broken spirits even spend and exhale themselves in continual sallies as it were, and egressions of affection unto him, who have indeed heard, but not as yet tasted how gracious he is, who have not as yet perceived in themselves those inward whisperings of comfort, Fear not, I am thy salvation: be of good cheer thy sins be forgiven thee: in a word, who have not as yet felt themselves sealed to the day of redemption by that holy spirit of promise? To rescue the truth out of these clouds, and to present it in her brightness unto you, we must first observe that every degree of true spiritual love unto Christ, proceeds from a proportionable act of saving faith: Secondly, that there is a twofold love, 1. One of desire, which is an earnest longing after that, which we believe would do us much good if we could attain unto it. 2. Another of complacency, when having attained that we desire, we hug, and embrace it, and solace ourselves in the fruition of it. Now as ordinarily in the love of any other object: so likewise if we respect Christ, jesus, the first of these loves is the introduction to the second; and both of them issue from a proportionable act of faith precedent. That affectionate longing and thirsty love wherewith we pant and gasp after Christ having never yet been refreshed with any comfortable testimony of the spirit since the beginning of our humiliation, proceeds from that former act of faith whereby we assent unto all the Gospel promises as most true and good in themselves, and infinitely better unto us then any thing in the world could we be once assured that they belong unto us as well as to other men. That other love of complaconcie, when with the Psal: we return unto our rest, because the Lord hath dealt bountifully with us, & sweetly repose ourselves in the lap of our Saviour, with content unspeakable and full of glory, proceeds from that last act of faith, whereby we are actually persuaded by those welcome whispers of the spirit of adoption, that Christ is as certainly our Saviour as any man's else, and that our debts (as infinite as they were) are canceled to a farthing, as well as the smaller sums of others. Lastly, it will not be amiss to observe two things of this love of complacency arising from a persuasion of Christ's love unto us in particular. 1. It's subject to all variations or changes, ebbings and flow of that persuasion. For as often as in any violent temptation, or sensible disertion our persuasion seems to be confuted, this love of complacency is either for a time quite stupefied, or else it falls back as it were into that thirsty auxious love of desire. 2. This love of complacency admits degrees proportionably to the degrees of that persuasion. If that be clear and strong, this love is more cheerful & pleasant: if that be weak and obscure, this love is not so spirit full, Faith may be sincere though mixed with Anxiety. but somewhat lumpish being cold with many fears, and jealousies. Whence this love of complacency may not unfitly be subdivided. 1. Into Ordinary love which proceeds from a weaker degree of that last act of faith, and though sincere, yet being imperfect, is mixed with anxiety in the same proportion as that is with doubting. And 2. into Heroical love which springeth from a more eminent and transcendent pitch of persuasion concerning our own reconciliation in particular: this is that perfect love, which S. john says, casteth out all fear (to wit) of distrust, bringing us into a more intimate familiarity with God. I call the first Ordinary, because most Christians though effectually called do ordinarily feel but such a timorous love in themselves. The second which I call Heroical in that sense in which eminent virtues have their Epithet, is constantly only in such as either beside the evidence of the word and spirit, have had some special revelation to put them out of all doubt concerning their estate to Godward, on such as by a constant close walking with God, Constancy in a Christian course frequent tastes of Christ's love, and the Testimony of the spirit assure us of our Salvation. have been long exercised in a Christian course, have often entertained Christ jesus at supper in their hearts, and habituated themselves into a more familiar acquaintance, with that holy spirit which brings all the good news from heaven to those diligent souls which carefully wait for it. Thus have I according to the skill that is given me, proved the original of the sincere love of a sinner unto Christ jesus blessed for ever, to be a serious tender apprehension of his own extreme need of Christ, and of Christ's superabundant love unto him: I have likewise explained this truth, and vindicated it from such exceptions as crossed my way. I come now to discover the demonstrative reason of this truth, and after I have showed that it is so, to show you now why it must be so. We are all borne into the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, The second part of the text. haters of God, and while we continue in that natural stupid condition, wherein we were borne, we are all strangers both unto God and Christ, There is not imprinted in our nature so much as the obscurest intimation of a Saviour or the necessity of one. yea, enemies in our minds through wicked works, as the Apostle speaks. Col. 1. 21. We retain indeed some obscure cloudy notions of a God, but not the darkest intimations of a Saviour, or least suspicion of any need we have of one. In a word albeit we are borne and bred within the shrillest sound of the Gospel, yet as long as we continue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mere animal, natural men, it will not sink into our heads, that we are in such miserable case as Preachers would make us believe we are, how ill its like to go with us unless we laboriously inquire after Christ, and get to be reconciled unto God by him. Now what more effectual method can we imagine to beat us out of this natural antipathy against our Creator and Redeemer, yea what other contrivance may there be to work such peevish wretches, such froward rebels out of one extreme into another, out of deadly hatred to sincere love of the eternal Father and his only Son, to pull down their proud stomaches, to make them crouch and crawl unto his throne of grace, then to make them see in what a hell they are while they stand in this distance from him to awake their consciences against them, and to make them a terror unto themselves to let the Law thunder and lighten into their souls until their wits and spirits begin to fail them, and then amidst all these amazing tempests to let the glorious Gospel of Christ shine upon them, The curses of the law drive us to Christ. to show them Christ jesus with his arms of mercy stretched out, and undertaking to free them out of all these confusions, and to make their peace with his father if they will but come unto him, and trust their selues with him, if they will but lay to heart, and learn to esteem & admire those wonders of redemption which he hath compassed for them. Had the prodigal son's stock held out, and he lain still afloat in the full-tide of his sinful pleasures, he had set up his staff in that fa●●e country, and quite forgot that he ever had a father: yea when the tide was gone and had left him upon the sands: when the revels were ended, his bravery quite worn out into beggary, and himself preferred to be an attendant of a company of hogs, if he could but have got his belly full of husks, he would hardly have thought of returning home: but when these were denied him, and he could see nothing but death before him, O now he comes to himself, and begins to think of a father he had, and resolves to go unto him, though he might well suspect his entertainment. Well, whatsoever that may prove, he is sure he goes to a father, and therefore on he goes, and when he, was yet a far off, full of aboding fears, and disconsolate mu●ings, behold his father about his neck before he was a ware of him, acting an over-joyned man, he hangs about him and kisses him, trims him up with a robe and a ring, conducts him home in a kind of triumph, and welcomes him with the solemnity of a feast and music! Here was a change for the prodigal enough to have turned his brains as we say, but sure it could not but turn his heart. Had that been of marble or adamant, this could not but melt it into love. O what a swelling, a thronging, a wrestling did he now feel in his bowels of tenderest passions, impatient for want of expression. O how did he now lay about him with tears of sorrow and tears of joy, being much pulled, whether it would best become to prosecute his joy most or his sorrow: in brief how mad is he with himself that he had been such a son to such a Father! I have insisted the longer upon the prodigals case, because indeed it is our own. For ordinarily; our heavenly father useth the same method to fetch us his prodigal children home unto him, and to bring us in love with his beloved son jesus Christ. We are all as soon as we are born, gotten into a far country, where we misspend, and misemploy all those faculties and endowments, with which our Creator hath furnished us, in the revels of sin and vanity, walking on merrily and confidently 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle speaks Ephes. 2. 2. according to the course of this world: professing indeed (for fashion sake) love both unto God and Christ, but all the while denying and disclaiming them both in our hearts and conversations. But God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he hath loved us. Ephes. 2. 4. when he hath let us run ourselves even out of breath in these riotous courses, and even tired ourselves in our journey to hell, thinks it sit to stop our progress, and first to make us understand ourselves, that we may the better esteem of him and whom he hath sent jesus Christ. First then he inspires us with so much spiritual life, as may make us feel our spiritual burden, consisting of our sins, and his curses due unto them; he raises up many affrightments, and grim apparitions in our consciences, he gives Satan leave to insult over us, whatsoever outward contentment we fasten on, to put us out of these dumps, he beats us off from it, he leaves us not husks to feed on, he drives us out of one shift into another, till at last we are driven out of all, and so far, that we see plainly, there is but one way with us, even to perish everlastingly, unless we can get to be reconciled unto him. Now we begin to come to ourselves, and perceiving our only course which we have left, God's justice must be satisfied ere we can obtain his mercy. to be, to cast ourselves upon God's mercy, but no getting near unto that, unless his justice be first satisfied, no possibility of that on our parts, unless we can get the satisfaction of Christ imputed unto us, finding the Scriptures so peremptory, that there is no coming to the Father, but by the Son, that he that hath the Son hath life, but he that hath not the Son, hath not life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. joh. 3. 30. O now we begin to see it was to some purpose, that we have heard Preacher so talk so much of Christ; now we begin to hearken better after him, to value and admire him; now we wonder how we could endure to be without him so long, that we could think so slightly of him heretofore, now those holy fits of love grow upon us apace, and upon a sudden, with the Spouse in the Canticles, we are sick of love. Now are we entered into the love of desire, and while our poor souls are sweeting in these restless passions, we hear at length Christ jesus in a mild still voice, inviting all such as are weary & heavy laden to come unto him, that he may give them rest: upon this we address ourselves towards him, with our burden upon our shoulder, and when we are got within ken of him, he seems sometimes to go backward from us, to make us more eager after him, and thus ofttimes he lets us stand trembling and shaking, weeping and groaning under our burdens, till we are even sinking and swooning under them, and then he conveys them away, clears up the heavens over us, speaks like a husband unto our souls by his Spirit, he presents us unto his Father, who now smiles upon us with a reconciled countenance, and then unto his Angels who amongst all their Hallelujahs, receive some addition unto their triumphant mirth by our conversion. Now no man need tell us what Christ hath done for us, we feel real experiments of all in our own hearts, There are Real tastes of the benefits procured by Christ in the hearts of true believers. now we have seen, and felt, and tasted how infinitely he hath loved us, we are ready to make our boast of it, and with the Psalmist, to invite all such as fear God purposely that we may declare unto them what he hath done for our souls. Now we are in that love of complacency, now we cling unto him, and would fain come out of ourselves, to creep unto him, affecting not only a union, but unity with him, now we bestir ourselves in all the holy compliments of heavenly love, never thinking we have done enough, frequently bathing ourselves in those delicious intimacies of our spiritual marriage. which how much they pass all understanding, I appeal to their experiences; to whom these things are no Paradoxes. You see the excellent contrivance, by which our stubborn rebellious hearts are wrought over unto the sincere love of jesus Christ: I suppose it now expedient to clear this discourse of the original of unfeigned love, from some doubts and scruples which may arise from it. 1 Whether none can love Christ in sincerity, but those that are brought unto it by this method? I answer not one ordinarily, if his conversion be wrought by the Ministry of the Word. The sense of our own misery makes us in love with Christ as a Saviour. The reason is plain out of what hath been delivered. We are to love Christ as a Saviour: how can we be brought to those, until we feel ourselves lost, and understand what need we have of a Saviour? We are to love him as a Mediator: what reason is there for this, unless we first plainly perceive God to be our enemy? Lastly, we are to love him as our Physician: what sense is there for that if we feel not ourselves in some dangers, if we feel no aches or gripings, no smart about our souls, if we find no good that Christ hath done us, or can do us? Himself tells us, the whole have no need of the Physician; only the sick, such as feel and acknowledge themselves to be sick, will make use of him. But here it's requisite to observe, that the several passages of this great alteration wrought in our affections, are more or less sensible, according to the several conditions of the persons. We are all prodigals, yet some more, some less: we are all gone into a far country, yet some rove a great deal farther than others: For illustration, some have had a more restraining education then others and been trained up in a more innocent civility, until the time of their visitation, which ofttimes overtakes them very early, and takes them in before they are acquainted with the villains of the world, or vices of the times: such, though commonly they take weeping cross in their way too, as they come home unto Christ, yet they pass not through so many pikes, so many pangs, and terrors but with less stir & diffficulty arrive safely at his bosom, and get within his embraces. On the other side, some are stark prodigals, mere Publicans such as have taken their full swinge in the wildest exorbitancies, such as have served an apprenticeship, perhaps two or three to the World, the Flesh, and the Devil, such as these, when it pleaseth God to put his hook in their nostrils, to turn them round, and make them look towards heaven, are brought to the love of Christ, even step by step in that method which I have formerly described. The other are brought unto the love of Christ, but these being once brought unto it, love him more vehemently, for it's certain he loves most to whom most is forgiven. 2 Doubt, Whether our love to Christ would not be more exact if we did consider the brightness of his glory. Whether our love unto Christ would not be more pure and acceptable unto him, if it arose from an exact, steady contemplation of those infinitely amiable excellencies, and transcendent beauties, which are resplendent in his person; he being the brightness of glory, and the express image of his Father, Heb. 1. 3. or as it is ver. 7. 26. The brightness of the everlasting light, the unspotted mirror of the power of God, and the image of his goodness. I answer by proposing three brief considerations: Christ only considered as a Saviour moves us to love him. 1. That is the truest love of Christ, which beats us out of our natural enmity against him, and brings us home with longing affections unto him. Now it's most true, that the person of Christ, absolutely considered without the relation of a Saviour unto us, is invested with most attractive excellencies, and ravishing beauties: but if a glimpse of that orient lustre should flash in the face of an unregenerate man, or impenitent sinner, unless the sanctifying spirit should at the same instant renew his heart, it might drive him out of his wits but not out of his sins, it might terrify him into a desperate transe, but not advance him to a kindly ecstasy. Likewise if one should go about to win an enemy of grace unto the love of Christ, by the most accurate Metaphysical discourses of those infinitely superlative beauties in the Deity absolutely considered, either they would be fantastic riddles unto him, or at leastwise prevail no more with him to that purpose, than it would persuade him to love one dear, whom he mortally hated, to tell him that he was a comely Gentleman. 2. Suppose these mystical contemplations were effectual this way, yet he that is yet unacquainted with the power of converting grace, is altogether undisposed to set himself about them. An acute, but unsanctified school man may overstraine his understanding with a wearisome gaze upon those invisible beauties, Subtlety without the grace of conversion will not kindle the love of Christ in our hearts. and dazzle it into a more distempered ignorance, but not in to such a ravishment of love, as may warm and elevate his affections whereas the penitent soul, which by the grace of conversion, hath felt those sacred conjugal affections already kindled in itself, may advantage herself excellently by such contemplations, by her intellectual all aspire and affairs, as it were to see him that is invisible, and by refreshing herself with sweetest meditations of those inconceivable glories which are above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God. So that such contemplations, though they cannot ordinarily begin sincere love unto Christ in our hearts, yet they may keep it up, blow it into a purer flame, and advance it to a degree of Angelical sublimity. 3. That love of Christ is most sincere and acceptable unto him, which gives him most glory of that which he desires most to be glorified in: that is, of his goodness, Our love to Christ must be practical. his attributes, and works of mercy in our Salvation. He requires not an airy, but a fiery love. He respects not so much that speculative love, which consists in a simple amaze of the understanding, or bare admiration of those undiscovered perfections of his nature, which have not as yet done us any good, though one day the sight of them shall be a part of our blessedness. Christ requires that love of us, whereby we confess ourselves beholding unto him, that love which lays us flat before him, and whereby we acknowledge we owe ourselves unto him. I may much admire and applaud a man of excellent parts, for his rare endowments, and yet think myself no more beholding unto him, than he is to me, yea I may bear grudges against him in my mind, and be far from any affectionate love towards him: Even so with some Schoolmen, and writers of mystical theology I may busy my brain, and set my mind a staring upon that absolute Ideaa of undefiled beauty in the Deity, and yet as long as I continue unsensible of what Christ hath done for my redemption, retain a frozen and a flinty heart. If we love Christ only because he hath loved us, it seems that in our love unto him, we have a chief eye unto ourselves, and that we love ourselves more than him, which ordinarily cannot be pleasing unto him, or any way stand with sincerity. The occasion of our love to Ch. is our own salvation, the end his glory. For answer, we must distinguish between the impulsive and the final cause of our love unto Christ, or in terms somewhat plainer, between the first inward occasion of it, and the main scope of it. My care of my own soul originally drives me to hearken after a Saviour, and when I have found him, and find withal, that he hath bought me out of myself, that I am not my own, as it is, 1. Cor. 6. 19 hence forth the main scope & principal aim of my love unto him is to do that for which chiefly I was created and redeemed, to let go all interest the love of Christ constraineth us, saith St Paul: why so? Because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: here is that original of our love implied which I have so largely insisted upon, it followeth, and he died for all, that they which henceforth live, should not live unto themselves, but unto him that died for them, and rose again. This is the end of Christ's love unto us, and must be the business and main drist of our love unto him. So that our love unto Christ, arising from a tender apprehension of his love unto us, is not mercenary, but makes most for his honour, seeing that if he had not prevented us, we should in some sort have stood upon equal terms with him. Lastly, it is his good pleasure, that we should love that most which is best for us, that in which most consists our perfection, if therefore we love him as our perfection, conceiving our selves to be worse than nothing without him if we remove ourselves, as it were, into him, & according to that sweet phrase of the Apostle, hide our lives with him in God: Though all this while implicitly we love ourselves, yet we need not doubt of our sincerity, this is the very love which he requires. St Paul's love unto him was such as this. Gal. 2. 20. I live, yet not I, but Christ in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God: mark the reason, & first the inducement to all this, who hath loved me, and given himself for me. It's time by your patience to come to some application. 1 For examination, to persuade every man that would not cozen himself in his persuasions concerning his spiritual estate, speedily, and impartially to examine the love he supposes he bears to Christ jesus by what we have amply discoursed concerning the true and proper Original of it. Thou pretendest most entire love unto Christ jesus, whom thou callest thy Saviour, thou wouldst spit in his face, that should make any serious question of it, thou art confident that thou dost not dissemble with him. Well then, upon this supposal give me leave to sound thy sincerity with these interrogatories. Dost thou remember a time when thou hadst not that love in thy breast which now thou reckonest upon for sound and currant, though thou canst not precisely tell when thou got'st it? Canst thou tell upon what occasions, or guess at the manner how thou at ashedst it? Wert thou brought unto it by that method which I have discoured, Interrogatories to 〈◊〉 our sincerity. or at least by one somewhat like it? If thy conscience can now answer these proposals affirmatively, why then I hope thou mayst pick a great deal of sound comfort out of the precedent discourse which will testify unto thee that thou lovest Christ upon a true ground, and that therefore, that grace and favour of God with all the blessings issuing from it, appertains unto thee, which the Apostle wishes to all those which love Christ Jesus in sincerity. But on the contrary, if thy conscience start at these demands, & begin to fumble at them, making as if it did not understand them, if they drive thee to confess, that thou knowest no such matter by thyself; why then my discourse will conclude thy pretended love unto Christ, to be but a mere fancy, and thyself for the present to be but an unhappy man. To go yet more particularly to work in this examination according to the method above proposed. Hast thou been experimentally convinced in thy own soul in what desperate case thou art by nature? Hast thou clearly perceived to be true in thyself whatsoever the Scriptures tell thee of the monstrous proneness of man's heart to any evilly, and untowardness to any good? Hast thou been made to possess the sins of thy youth, as holy job was? and have the terrors of God stared thy guilty conscience in the face, & affrighted it almost into a bloody sweat, and then hath there appeared as it were an Angel comforting thee? Hast thou felt thyself a condemned man, and even going to execution, and hath Christ jesus in the nick stepped in with thy pardon both purchased and sealed with his own most precious blood? If thou hast felt either these passages, or some which may serve proportionably instead of them, to be the cause of that which thou professest unto Christ, I dare not question the sincerity of it, least with those, Ezech. 13. I wound that soul which should not dye, and make the heart of him sad, whom the Lord hath not made sad. I should wrong thee exceedingly not to believe that Christ is him whom thy soul loveth, & that with S. Paul's constraining love, a love as strong as death, which many waters cannot quench neither shall the stoods drown it. Cant. 8. 7. But now on the contrary, to conclude negatively from the former interrogatories, to infer the want of sincerity in any man for his not feeling those passages as they are verbatim proposed, would be too rigid, & perhaps raise a tumult in a well settled conscience: Only thus much I'll say, if all of them sound as riddles and uncouth mysteries unto thee, if thou never knewest any thing like to what was proposed by thyself, as I fear many have not. If thou knowest not what it means to come heavy laden, poor in spirit, hungry and thirsty unto Christ: why then I wonder thou shouldst be so sottish as to conceive, or impudent as to affirm, that thou lovest Christ, if thou wouldst have us understand thee, that thou lovest him in sincerity. I do suppose that thou lovest him upon custom, as thou dost the fashion of thy country in which thou hast been borne & bred, but so does the gretest part of the world defy him, upon as good a ground as that so does a Turk love Mahomet, one of the bafest misereants that ever was, upon as substantial a ground as that. But we speak of that transcendent love of him, which cannot possibly be due unto any one else, and which would be most due unto him, though all the laws & customs in the world should universally conspire to cry it down, dost thou profess such a love unto him, and knowest not wherefore? nor upon what occasion thou wert moved unto it? It would vex a man to the soul, who knows indeed what it is to love Christ, and how himself was brought un to it, to consider the confident stupidity of multitudes in every place who will not be put out of their dream, that they mean as lovingly to Christ as any man, when as indeed they are not as yet come so far as to perceive any proper reason why they should love him, or what reason he hath to expect any love from them. I know they will say, they love him because he died for them, and they hope to be saved by him: Alas these are words of course and as soon spoken as any other▪ they say this, because they were ever taught to say so, and never lived among any that said the contrary▪ Beloved it is not the saying of this, or believing it confusedly like some old story or tradition will melt our congealed hearts into the love of Christ: That faith must be experimental which is the original of sincere love. No, it must be through distinct feeling of it in our own souls, it must be the experience of this, which makes us enamoured on him and sets our hearts a mounting towards him in those seraphical flames of sanctified affection. 2 The Original of sincere love unto Christ, being discovered, and directions given for self examination concerning it, Cautions against Cozening semblance of Love.. a second use shall be for caution against many cozening semblances of love unto Christ, which may make us think a great deal better of ourselves than we have reason, which may easily be discovered by trying them by this original. To instance in some particulars: There is many a Ruffian in this kingdom, who if he should hear a Jew blaspheming Christ, his blood would quickly be up; he would long to be doing with him, and be hardly kept from hacking him in pieces. O what a friend unto Christ will such a man suppose himself to be, he will conceit he hath behaved himself like a Templar, & done him knights service, and a hundred to one, but in this humour, he will call his companions to come and see the zeal which he hath for Christ Jesus. But if there were any such swaggering Zealot in this assembly, I would ask him these questions: Dost thou not think a hot spirited Turk would have fallen as foul upon the jew, if he had taken him vilifying his Mahomet? Wouldst thou: not undergo as dangerous a quarrel to win the favour, or please the humour of thy mistress? Wouldst thou not thyself, or at lest dost thou not know some who will quarrel as sternly about a pipe of Tobacco, or the pledging of a health? Lastly, hast thou not suffered thy companions to blaspheme Christ in their oaths, perhaps a whole day together, and thy zeal all the while hath been very well contented with it? You see by these questions from what variety of carnal unsanctified motives this seeming plausible zeal may arise: and therefore in all such cases, it much concerns us, to have an eye to the true original of all duties of love, to consider, not so much what we do, as what makes us to do it, We must not somuch consider the vehemency of our Affection as the cause of it. and in a word, to judge of our affections, not by the heat, but by the fuel. For a second instance: Many in reading the history of our Saviour's life, and considering his sweet, debonnaire and unoffensive carriage, & withal the contradiction of sinners, the insolency of proud and churlish miscreants which he endured with an unimitable patience, will find their hearts ever and anon rising in indignation against the Scribes and Pharisees, and even tenderly sympathising with our Saviour. These men may presently imagine themselves to be deeply in love with Christ, but they may be miserably mistaken. Let them consult with their own experience, and observe, whether they are not moved to as sensible passions by the reading of any other story, though profane, if it be any way proportionable unto the Evangelicall story for occurrences: twenty to one but they will find it so: There is not any good story, either sacred or profane, but for the most part it draws the mind of the reader, for the time at least, in to some factio. Wherein it's evident, that such stir of the affections, may proceed from a bare historical faith, joined with that common ingenuity of nature, Many passionate positions of our love to Christ may be the fruits of a bare Historical faith joined with common ingenuity. which teaches us to adore the heroical virtues of Worthies, long since deceased, and to commiserate their undeserved disasters. Yea, which is worth observation, they may proceed from this common ingenuity, by the mere working of the fancy, without any historical belief at all. We find it by experience in reading amorous stories, or histories of strange adventures, which though we know and believe to be feigned, yet oft times, it handsomely contrived; they raise more serious tumults of passions in our minds, than the most real stories we can meet with. Now the reason of it (if my own fancy fail me not) is, because the imagination, which hath the same command over the passions, which the Poets have given Aeolus over the winds, is itself stirred up to sympathise with all such representations as are exquisitely shaped & limbed according to it's own Ideas & inward contrivances: and in this case, the imagination poring upon the representation itself, so that suit well with it's own images within, it regards not not much, whether it be of an acted truth, or of a possibility, forgetting, as it were, for the present, to distinguish what might have been from what hath been. This observation directs me to a third Instance, with which I will conclude: some perhaps may weep devoutly at a Passion-Sermon, & presently imagine their tears to be distillations of tender affections unto Christ; They may be so, but they may very easily not be so. Who knows not, that the charms of eloquence about any sad argument, may easily steal good store of tears from an auditory of women, or of soft natured men? Solemn Music, a good Pavin will do as much: any lively representation of a Tragical accident, whether real or imaginary, will do as much: amongst those that can be so il busied, as to sit three or four hours at a Tragedy, some can be so wisely, good natured too, as to weep heartily at it. You see into what variety of mistakes, offices of love unto Christ may put us, while we consider them lose by themselves, and examine them not by that which ought to be the fundamental inducement unto them in our hearts, you see how expedient it is to judge of these complemental expressions of love unto our blessed Saviour by our hearts, and not of our hearts by them, and by consequent, you see of what excellent use this doctrine of the ground, or original of our love unto Christ is, To God the Father, etc. FINIS. LUKE 14. 26. If any man come to me, & hate not his Father and Mother, Wife and Children, and Brethren, and Sisters; yea & his own life also, he cannot he my Disciple. I Proceed still in my Tract or discourse, concerning the sincerity of our love unto our blessed Saviour. My method in it I have acquainted you with heretofore, imposing upon myself a copious and full handling of three most considerable points, which both make it up in itself, and evidence it unto us. 1. The true and proper ground or original of it: the special reasons inducing us to love him. 2. The requisite, degree & intention of it: how much we are to love him. 3. The especial effects and testimonies of it: what we are to do because we love him. The first of these heads I have dispatched already; having heretofore in another audience discovered the false, & in this congregation, the true grounds of our love unto Christ jesus: I am now fall'n upon the second point, and therein more punctually to inquire, how much we are to love him which query our Saviour himself clearly and throughly resolves in my Text. The occasion of the words. If any man come unto me, etc. Our Saviour was now in the progress of his humiliation▪ going about & doing good. Being on his way, he observes great multitudes thronging & flocking after him, no doubt for various ends, and upon various motives. This he well knew: and thereupon that they might not dishonour him and deceive themselves by gross, absurd conceits of a common easiness, for any man to get whatsoever good was to be gotten from him by a little trotting after him, he thought it expedient to let them all know before hand, what they must of necessity resolve upon, if they would follow him to any purpose, & solemnly to forewarn them, what they must trust unto if they made account to get any good by running after him. If any man will come to me (that is) hoping or desiring to be better for me in regard of a better life, The expl●●cation of them. and hate not his Father and Mother, etc. (that is) if he set not so high a price upon his hopes by me, that he bring this resolution with him to part with any thing which may hinder him from doing me constant, universal service; yea though it be that which otherwise he may most lawfully and aught most dearly to affect, he cannot be my Disciple, he is not qualified either to do me that honour which I shall expect from him, or to receive those favours which he will expect from me. If any man desirous of a more satisfying expectation of this Scripture shall inquire yet more particularly, in what sense the Disciple of Christ must hate his parents & children, wife and kindred, yea and his own life. I answer. 1. The law of God doth not only permit, but also command us to love all these, and to embrace them with the sweetest clearest affections that nature can possibly stir up in our breasts & bowels: far be it from our Saviour to contradict this law by requiring that his Disciples at their very first entrance into the school, should turn barbarous and strip themselves of those sacred, decent affections of nature and humanity: that which he requires is this, that seeing even during the true Church there will daily happen many ca●es wherein we must needs either deal unkindly or dishonourably with him, or break squares with such as are near & dear unto us, and in time of persecution we may be so put to it that we must either be ashamed of him before men, and in the extremity of baseness abjure him, or else part with our temporal life and all contentments; I say▪ he requires, that his Disciples should come with minds so possessed with an extraordinary overreaching esteem of him beyond any thing else, that they might be prepared afore hand for such exigents, and resolve to run the most desperate hazard of the loss of any man's favour, or their own lives, that nothing may interrupt their obedience unto him, or intercept the light of his countenance from them. 2. We are to note, that the hatred which is required, hath not reference to the persons specified in my Text, but to such favours and contentments as we may receive from them. The love of Christ will not suffer, much less cause us, in any case to neglect the duties, or grow weary of the relations of nature: only thus much Christ expects from us seeing we may be often driven to that push that we must either lose him, or the good looks of those whom we account▪ our best friends, that in comparison of our hopes by the Gospel, we should so hate, (that is) by a Hebraisme, neglect or disesteem whatsoever comforts or favours we could expect from them, that without any long pause or deliberation, we may be content to let them go, and be glad we are ●o rid of them, that we may stick close unto Christ, and be found in him enwrapped in his righteousness. To unfold this yet more distinctly: We may part with what is dear unto us for the love of Christ in ● respects. we may part from that which is dear unto us for the love of God or Christ in two respects. 1. As a sacrifice, to wit, when God is glorified by that which we part with: so Abraham was willing to part with Isaac, and in this respect might be said to hate him, though no doubt but his bowels yearned most vehemently, even when his hand was fetching the fatal blow; so that heroical mother 2. Macc. 7. hated her seven sons whom indeed she loved most tenderly, being content to see them all butchered before her eyes with horrible rarity of torments, that they may not disobey the law, and God might be glorified. 2. As a temptation, when we ourselves being severed from it may glorify God more freely: Thus Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaohs daughter, hating the treasures of Egypt in comparison of the reproach of Christ, Heb. 11. 26. Thus joseph parted with his Mistress and all his hopes by his Master, because he would not do that great wickedness and sin against God. The hatred required in Christ's disciples is passive more than active. So that indeed the hatred in my Text is more passive than active, consisting in an humble willingness to forgo any thing which may be either an acceptable sacrifice unto Christ, or a dangerous temptation from him, in a well composed dislike and disesteem of those things, which our nature counts her jewels, when compared to those glorious invisible rarities which they may hinder us from. Lastly in a placide, well tempered contentedness, upon a small warning to part with them, either one after another, or all of them at a clap, so that we may be sure of the main, so that by letting them go, we may take better hold of Christ jesus, in whom we are sure to find with an infinite overplus whatsoever we lose for his sake. My text being thus explained. The Doctrine of the Text. I will contract the pith both of it and its explication into this doctrine. Whosoever makes account to be the better for his profession of Christ, and to have his share in those unvaluable purchases of his passion, must prise Christ jesus and his hopes by him far beyond whatsoever, or whomsoever he may, most lawfully & aught most dear to love in this world, yea far beyond life itself, and whatsoever contentments may endear it unto him. To heap up other testimonies or to go any farther than my text for the proof of this doctrine, were to prejudice both our Saviour's authority, he being so plain and peremptory in the point, and your esteem of it, as if you were not by his bare word sufficiently persuaded and convinced of a truth, so much concerning himself and you too, if you do in earnest desire to have any thing to do with him. My labour, I suppose will be better spent in demonstrating unto you the equity of that which may seem rigour in this doctrine, in discovering unto you what good reasons our Saviour had to exact so great a measure and high a pitch of love from all those who would be partakers of his redemption and sharers of his merits: The equity of the Doctrine demonstrate● by two reasons. Some of those reasons I will specify and amplify in two considerations. 1. It will not stand either with the justice, or wisdom of God the Father, to lose the glory of his everlasting mercies in his son, by conferring them upon such as do not perceive & acknowledge some outstripping excellency in them beyond all his temporal blessings. Indeed it is usual with God in his general providence to heap his temporal favours upon such as never think of his love in dealing thus bountifully with them, but the reason of that is because he can call them in again, and blow upon them at his pleasure, and though he get no glory for his mercy whilst he bestows them as blessings, spiritual blessings ●re not so ●ommon ●s temporal. yet he can be sure to glorify his justice by turning them into curses: But now for his everlasting mercies, those riches of his love in Christ, he useth not to part with them so easily: he lets not them go out of his hands: by his Ministers he proclaims and displays the infinite worth and value of them: if any man be so taken with the lustre of them that for joy Mat. 13. 44. he goes and sells all that he hath to buy them, God presently gives an everlasting assurance of salvation to all who love Christ sincerely. and thinks he hath a good bargain too, God presently seals unto him an everlasting assurance of them by the spirit of promise, and gives possession of them at the day of his death, when all other possessions leave him. But now if any man think so poorly of them, that either he will not vouchsafe to cheapen them, or if he do think them worth the buying, yet will not come off roundly, and buy them outright with all that he hath. I say it will not stand either with the justice, or wisdom of God the Father, to cast them away upon such prodigious sorts. The reason may be gathered out of our Saviour's words, Mat. 10. 37. He that loveth Father or Mother more than me is not worthy of me: Alas, you will say, no more is he that loveth him infinitely better, than his Father and Mother: yes such a one is worthy of him, not indeed with such a worthiness as God may expect but with such a worthiness as he in justice may accept: not with such a worthiness by which he may deserve Christ, ●t is an possible to be justified without Christ as to perform ●ny thing which may deserve Christ. for than he would have no need of him, seeing that worthiness might aswell immediately answer the justice of God without Christ, but with such a worthiness as may fit him having need of Christ, and Christ being freely given him to receive him. What kind of worthiness is that? it is the worthiness of faith working by love, consisting in a through sense of the extreme misery of our greatest happiness without Christ, in a clear persuasion of the incomparable worth of those things which we are promised in Christ, and in a well advised resolution to do or suffer anya thing that we may be assured of our part in them. But alas what worthiness is there in all this? seeing that whatsoever we can possibly do or suffer for Christ in this life, is not, worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed Rom. 8. 18. I answer there can be indeed no meritorious worthiness in all this, but there is an acceptable worthiness: for by acceptance he is worthy of whatsoever God does for him, There is a twofold worthiness Acceptable and Meretorious. who in some good measure understands the worth of his benefits and takes them to heart, desiring and endeavouring to give him all the glory which he intended for himself in bestowing them. The principal thing God intends in doing good unto any of his creatures is the glory of his goodness, if therefore his creature acknowledge his goodness proportionably in his benefits▪ desiring to value them all single at that high price, and in comparison one above another proportionably as the donor would have he should, he restore unto God that which he aimed at in his benefits, and is worthy of them with that worthiness which a Creator may expect from a creature▪ It is not required by God that any creature should deserve his gifts. seeing an infinite Creator which had need of nothing, cannot expect any thing from a finite creature having nothing but what he first bestowed upon it, but the glory of his benefits. Now to draw nearer unto the point: the greatest matter containing in it infinite variety of wonders, which God from all eternity hath contrived by his wisdom, compassed by his power, bestowed by his goodness upon mankind to get himself as it were an infinite mass of glory which should suffice him through all eternity, was the sending of his own son in our nature, on our behalf to satisfy his justice. The Redemption of man is the most admirable work of God. This was that astonishing project, wherewith that invisible Lord blessed for ever intended in the fullest, compleatest measure to glorify all his attributes at once, and to make himself far more admirable than he was in the creation & government of the world. This was that mystery which was hidden from ages and generations, in which God would make known the riches of his glory: Col. 1. 26. which holy men for many ages together saluted a far off, and rejoiced to see, though it were through a cloud, which the Angels themselves desire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉▪ most heedfully to pry into 1. Pet. 1. 10. out of their heavenly▪ places beholding in the Church the manifold wisdom of God. Ephes. 3. 10. This being so, whosoever is admitted to see what i● the fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, v. 9 If he be so caught up with admiration of it, that he grow presently into a loathing of all his other happiness in comparison of this; if at the sight of such a concourse of wonders, he be so ravished out of himself, that he care not what become of what he most doted on before, so that he may get his part in that fellowship, I say, such a one is worthy of Christ, because he gives God that glory which Christ meant to procure him, and therefore it will stand both with his wisdom and justice, to allot such a one his portion out of those unsearchable riches of Christ Ep. 3. 8. But on the contrary: whosoever is admitted to the sight of the fellowship of the same mystery, if he can espy no such extraordinary excellency in it but that he may keep himself as he is, and hold fast what he hath, if he can discern no such superlative worth in it as may call in his thoughts from all other matters, and command their attendance upon itself; if his affections continue still glued unto such trash and muck as they were fastened on before, in a word, if he satisfy himself with such gross conceits as these, that sure the things which are offered us in Christ are excellent things, but offered upon very hard terms, They who ●ill not ●●ke Christ ●n those terms he 〈◊〉 offered, ●hall never enjoy him. and therefore, perhaps other matters may be better for us for the present, that those are matters of another world and would be good for us when we are dead, but in the mean time it's▪ best for us to make as much of ourselves as we can, and by God's mercy we may at length have our part in those matters as well as those that keep most stir about them, (I say) such stupid sots are so strangely unworthy of Christ, that God cannot do them any good: his wisdom and his justice will not suffer him: it would infinitely less become his wisdom to prostitute such treasures unto the trampling of such swine, than it would become the wisdom of a man to give children Diamonds to play with, who will be better pleased with cherrystones, or to feed hounds with the most costly dainties, which had rather be doing upon carrion. It's likewise impossible for his justice to bestow his chiefest, choicest mercies upon such brutes as will scarce take them for mercies, being not throughly persuaded that they have any need of them; did I say it will not stand with the justice of God to bestow his principal mercies where they are thus brutishly undervalved: nay he that thus undervalues them must not carry it away so: the justice of God will not suffer him to let that man pass, without the most heavy and fearful plagues that his omnipotency can inflict, because it is the greatest affront and most intolerable despite, that such worms can offer his impassable majesty, They offer ●he greatest affront to God, who scorn his love. thus as much as in us lies, to be fool his wisdom and even scorn his love in that where he thought to do us most good and himself most glory, we forsooth can see no such great need of that, or extraordinary reason for this. Nay you will say, but we may value God's love in Christ very highly, albeit we esteem some few things which our nature hath taken special liking unto before it? No such matter: He that esteems the dearest things he hath, suppose his own life, but in the least degree above it, undervalues it as much in effect as he that makes no account of it at all: would any man say that he esteemed a pearl who should prefer a barley-corne before it: yet there is some proportion between a barley-corne and a pearl, but none at all between our temporal life and that exceeding weight of glory, treasured up for us by God's love in Christ. O this love of God in sparing his own son for our redemption, is so full of bottomless, fathomless mysteries, it is in such transcendent excess infinite, that those multitudes of his blessings in our creation and preservation, inestimable too in themselves where with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 day by day he loadeth us Psal. 68 v. 19 (take them altogether) are not worth the talking off in comparison of this, nor as we say to be named the same day with it; O this sending of Christ to dye for us, when we were yet sinners, was that special, royal present wherewith the King of heaven would commend his love unto us, as the Apostle excellently expresseth it Rome▪ 5. 8. In this saith Saint john 1. 4. 9 was manifested the love of God towards us that he sent his only begotten some into the world that we might live through him manifested in this? Why, in what not? so it is in every bit of bread we eat, in every sup of air we take in. O but the noblest blessings of this life are such poor courtesies in comparison of what we hope for by Christ, that God's love though most eminent too, does scarce appear in them, being eclipsed by that most orient and everlasting blaze of his love in Christ. Wherefore to conclude my first consideration: it is no wonder if the justice of God, which is to see that his Glory receive no damage, require that our esteem of this his greatest mercy, which himself values so far above all his other mercies, should so far exceed our esteem of any other matters though otherwise most excellent in themselves and dear unto us, that our very esteem of them may be but a disesteem and a hatred if compared to our esteem of his love in Christ. Consid. 2. If a man profess never so much love unto Christ, The secon● Reason. if he do indeed prefer him before never so many conveniences of this life, yet if he love but any one thing in the world never so little better than he doth Christ, he doth him in effect as much dishonour as he that never looks after him at all. Thus much I intimated before; but what I did but touch upon, and in reference to God the father, I will now amplify with special references unto God the son. It is all one, It is all one ●ot to esteem Christ at all and to prefer one though but one contentment before him. as I said before, not to esteem a pearl at all, and to esteem it less worth than a barley-corne: in like manner, though we prefer Christ before never so many profits and pleasures, yet if there remain behind one darling contentment which we are resolved to keep whatsoever may become of his glory or our interest in him: we do in the issue esteem him not at all, because we still wittingly value him below that which is infinitely worse than dung in comparison of him. When a saleable commodity is offered upon reasonable price, we use to say that if it be not worth that, it's worth just nothing: Now our part in Christ is so infinitely overworth any thing that we can possibly give for it, that by far better reason we may say, that he that thinks it not cheap bought with all that he hath even to his last breath, indeed thinks it worth nothing at all. Let a woman love her husband better than a million of men, yet if she love but any one man in the world better than her husband, he will give her but little thanks for loving him above so many others. But to amplify this point more distinctly, let us briefly consider that transcendent pitch of love we owe first unto the benefits of Christ; secondly unto his person; All those inestimable benefits which we make account of by Christ may be reduced to 2. heads 1. a ransom 2. an inheritance. The ransom is from horrors and those torments which are infinite for smart, variety and duration, which we have all deserved a thousand times over, Had the blessings procured by Christ been infinitely less than they are, they had been inestimable. and therefore the case being thus with us, though we looked for nothing but such a ransom by our Saviour, though he had procured us only this that after this life we should spend eternity in a Limbus unacquainted with any pain or pleasure, yea though he had procured us only the mortality of our souls, that they might perish with our bodies; I say this alone had been beyond all proportion, better for us then the whole world: seeing what would a thousand worlds do us good if after a while we must be packed out of them all into that place where we shall everlastingly curse the day that ever we were borne or made reasonable creatures. But now that besides all this, we make first account for an inheritance by him, an inheritance immortal, undefiled, reserved in heaven for us, seeing we expected to be made heirs with Christ in that glory which he had with his father before the beginning of the world, of that glory, the least spark of which if visible to bodily eyes would shame all the beauty, pomp and bravery of the world, and whatsoever the Magnificoes of the earth are proud of, it is a stupidity worse than any madness to conceive, we esteem sufficiently of such glorious hopes, if upon deliberate choice we make much but of any one endearment of this life which may any way hinder our assurance of them. 2. for our love unto the person of Christ, equity requires that we should love him with a love yet more overtopping then either our ransom or inheritance, and therefore it will be yet a more intolerable extremity of madness, to imagine we love him with an acceptable degree of affection, as long as we dare to bring the most lovely object that we can pick out of the store-house of nature within the compass of a comparison with him. We sh●● love Chr●●● person mor●e entirely then● his benef●●▪ I say, reason requires that we should love his person more entirely than his benefits, that we should prefer his glory before eternal life itself. Our Saviour is contented that our fear of misery and desire of happiness, should first enter us into the love of him, that till we know him better we should love him only for our own sakes and his benefits, but after that he hath sent his spirit to expound the mystery of his love unto us more clearly, to make us lay to heart not only what he hath purchased for us, but also how dear the purchase cost him, how though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor that we through his poverty might be made rich as the Apostle passionately delivers it, 2. Cor. 8. 9 how being every way equal with God, Phil. 2. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he was fain to empty and strip himself as it were of all his royalty that he might compass these great matters for us, for whom he had not the least reason to do the least good: when his spirit hath effectually melted our hearts with these considerations, 〈◊〉 is a mercenary love 〈◊〉 love Christ chiefly for our ●wn salvation. we shall perceive our loving him chiefly for our own salvation to be somewhat too gross and mercenary love, being not much different from that of a woman who loves her jointure better than her husband, or that of a son, who loves his Father chiefly for his patrimony. And though hitherto we have loved Christ only because we hope to get by him, yet now that we know what the kisses of his mouth mean, that which we principally love in him is his love, & having before loved the giver for the gift, by a kind of regress in our affection, we henceforth strive to love gift for the giver. But this point though many of God's children know it to be most reasonable, and have found it most comfortable, yet I know it will seem to many both too rigid and too curious, and therefore I dismiss it. All that hath been delivered in my second consideration may be summed up in this excellent conclusion. So muc●● only we love Ch●●●● as we lo●● him be●●● then any●● thing else▪ So much only we do love Christ as we love him more than any thing else besides though never so lovely: 1. Because we have infinitely more reason to love him then it is possible we should have to love any thing else: and therefore it is not to be accounted love unto him, if we can afford as much and more to something else: 2. Because if we love but one thing better than we do him, that one thing may force us to despite, forsake, and betray him as accursedly as if we preferred a hundred things before him: yea, he that resolvedly prefers but one thing before his communion with Christ will quickly be entreated by his own heart to prefer more. He therefore that would certainly know how much he loves his blessed Saviour, that would judge exactly of the measure of his love unto him, must not do it by feeling the pulse as it were, or calculating the degrees of his affection unto him; but by comparing his affection unto Christ with his affections unto other matters, and considering how far that hath got the start of these, and what overplus it hath beyond them all in the comparison; for so much and no more doth he indeed love Christ. For it deserves observation: that we cannot judge of an affection by its single exercises what it does alone by itself, but only when it is brought within the lists, when it's put to wrestle for the mastery with other affections in the same heart. Where it comes to pass that of two affections of the same kind, the weaker may prove the stronger, if seated in a heart, where as weak as it is, it hath the sovereignty over all the other affections proportionally weaker than itself; and the stronger may prove the weaker if it dwell in such a heart, wherein it is overmatched with some one at least stronger than itself. Did I love Christ jesus with as eminent degree of love as ever did the most resolute Martyr, yet were it possible that I should love any endearment of this life never so little beyond that pitch, my love would be as good as none at all; yea the same measure of love which made him a glorious Martyr, would not keep me from being an accursed Apostate, seeing that if I were put to it, as he was, that I must either renounce my Saviour or my other contentment, this would hold me so fast, that it would make me most desperately let him go: and this would be not because my love unto Christ was in itself weaker than the Martyrs: I supposed the contrary: but because my affection unto something else was stronger than any affection in the Martyr, & too strong to be over-mastred by my love unto Christ. But here some may put in a foolish question; though a Disciple of Christ must not love any thing better than his Master, yet may he not love some things as well? I answer the conceit is impossible. First, Because it is an impossibility, that for any continuance our affections should be settled in an equal size upon two objects, which commonly fall cross one to the other & may ever and anon be brought in opposition one against the other. Now whatsoever we love besides Christ unless it be in subordination unto him, either actually, when we particularly think of it & intent it, or habitually, in the general constant purpuse of our minds, we love it in opposition to him either explicit & direct, or implicit and interpretative, as the Schools speak (that is) such neglect of him as he will interpret opposition. All this we learn from himself who hath pronounced it impossible that one man should serve two masters, and his reason is, he must needs hate the one, and love the other, Math. 6. 24. 2. We may note that love and the rest of the affections may be considered two ways. 1. Physically, as they are qualities in the soul. 2. Morally, in respect of their motives and other morallizing circumstances. Now suppose it were possible that we should love Christ and some worldy contentment which the very same degree of affection, If we lo●● any contentment 〈◊〉 equally with Chri●●●●ee love Christ indeed far less than that contentment. although these loves would be equal considered naturally as qualities, yet considered morally, our love of Christ would be far less than our love of the other contentment: seeing our love of that upon small reasons would be as great as our love of Christ upon the greatest reasons that ever were, or ever can be to observe and persuade the greatest love. Thus in two considerations have you heard explained, confirmed, and amplified this main doctrine, whosoever he be that makes account to be the better for his profession of Christ. Before I descend to application I suppose it expedient to vindicate this fundamental point from some exceptions which it may be charged with by such as do not or will not understand it. The point 〈◊〉 vindicated from ●ome exceptions. In the first place, it may be objected, if none can get the rich pearl in the parable but he that will give all he hath for it: if none can have his part in Christ but he that prizeth it above his life, and is ready to buy it with whatsoever is dear unto him, what means then that Evangelicall proclamation Esa. 55. 1, Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come and buy milk without money, and without price? What means that nuptial invitation, Rev. 22. The spirit & the bride say come, and let him that heareth say come, & whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely. What are we invited and entreated to drink on free cost of the water of life, and yet must we venture our lives for it, and break through a whole host of Philistines for it, as the Worthies of David did for the waters of Bethel. 2. Sam. 23. Are we made believe that Christ is given us freely, and yet must we buy him, and buy him with all that we have? I answer, 1. That proclamation in the Prophet, and invitation in the apocalypse are not to be so understood, as if God required nothing on their parts who shall partake of his promises in Christ, but only to step forth and challenge them. The sense and scope of those places is this, whereas worldly commodities though never so vain and transitory cannot be gotten without price, so that he that is penniless must be content to go without them, those heavenly and everlasting commodities are attaineable to all sorts of men, as well to beggars as to Princes, poverty can hinder no man from buying them, he that hath not a penny may come and drink as freely of the waters of life as he that hath coffers full. As God expects from us whatsoever we have, so that which we have for him shall serve the turn though it be never so little, though we have nothing but the shirt on our backs; but our naked, diseased carcases, yet if we are willing to give them for Christ, they shall be sufficient pay. God turns away no chapman because he cannot give enough, but only because he will not give what he can. For if there be first a willing mind, God accepts according to that a man hath and not according to that a man hath not, as it is spoken in another case. 2. Cor. 8. 12. 2. When we are said to buy the pearl, to buy Christ withal that we have, such like speeches are in no wise to be understood properly but Parabolically; for in propriety of speech, when we forsake all to win Christ, we do not lay down any price unto God for him, who hath given him for us all and offered him to every one of us most freely, only we rid ourselves of such things as may hinder us from receiving him being freely given. If one should offer me handfuls of Gold▪ ay for the present having my hands full of clay, I should quickly be rid of the clay that I may finger the gold, yet I do not pay him for his gold with my clay, but only prepare myself to receive it. In like manner there being an infinitely greater disproportion between Christ and the most precious commodities that we can forgo for him; then there is between gold and clay when we dismember ourselves of any thing that we may make room for Christ, we do not purchase him, but prepare to entertain him coming of his own accord unto us. ● But is it so in earnest, will some say? must every man that will be the better for Christ, be willing to lose his own life for him? This is worse than all the rest, why then, upon the point, none can be saved but Martyrs. I answer, we may safely affirm that none are saved but Martyrs; Martyrs either actually or habitually▪ Whether any can be saved but Martyrs▪ having faith enough to encourage and love to constrain them to be Martyrs, if the honour of their profession should require it. If this assertion make any man's ears to tingle, I know not why the hearing of my Text should not be as offensive unto him, or the reading of diverse other speeches of our Saviour, requiring a resolved disesteem and contempt of life in any man whosoever he be that dares to set his hand to his plough, or seriously set his face towards heaven. There is a Popish scribbler not worth the naming in a pulpit, who would persuade us that these speeches of our Saviour are not precepts of necessity unto all that shall be saved by him, but only counsels of perfection to such as will not be contented to be doorkeepers in heaven, but aim at some higher place. For my part I cannot express how injurious I conceive this gloss, as well to our Saviour's person, as to his doctrine. But if any man present to set his own heart at quiet, be willing to be of this fellow's mind, I leave him three things to pause upon. 1. Our Saviour did not speak thus much only to some select, forward men, only to his special Disciples, but as it is in the verse precedent, there went great multitudes after him, and he turned and said unto them, If any man, etc. But perhaps though he address his discourse to them altogether, yet he intended it not to each of them single. No, what then mean the first words of my Text, If any man etc. what means the conclusion of his discourse, verse, 33. So likewise whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath he cannot be my Disciple. 2. The considerations which show the equity of those conditions required by our Saviour, the reasons inducing him to require so great a measure of love, as you have heard before, equally▪ concern every man, and therefore there is no reason why we should imagine that our Saviour proposed these hard terms only to some few & not to all that would have any interest in him. 3. Contempt of life in comparison of a communion with Christ is most universally requisite in all sorts of men. 1. Because the Church never enjoys such a calm, but a terrible storm may unexpectedly dash it away, and therefore there is no man though borne in the most peaceable time of the Gospel, but ere the glass of his life be run out, he may be over taken with a fiery trial. 2. Yea there is no professor of the Gospel, though he live and dye during the public tranquillity of it, yet he may privately be brought to that plunge, that he must either hazard his life, or else in some fearful, horrible manner against his conscience dishonour Christ jesus. 3. Many may take away our lives which cannot take away our other contentments, as Popish Assascinats have deprived Kings of their lives when they could not of their kingdoms. It is certain that whosoever cares not for his own life is master of another man's, & by consequent of any man's religion that loves his life better than he doth it. How easy were it for a Ruffian that had no religion of his own▪ to pull such a one into a corner and with a naked blade to make him forswear his religion, as often as he pleased, yea if the trick were in use, such a one might be robbed of his religion upon the high way seeing any man that were so disposed with a Pistol at his breast might make him deliver up his faith with as much haste as his purse. 3▪ It may be replied if every follower must love him more than his own life, than it seems that the weakest Christian, if indeed a Christian must love him as much as the most renowned Apostles, seeing the best of them all could love him no more than so, for greater love than this hath no man than that he lay down his life for his friend, witness Christ jesus himself, john. 15 13. It seems likewise that all must have an equal portion of faith; both which consequencies palpably contradict both Scripture and experience. I answer first without question all that shall be saved must be saved by the same faith, viz: by faith of the same nature, though not in the same quantity. Now that which breeds the mistake in this objection, is a conceit▪ that to love Christ more than our lives proceeds not from the nature of saving faith simply considered, but from some eminent degree of it, which conceits is erroneous. For it is very observable, that the nature of faith, if true and saving, be the degree of it never so small necessarily includes thus much: it being an assent unto all Scripture revelations, especially unto the Gospel's promises, as most true and good in themselves, and far better in the choice than any profits or pleasures in the world, yea then life or whatsoever may sweeten it unto us. Whence an incomparable writer of our own who hath dived profoundly into the nature of justifying faith, hath woven the words of David, Ps. 63. Thy loving kindness is better than life, into his complete definition of that faith whereby the just do live. 2. Though all the Disciples of Christ must assent to so much be their faith, & express if need be, so much by their love, yet according as those tastes and relishes of heaven imprinted in their soul by the spirit, upon which the assent of faith, and fervency of love are grounded are more or less lively and pleasant, the faith and love of Christians admit sundry degrees and measures: but not properly in regard of their esteem of the object, (for all, as I have showed, must esteem it better than life) but in respect of the radication and settling of this esteem in themselves▪ so that howsoever all faithful Christians judge and esteem their hopes by Christ to be better than life, yet they may be more or less in their judgement, and those apprehensions which cause this esteem may be more or less clear and distinct. 3. 'tis true, that to dye for the profession of Christ is the greatest possible expression of love unto him, for the matter of it there may be great diversity▪ and accordingly by several degrees of faith, and love may be expressed by it. Amongst so many thousands as have been crowned with martyrdom in Primitive and latter times, no doubt but there was infinite variety of degrees of faith and love, all which had but one common expression for the matter; but for the manner of it, some laid down their lives more cheerfully and triumphantly rejoicing that it was given to them, not only to believe, but also to suffer: others with more deliberation, staggering, & reluctancy some with Peter denied Christ diverse times before they would dye for him, recanted abjured, and run through a hundred of base sights before they would come to the stake, others behaved themselves more honourably & heroically, and being glad of such speedy conveyance to heaven died with a kind of Angelical Majesty. To draw towards a conclusion: if any honest tender heart, which uses to tremble at the word, and to mourn for its own infirmities, be brought into dumps by this doctrine, causing it to think thus with itself; if every one that loves Christ to any purpose must love him better than life, and be able to dye for him, then sure all my love unto him is nothing worth▪ ●● When I am in my best moods his loving kindness is dearer unto me then thousands of gold and silver, and I am of David's mind that it is better than life, but yet if my life were in question for it, I know not what would become of me, sure I should never hold out but flinch most shamefully. For comfort and direction unto such a soul I commend these considerations. 1. This fear of flinching is a good sign, that thou wouldst not flinch for fear: you know what Peter's loud protestation (though all men forsake thee yet will not I) came to not long after, you know the story of Dr Pendleton, or you may read it in Mr Fox, unless thy life were exceeding dear unto thee, it would be no such great testimony of thy love unto him, to part with it for his sake; unless death were very terrible, Martyrdom would not be either such an acceptable sacrifice unto God, or glorious wonder amongst men. To fear martyrdom, yea and to pray against it with submission unto God's will, is warranted by our Saviour's own example, when he prayed so earnestly, that if it were possible the Cup might pass away from him, but still with submission unto his father's pleasure. That place concerning our Saviour, Heb. 5. 7. is very remarkable, who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears unto him, that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared. I stand not upon the words in that he feared, for indeed the construction of the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, is very uncertain, that which I especially note, is, that it is said here, our Saviovor was heard how was he heard? Mark how, and thence will spring a second branch of comfort. His Father heard him, not in removing the Cup from him, but in strengthening▪ him to drink it with victory: so art thou sure to be heard, if thou prayest as he did: either the Cup shall be removed from thee, or sweetened unto thee. Remember withal, that God is never more for us, then when we are most for him, that his glory lies at stake as well as thy life, and that he is more curious of that, than thou canst be of this. God is faithful who will no● suffer us to be tempted above that we are able; but will with the temptation also make away to escape that we may be able to bear it. 1. Cor. 10. 13. Remember that thy Saviour hath had experience of all the amazemets and horrors of death when he suffered it for the●e, and therefore cannot forget, both to pity and succour thee when thou art to suffer it▪ for him: for in that he himself hath suffered being tempted he is able to succour them that are tempted, as the Apostle sweetly infers, Heb. 2. 18. Lastly, let me commend this caution unto the trembling soul; Anxious distrustful care for the future in matters of the soul, is more dishonourable and displeasing unto God, then in matters of the body. Remember therefore thy Saviour's advice, care not for to morrow, let that care for itself. Afflict not thyself with such sad supposals, what if Queen Mary's days should come again; what if I should be brought before such a fellow as Bonner, remember thy Saviour's reason for his advice, sufficient for the day is the evil thereof. Which as it is too true for matters of this life, so it's much more true in business of our spiritual life. If thou art indeed entered into a covenant with God, if thou hast seriously and advisedly resolved to live the rest of thy time in the flesh by the faith of the son of God who hath loved thee and given himself for thee, if thou art indeed one who knows what an infinite, endless, unwearied diligence is required to a constant, close walking with God, why then thou hast every day, every hour, omission● and commissions to look unto, thou hast continual swarms of thoughts, words, and actions most warily, and precisely to watch over, thou must tread every step as nicely and gingerly, as if thou goest amongst snares, and walkedst upon pinnacles, thou must ever and anon chain up thy beloved affections shorter, and deal roughly with those lusts, which perhaps are as dear unto thee as thy life. What hast thou thus▪ much business every day; and hast thou time to make suppositions for the future, and to torment thyself with presages? Let to morrow care for itself: abstain from fleshly lusts which fight against thy soul and most dangerously in times of peace: stand upon thy guard against thy sins of daily incursion, against such temptations as are incident to thy present condition, in simplicity of heart resign thyself up unto him, that hath loved thee and given himself for thee, and thou be confident, that neither life nor death, neither things present nor things to come shall ever be able to separate thee from him: this being most certain that he that does indeed live by faith, hath that in him, which, if need should be, will enable him to die in it & for it. But what reason had I then at this time to trouble men's heads with such a thorny discourse of Martyrdom? I answer. 1. The habit of Martyrdom, as I have showed, is included in the most fundamental principle of Christianity, love of Christ better than ourselves, self resignation or denial: and therefore they deserve no answer but silence, who shall think a discourse of it at any time to be harsh and unseasonable. 2. As the Prophet Ezechiel forewarned the jews, We have had mischief upon mischief, and rumour upon rumour, and if mischief and rumours continue and multiply upon us as fast as they have done of late, the days may be sooner upon us than we are aware, when there may be too much occasion to practise this point and no time to preach it. The Lord open our eyes and change our hearts, the Lord of his mercy order matters for us, above all that we are able to ask or think, contrary to the cry of our sins, contrary to probabilities, that the event may prove such discourses unseasonable. Here now should follow a large application of the main doctrine branched into diverse uses, but that if God give leave shall ere long be the exercise of another hour. FINIS.