THE Lovesick Spouse, OR THE SUBSTANCE OF FOUR SERMONS: Preached on Canticles 2.5. By William Gearing Minister of the Gospel.  Habet omnis amor Vim suam, nèc potest vacare amor in animâ amantis. August. in Psalm 121. 
LONDON, Printed for Nevil Simmons, Bookseller in Kederminster. 1665.   

Unto the Right Worshipful, Sir THOMAS WILBRAHAM OF WOODHEY IN THE COUNTY of CHESTER BARONET: And to the VIRTUOUS LADY, ELIZABETH WILBRAHAM, HIS WIFE. WILLIAM GEARING Dedicateth this ensuing Discourse, AS A Public Testimonial of his Hearty Thanks for their great respects manifested unto Him.   

THE Lovesick Spouse.  CANTICLES 2.5. 
Stay me with Flagons, Comfort me with Apples, for I am sick of Love.  

CHAP. I. The Introduction.  
ALthough many spiritual things in this Book are leapt up in carnal expressions: Yet there is nothing of the flesh in all this Dialogue: therefore the Jewish Doctors would not have the common people to read this Book till they were thirty years old, lest they should take that carnally, which is to be understood in a spiritual and mystical sense. All delights are let into the soul by the senses: therefore doth the Spouse describe the Lord Jesus by such things as are congruous to every sense: To the smell he is Myrrh; Frankincense, Spikenard, and all kind of perfumes: To the taste, he is Wine, Manna and Apples; To the eye, he is beauty and comeliness: every sense and every affection may be fully satisfied with Christ.  
In the beginning of this Chapter there is an interchangeable Discourse, or Dialogue between the Bridegroom and the Bride. The Bridegroom speaks ver. 1, 2. and the Bride, ver. 3, 4, 5. The Bridegroom speaks first of himself, ver. 1. I am the Rose of Sharon, and the Lily of the Valleys; there is a transcendent sweetness, and an incomparable beauty in the Lord Jesus. Then he speaks of the Church, ver. 2. As the Lily, among Thorns, so is my Love among the Daughters. All other Assemblies compared with the Church, are but as thorns compared to a Lilly.  
Then the Bride speaks, ver. 3. she commends the worth of the Bridegroom. As Christ esteems his Church to be as a Lily among thorns: so she declares Christ to be as the Appletree among the Trees of the Forest. Christ is excellent in himself: comfortable in his shadow or protection, and his fruit was sweet unto her taste. In ver. 4. The Spouse sets forth the liberal entertainments which Christ had given her. He brought me into the banqueting House, or the house of Wine, according to the Hebrew; which may imply either the Wine-cellar, the place where Wine is kept, or else the Banqueting-house, the place where Wine is drunk. If it be referred to the Wine cellar, than it must be applied to the holy Scriptures, the true Storehouse of all spiritual comfort. But I rather understand the house of Wine to be the place where Wine is drunk, understanding thereby that communion that the Church hath with Christ in his Ordinances, and the enjoyment of all Church privileges, not only for necessity and delight, 
Sola non comedit Aquila.  but even for abundance. As it is said of the Eagle; that she loveth not to eat her morsels alone; so, such is Christ's bounty, that he loveth not to be in his banqueting house alone, but brings in his Spouse to the House of Wine, there to refresh herself abundantly.  
Then the Spouse sets forth Christ's loving protection of her there. His banner over me was Love.] The stretching out of this banner over her, denoteth the magnificence of Christ's entertainments, and the regality of his protection of her, for defending her against all danger, and for defiance against all enemies. The Church having now tasted of Christ's sweetness, her desire are very suitable to his entertainments. She had ver. 3 compared Christ to an Appletree, and ver. 4. compared his Ordinances to an House of Wine: therefore she cries out in the words of my Text,  
Stay me with Flagons, comfort me with Apples, for I am sick of Love.  
In which words you have. 1. The Churches importunate desire and longing for a more comfortable refreshment of Christ's presence, Stay me with Flagons, comfort me with Apples. 2. The Reason of this her longing desire. For I am sick of love. The Church is sensible of her want of communion with Christ, therefore she is so desirous after him.   

CHAP. II.  
HEnce I note in the first place. Observe. That the more a Christian is sensible of the want of Christ, the more vehemently will he desire after him, and after communion with him. A soul that feels the want of Christ's seethe him to be altogether lovely, and as he is the only object of love, he is also the only object of desires: He is the Spring head of all perfections, and as they are without mixture of default, so there is nothing in him which is not perfectly desirable. Christ's abundance, and man's indigence, are the first links of alliance which we contract with him; he is All, and we are nothing, 
Christus totus desiderabilis: Homo totus desideria.  less than nothing; he is a depth of mercy, and we a depth of misery. The sense of his infinite perfections, and of our numberless imperfections, should make us the more desirous after him; he is all desirable, and we should be all desire. Before Christ was known by the name of the world's Saviour, he was known by that of the desired of all people. The desire of all Nations shall come, Hag. 2.7. His Prophets honoured him with this title before he was born: and he might more truly (then Daniel) be called Vir desideriorum, a Man of desires. Every soul that desireth after any thing, is indigent; the soul that desireth, foregoes herself to seek out in another what she finds missing in herself. Tertullian hath well expressed the nature of this passion, when he saith, it is the glory of the thing desired, and the shame of him that doth desire: for a thing must be lovely to kindle our desires, 
〈…〉 honor●●● desideratae, & dedecus desidera●tis Tertul. de p●en●tent.  it must have charms which may draw us, and perfections which may stay us, but for certain likewise, the Will that doth desire must be indigent, and must stand in need of somewhat which makes it seek out a remedy. The heart of a Christian hath as it were, an infinite capacity, which can only be filled with him who is summum bonum, 
Infinita concupiscentia existante; homines infamita desiderant. Arist. 1. pa●it. cap. 6.  the chiefest Good; it is always empty till it get possession of Christ, all other good things do make it but the more hungry, and not being able to satisfy it, they irritate the desires thereof, but do not appease them: hence it is, as the Philosopher speaks, we cannot limit our desires, but the accomplishment of one begets another, and we run from one object to another, to find him out of whom the rest are all but shadows.   

CHAP. III.  
THis shows us the reason why most people do not exercise their thoughts upon Christ, Use 1 and stretch forth their desires after him, it is because they do not see their need of him for where there is no feeling sense of the want of Christ, there are no earnest desires after him; a man not feelingly sensible of his misery, will not desire after mercy. He that is not feelingly sensible of his condemned condition, will not earnestly desire after a pardon. If any man want wisdom, let him ask it of God, 
James 1.5.  saith St. James, it is not a particle of doubting whether any man did want wisdom (for who doth not?) but it implies such as want wisdom, and know they want it; let such a one ask it of God. It is very observable that when the sick, the blind and the lame were brought to Christ to be cured of their maladies, he would ask this or the like questions of them, Wilt thou be made whole? John 5.6. So to the blind man; What wilt thou that I do unto thee? Did not Christ see the one man sick, and the other blind, and know well what they wanted? To what end then served such questions? doubtless it was to affect them with the feeling knowledge of their own wants: for it is sense of wants that puts men upon desires of supply. There is a great necessity of our getting a sensible knowledge of the want of Christ.  
1. This will make every thing in Christ sweet to us: A full stomach loathes the honeycomb, but to him that is hungry, every bitter thing is sweet: Hunger is the best sauce; it makes every thing to relish the palate well; the heart that is full, loathes Christ, who is sweeter than honey, and the honeycomb it loathes his righteousness, loathes his graces, much more will it loathe the Cross of Christ, the reproaches of Christ: But oh how sweet is Christ to him that is pinched with the want of him, and hungers after him! the reproach of Christ is sweet, the Cross of Christ is sweet, the afflict one of Christ are sweet; how sweet were the crumbs that fell from Christ's table to the Woman of Canaan? The least hint of salvation, the smallest drop of mercy, a cast of an eye from Christ, any good news or glad tidings from Christ, abundantly refresheth the soul of a Christian in his spiritual wants. Our Saviour took care that the fragments of his broken loaus and fishes should be gathered up; and he will have the least of his mercies to be prized, and none will prise them, but those who are feelingly pinched with the want of them.  
2. A feeling sense of the want of Christ, will put us upon importunate desires after him; Rachel's shame of barrenness made her cry out. Give me children, or I die. Solomon saith, The poor useth many Entreaties. 'Slight a beggar, yet he will importune you: Beggars are homines importunissimi, the most importunate men in the World; speak roughly to a beggar, threaten him with a cudgel, yet he will use Entreaties; Oh Sir, have pity on me, I and mine are ready to starve. Thus a man that is pinched with a feeling knowledge of the want of Christ, he will lie at the door of Christ begging for mercy Lord I am ready to perish for thirst, O thou who art the fountain of life, refresh me with some living water; I am ready to perish with hunger, feed me with the bread of life. By our sense of the want of Christ we see all that we have, and all that we can do, 
John 16.1.  is from the fullness of Christ, Of his fullness we all receive, even grace for grace: of his fullness of love, we receive love: of his fullness of humility, we receive humility: of his fullness of life, we receive life. It is Christ's fullness of oil that keeps our lamps continually burning. The sense of our want of Christ, keeps the heart always in an humble frame, that it doth not pride itself in gifts or graces; the Soul saith, what have I that I have not received from Christ? This will always make us acknowledge our continued dependence upon him.  
3. Where men are ignorant of Christ, there is no desire after him. The whole look not after the Physician, but the sick: They that conceive themselves sound and well, will neglect the best Physician in the world: but how welcome is a skilful Physician to one dangerously sick, and at the point of death: if he hear but of such a ones name, he cries out, Oh send for him, run for him, let him come to me with all speed, or else I am a dead man. Let a Physician put up his Bills of admirable cures on every post, relating what great cures he hath done upon such and such persons, he hath healed those that were helpless and hopeless, etc. Those that are well, will read over the Note, and the cures, but will not seek to the Physician. Jesus Christ (the great Physician of souls) sets up his bills of miraculous cures, showeth what great cures he hath done; he hath cured the blind and the lame; he hath cast out Devils, healed sinners of all their diseases; he hath healed Manasses of his Witchcraft and Sorcery, Murder and Idolatry: he hath healed Paul of his Blasphemy and Persecution: healed Mary Magdalen, that was possessed of seven Devils: Yea, he makes proclamation to all, that there is no Saviour besides him, there is no such Physician in heaven and earth that can do such cures as himself. I, even I, am he that healeth all your diseases: I give Manna to the hungry, living water to the thirsty, halm to the wounded, case and refreshment to the burdened: Men hear of these things, and read of these miraculous cures of mercy, but will not seek to him for the cure of their spiritual maladies.  
Use 2. Labour then to see a present need of Christ, Use 2 then will ye be willing to take Christ upon any terms: when guilt of sin and fears of wrath, pursue a man at the heels, when he is upon the top of the ladder, and in his own apprehension, ready to be cast over into the pit of destruction, than he will let all fly, than he will let his dearest lusts, his credit, his estate fly, that he might be able to say, I am Christ's, and Christ is mine. Then let Satan, let the world, or his corrupt heart dissuade him and use their most prevalent arguments to keep him from Christ, he will answer all, as Caesar did his Mariners in a storm, dissuading him from venturing on the Waters, Oportet navigare, non vivere, I must set sail, though I die: there is more necessity of my sailing, then of my living: So a man fully possessed of his absolute need of Christ, cries out, Christ is the unum necessarium, the one thing necessary: tell me not of reproaches, of crosses, of persecutions, of forsaking all, I must have Christ, or I am undone for ever; there is no necessity of shunning these evils, of keeping my lusts, I must have Christ, or I perish eternally.   

CHAP. IU.  
STay me with Flagons, etc.] Mark what the Spouse saith, here before my Text; he brought me into his banqueting house or Wine-cellar, and then She cries out, Stay me with Flagons, etc. Hence I note,  
That the more we enjoy Christ, Observe. and are sensible of the worth of Christ, the more we shall desire after him; none are so eager after Christ, as those that have had most communion with him: Where there is no knowledge of the worth of Christ, there is no desire after him: Swine trample upon pearl, because they know not the worth of pearl: Gadarens preferred their Swine above Christ, because they valued them above him. Carnal hearts see no worth and excellency in the Ordinances of Christ, they see no worth in the privileges of Christ, they see no worth in the ways of Christ, no glory in grace, no glory in an holy profession, no worth in his people. 
Greg. Homil. Maltum deseruit, qui voluntatem habendi dereliquir. A sequentibus tanta relicta sunt, quanta à non sequentibus desideraripossunt.  All that is spiritual, is above the ken of a carnal eye, his grace is spiritual, his comforts are spiritual, his privileges spiritual. Carnal hearts judge nothing excellent, but what is pompous. What the world counts excellent, Christ calls for a forsaking of, and what the world counts dishonourable, Christ calls for the taking it up. Therefore one of the Fathers said, that the Apostles foregoing nothing, had yet foregone very much, since they had foregone their own desires; and that, dispoiling themselves of a passion, which in their greatest poverty gave them a right to all riches, they might boast to have forsaken all things for Jesus Christ, Matth. 19  
This shows a great difference between earthly and heavenly things: Use 1 Earthly things are always desired, when we want them, desire ceaseth when we have them: A man that wants bread and drink, and any necessaries, oh how he loveth it, when he wants it, and what strength of desire doth he put forth after it; but when he hath it, and hath taken his fill of it (as the Israelites did Manna) he soon loathes it: All vain fashions, all sensual delights and pleasures, with which the hearts of the children of men are so much taken up, after men have a while taken their fill of them, they soon grow weary of them, they soon grow sick of them, though before they were sick for them; But it is otherwise with heavenly things; we love them most, when we do enjoy them; and do most desire them, when we have most of them. Christ is so sweet, 
Attonitus novitate mali, divesque miserque. Effugere optat opes, & quae modo voverat odit. Ovid. Mot. 11. de Mida.  that a Christian never thinks he wants him till he doth enjoy him: he is so far from thinking he hath too much, that he never thinks he hath enough of Christ the more he hath, the more he doth desire. As for outward things, as to the desire of them, we are often like that Prince, who repent his having wished for riches, and was afflicted for having obtained them; his desire became his punishment, he abhorred that which he desired, and finding himself poor in the midst of plenty, 
Cui enim assecuto satis fuit, quod optanti nimium videbatur? Senec. Epist. 118.  he prayed to be delivered from an evil which he himself had procured. Absence of outward good things puts a valuation upon them, and their presence makes us to despise them; they appear (as one saith) great to our imagination, when they are far off, but when they draw nearer, they lose their false greatness; all their advantages vanish away as shadows before the Sun, and we turn our valuation into disesteem, our love into hatred, and our desires into detestation. Blessed are they that still hunger and thirst after Christ and his righteousness, they shall be satisfied, Matth. 5.6. Angels and glorified Saints, though they are full of Christ and of God, yet they desire more of him.   

CHAP. V.  
I Observe further, that the Spouse is sick of love for Christ, and even fainteth for him in the house Wine: Whence we may learn.  
That at the time of special communion with Christ in his Ordinances, Observe. our desires should be the more enlarged after him. Our desires in time of holy duty should be as wings to raise us up to God, and as chains to fasten us to him; God hath endowed us with holy desires, only to come by the good which we have not, and which is most necessary for us; they are helps in our necessity, they are (as one observeth) the hands of our will: and as those parts of the body do labour for all the rest, so our desires after Christ do take pains for all the affections of the soul, and do by their diligence the more oblige our love to Christ: our minds should always be holy, but more especially in the time of God's Worship, for than we come to meet with God; then should we list up our hearts to God, and mount up to heaven upon the wings of faith, and an holy affection.  
This may give a check to those that come to the Ordinances of Christ, Use. but do not desire after communion with Christ in his Ordinances; their hearts and thoughts run out after other things. All men desire happiness, and salvation by Christ, who is the object of eternal happiness, but he is below their thoughts, their desires, their endeavours. Their lusts, their pleasures, these earthly and sensual contentments, do swallow up their desires, even then, when they draw near to God in his Ordinances. God complains of such: My people have committed two evils; They have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, a running, streaming, and inexhaustible fountain (a million of creatures cannot draw it dry) yet I am forsaken, 
Jer. 2.13.  I am undesired; I am a forsaken fountain: They choose broken cisterns, that is, creatures which are cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water, hold no joy, no comfort, no life; these things are desired, and all run with their pitchers to these broken cisterns. They have committed two Evils, saith the Lord, two great evils: it is but one action, yet two great evils, an aversion from God, and an inordinate conversion to the creature: a rejection of an immutable God, and a choice of a mutable creature.  
When we come to the Ordinances of Christ, the Lord Jesus bespeaks us, as David did Saul, 1 Sam. 24.15. After whom is the King of Israel come out? after whom dost thou pursue? after a dead dog, after a flea? So Christ saith, you are now come into my presence, and pretend to draw near to me in a more solemn manner then ordinary: After whom do your desires run out? after these dead things, these dead dogs, these fleas, & not after me a living God? What answer will ye make to Christ when he shall put this question to you? What evil didst thou find in me, that thou desiredst me not? How often have I gone about to melt thee with my love, and did but look for thy desires of me, and could not so much as obtain one desire from thee? What will the sad consequence hereof be, but this? Christ will say to such; you have often drawn near to me in my Ordinances, but me you affect not: the Devil, your own sins, and the curse of God have oppressed you. I came to save you, and have given you the means of grace, and made a tender of my willingness to save you in the Gospel: I came to save you out of the hands of your enemies, but you have forsaken me the fountain of life and blessedness: And therefore now what have you to do to take my Word within your mouths, to draw near to me, when your hearts are far from me? Do not such perish justly, who desire not to be saved? Is any pity to be shown to such that come to God's Ordinances, and may have Manna, and will not? If they will but desire after after it, they may have it: If such be starved to death, who will pity them? They might have Living-waters, if they would ask after them; but they will not: Do not such persons justly perish in their sins? This than may justly check us for the deadness of our desires and affections, when we come to converse with Christ in his Ordidances. Oh did we delight ourselves in holy exercises and holy Ordinances, how would they raise our hearts, our desires and affections toward them? This is one end why God hath ordained Ordinances, namely to be as so many steps by which our affections may climb up to heaven; hereby our hearts may have a strong intercourse with God, though our persons be yet so far asunder. Therefore whensoever thou drawest near to God in any public or secret duty, let it be in hope to get nearer to God ere thou dost desist: and when you go to read and hear the Word, let it be with this desire and prayer, that thou mayst there meet with something that may raise thy affections nearer to God, and give thee a fuller taste of his love in Christ.   

CHAP. VI  
STay me] The Word in the Original is in the plural number; She speaks to her friends and companions: the faithful Ministers of Christ, and other experienced Christians; Stay me with some comfortable Doctrines and promises, and with them comfort and refresh my languishing spirit: the address is not directly to Christ himself: Hence I note,  
That the comforts of Christ to fainting Christians are often conveyed by the Ministry of man; Observe. he sends forth his Messengers, to whom he gives the tongue of the Learned, that know how to speak a word in season to a wearied soul. This is one end why God hath set up the Ministry, viz. that they may comfort those that are in spiritual distress: Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith the Lord, Isaiah 40.1.  
God will have his people to go to Ministers for comfort, that are men like themselves; and this is one reason why many people go heavy and sad all their days, because out of the pride and stoutness of their Stomach, they neglect and scorn to go to others for comfort; they hid their wounds and bleed inwardly, because they are unwilling to lay open their sores to faithful and learned Ministers, and experienced Christians: though the Lord he the God of all comfort, yet for the most part, he conveys it to us by the Ministry of man. True it is! God sometimes doth immediately comfort them that are cast down: he can comfort without means, but he doth not: but when means are wanting, when we are debarred of comforts, than he comforts us in an immediate way; but when means is to be had, when we may have the benefit of the Ministry of the Word, and of the Communion of Saints, than God conveyeth comfort by means: God will not comfort those immediately, that neglect and despise the ordinary means of comfort: hereby God endeareth the affections of people to Ministers, and of one Christian to another, when others can apply comfort to them from their particular case and experience in the like kind: how welcome are the words, and how sweet is the presence of a faithful Minister and experienced Christian to them?  
Let Ministers and Christians make it their business to comfort fainting souls. Use 1 It is the office of Ministers to strengthen the diseased sheep of Christ, to heal that which is sick, to bind up that which is broken, etc. Ezek. 34, 4. It is to be presumed, that God that hath called them to this work, hath fitted them for it: 
Hoord. Serm. in Eph. 4.30.  Ministers are better Read then private men for the most part are; their Calling leads them to be continually searching the Scriptures, and acquainting themselves with the methods of Satan, and the means how to resist him, and other holy matters which may enable them to be good Soul-Physicians. Therefore let Ministers exercise themselves in cases of conscience, that they may have experience in matters that concern the soul, and be able to apply seasonable comfort to a languishing soul.— Every private Christian, if he hath the Spirit of God, he will in some measure be enabled to comfort others. Two Irons, if they be hot do close together immediately; So, when two godly Christians do meet in love and fervency of affection, how do they heat and warm each other? He that speaks experimentally to another, he speaks so feelingly, so spiritually, so powerfully, with so much evidence and demonstration, and with so much authority to his Brother, that it makes a deep impression upon him. A faithful Minister, and an experimental Christian will go about the work with love, and tenderness of affection. They that know what brokenness of heart for sin is, will be ready to drop in oil into a wounded Conscience, and to apply comfort to them from their own particular case. I was under the same tentations wherewith you are assaulted; and thus I resisted and overcame them, thus I was delivered from my doubts and fears, such a promise, such a Scripture satisfied me: this or that gave me ease, quickened and comforted me. It is a Spiritual, Divine, and Angelical work to be able to comfort distressed consciences: it is Gods own work, it is he that putteth joy into the heart, Psalm 4.7. He comforteth them that are cast down, he comforteth us in all our tribulation: he affects their hearts with some ravishing sense of his love and favour in Christ. Christ hath undertaken to comfort them that mourn; it is part of his office and work to which he is anointed, Isaiah 61.1, 2, 3. It is the work of the Holy Ghost to comfort, he is styled the Comforter; it is his work to make them cry Abba Father, whom he brings into bondage to fear. Angels likewise do comfort: when Christ was in an agony, an Angel came from heaven to comfort him.  
2. Hence we may note that our Communion with Christ is furthered by our spiritual converse one with another; the imparting of spiritual gifts and comforts is a great establishment of a weak and fainting heart. Rom. 1.11, 12. Yea it is an establishment of the strongest Christian. I long to see you, saith Paul to the Romans, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, to the end that you may be established, that is, that I may be comforted together with you, by the mutual faith both of you and me. The greatest Apostle may be established by the faith and experiences of the meanest Christian. God is a free Dispenser of his gifts, and hath variously distributed them, that we may be engaged to use his bounty to the good of others, we, as good Stewards of the manifold graces of God, should Minister the same to the use and benefit of our brethren; we should impart to others the quickenings we have received under the Ordinances of God, our refresh by the promises, our enlargements after prayer, or comforts after soul-abasements; by this means those that are 〈◊〉 and disconsolate, may be edified and comforted.   

CHAP. VII.  
IN the next place consider, that the Spouse here longs for Flagons and Apples, that is, comforts and graces together: The Spouse being in the banqueting house, cries out, Stay me with Flagons] that is, with Flagons of Wine; the Jews were wont to distribute at their Feasts and Banquets Wine by Flagons to their guests. When David had brought the Ark of God into his own place, and had offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and blessed the people, he dealt to every one a loaf of bread, a good piece of flesh, and a flagon of Wine. 1 Chron. 16.3. this is the portion of the Cup sometime mentioned in the Old Testament, because they had a Cup or Flagon for their refreshment.  
Comfort me with Apples.] This is of the same meaning with the former words: Straw me a bed or bolster; so the LXX renders it: the Hebrew word Raphad, signifies to spread abroad a bed or a bolster, as a Couch to lie on: and alludeth to another custom of the Jews, who used at their Banquets Beds and Couches to stretch themselves upon: So the Church being in the house of Wine, calls for the Wine of heavenly refreshment, and to be boulstered up with spiritual Apples, as one that is in a swooning or fainting fit. Fernelius tells us, 
Fernel. de Methodo Medendi:  that Apples are Cordials, and good to comfort the heart and brain, and to prevent swoonings; the Church in her languishing calls for spiritual Apples, for the comforts and graces of the Spirit, with those fruits whereof she had tasted, when she sat down under the shadow of the Appletree, 
Junius in hunc loc.  ver. 3. Therefore Junius reads the words here; Comfort me with those Apples, as pointing to those sweet entertainments she had, as before mentioned. Hence note further.  
That the comforts of Christ, Observe. and the graces of Christ, do go together: and the desires of a Christian after the one without the other are not regular. Many would have Christ's comforts, that care not for grace and holiness, and neglect to obey his commands; Let me tell thee O Christian, if thou wilt partake of Christ's comforts, he will first make thee to feel the weight and burden of sin; none do partake of Christ's sweetness, but those that have tasted of sins bitterness; Christ will make thee holy, before he will refresh thee with the comforts of his holy Spirit: he will make thee feel some bitterness in sin, for all the pleasure thou hast taken in sin; perhaps thy soul hath wallowed in sinful delights and pleasures for a long season, and now God in a way of justice will drench thy polluted soul in the bitter waters of fears and sorrows. God deals with those he intends truly to comfort, as Physicians deal with those that are in a Lethargy, they cast them into a burning Fever, that by the burning heat of it, they may dry up and waste those benumbing humours; so the Lord deals with his people that are sick of a spiritual Lethargy, he casteth them into the fire of afflictions, that he may burn up the dross of their corruptions, that he may refine them like silver, and purify them like gold, and then he restores their souls, and leads them to the waters of comfort.  
You that are in spiritual distress, do not ye expect comfort presently; God cometh in a seasonable time: Use. it may be you made Christ wait a long while upon you for your conversion, for your longing and thirsting after him: he hath cried from heaven to thee many a time, How long? how long? when shall it once be? How long will it be ere this hard heart of thine be broken? this proud heart of thine be humbled? how long ere thou wilt begin to inquire and seek after me. O when wilt thou seek me? And it is just with God to make thee cry to him, how long Lord! when wilt thou come in, and sup with me, and make thine abode with me, and manifest thyself unto me? When wilt thou give me to drink of the waters of life? May not the Lord say of thee, as of the barren figtree? These three years came I seeking fruit, and found none: and may not God justly requite thee, and say, now for these many years thou shalt seek me, ere I will be sound of you: I waited a long time for the fruits of thy repentance, and now thou shalt wait a while for the fruit of my mercy: Because thou hast rejected the Lord tendering himself to thee, therefore now he stands at a distance from thee: many proffers did he make to thee, but thou slightetst them; many calls thou hadst from him, and wouldst not hear them; many knocks hath he given at the door of thy heart, and begged for entrance, but thou keptst thy heart shut still against him. Is it not equity that God should suffer thee to lie at the door of mercy a while knocking before he opens to thee? Shall the great God wait on thee, and thou not wait upon him? Brethren! God will humble us for our delays, as well as for our other sins, he will humble us for the neglect of his proffers, for the refusal of his grace so long; he will humble thee for thy Stubbornness, for thy pride, for thy contempt and forgetfulness of him, and then he will comfort thee in his own time and way.   

CHAP. VIII.  
IT is further to be noted, that the Spouse here cries out Stay me with Flagons.] Give me not a sip or a draught, but whole flagons. Hence we may observe,  
That a soul that thirsteth after Christ is contented with no small measures of Christ. Observe. Dives in Hell-torments calls but for a drop of water to cool his flaming tongue, and the Spouse in the banqueting house calls for Flagons of wine: our requests are many times too modest in Spiritual things, and our prayers do come short of the Returns of them. Solomon only begs wisdom of God, and the Lord not only gives him what he asketh, but together with it gives him riches and honour and glory: He gives us more than we can ask or think, Ephes. 3.20.  
Try whether ye have these ardent desires after Christ, Use 1 so as you cannot be content with a little of him. I shall show you, who they are that go without these Apples and Flagons, these living cordials, and yet do desire after Christ. There are six kinds of successless desires after Christ.  
1. Occasional desires of Christ: Some have but fits or pangs of desires, occasioned by some pang of fear or terror, as by some loss, across, sickness, or fear of death: when the fire of Hell flasheth in a man's face, than he will have a flash of desires; when he is under the fear of death, then Oh that I had Christ, as Esau longed for pottage, and then said of his birthright, I am at the point to die, and what good will this Birthright do me? Such long will some men have after Christ; I am at the point of death, what good will creature-comforts do me. O give me of these living cordials; Stay me with spiritual Flagons, comfort me with these Apples. When God raiseth up a Storm in the polluted consciences of sinners, this may put them into a fit of devotion, as it did the Mariners in Jonah; but these desires usually vanish away with the occasion; but let the Sea be calmed, and the waves still, you shall see the profane Mariner fall to his profaneness again.  
2. Disproportionable desires are successless desires; when Christ is not desired, in quantum est appetibilis, some part of Christ is desired only: Christ justifying, but not Christ sanctifying; Christ taking away the guilt of sin, but not Christ dividing and divorcing the lust from the soul; they would have these flagons to quench their thirst, to refresh them, when they are scorched with the fears of hell, but care not to be washed in the waters of life and holiness; Men desire Christ to save them, but will not have him to reign over them; like those seven women, Isa. 4.1. that shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread; and wear our own apparel; only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach: So these men will take hold of Christ, yet they say, We will take our own courses: we will live as we list, only let us be called by thy Name: and take away our reproach from us: Thus men do in their desires divide Christ.  
3. Selfish or carnal desires of Christ are widow hout success: when men desire not Christ for Christ's sake, but for some temporal or carnal advantage to themselves, as the Jews did follow Christ up and down by Sea and Land in City and desert. Multitudes would follow him, but their following him but felfish; Christ therefore upbraids them for it: You seek me for the loaves: so the Scribe Matth. 8. was very desirous to be one of Christ's followers; Master, I will follow thee wheresoever thou goest: but he thought to get some great preferment by him; but when Christ tells him that the Foxes have holes, and the Birds of the air have nests, but the son of man hath not whereon to lay his head: It is thought by all Interterpreters, that this forward man forsook Christ; he saw more danger of parting with his estate for Christ, and his outward comforts by following him, than he had hopes of preferment by him, therefore he will be none of his followers. It was an old complaint; Multi quaerunt Jesum, sed non propter Jesum, many seek after Jesus, but not for Jesus sake; if they can be gainers by him, they will have him, but are unwilling to be sufferers and losers for Jesus sake.  
4 Mutable desires are successless desires; 
One of the Popes, when he was a Monk, would often say, Panis & aquaest vita beata; But when he was Pope, he said, Aqua & panis, est vita canis.  the desires of many men change as their estate and condition changeth; Ebbing desires after Christ, when prosperity is in the flow, and flowing desires when prosperity is in the ebb: in a gloomy day of War Christ is desired, but not regarded in a time of peace, in a time of sickness than Christ is longed for, than the sick man will pray, and the Minister must pray Christ into his heart, but let God renew his health, his desires die and languish in him: Moses and Aaron must go and seek the Lord for Pharaoh, when any plague was upon him and his land, but let God take it away, then Moses must see his face no more; it is death so to do: When men are in Adversity, than none but Christ; but let their conditions be changed, there will be a change of their desires.  
4. Preposterous desires of Christ are successless desires; when Christ is not desired chief, and in the first place, First, These things, than the Kingdom of Heaven: first the World, than Christ. All the things of the world are nothing in comparison of Christ: Why then do we set our eyes upon that which is not? Prov. 23.5. These things are not the true blessedness; in them true happiness doth not consist: They are not bread, they cannot satisfy us: They are not necessary, there is but one thing necessary, that is, Christ: yet this is the course of world, most men's desires are after the things of this life, and they never turn the stream and bent of their affections, till they are ready to drop into the grave: we may say of late desires, as we do of late repentance, they are seldom true, and by consequent seldom obtain Christ. Many men are of the mind of a certain Duke of Russia, who being asked, whether he had seen the Blazing Star in the air, answered not, I have so much to do, faith he, here upon earth, that I have no time to look up to heaven.  
6. Unactive and lazy desires after Christ are without success; the Schoolmen term these desires, velleitates, not volitiones, which cannot be better Englished, then by this, fain I would, but loath I am; fain I would have Christ, but loath I am to take pains for him, or to do, or suffer, or part with any thing for him. Men of lazy desires, are like the dry and chapped earth, it gapes and yawns for rain, but moveth not; so many men yawn for Christ, but if God will not drop him into their mouths, they will not stir one foot for him, a slothful man desireth, and hath not: He desireth Christ, and mercy, but hath them not, Prov. 21.25. The desire of the slothful killeth him; he resteth in his desires, and in his wishes for Christ, thinking he doth well, if he desire Christ, though he labour not at all for him.   

CHAP. IX. 6. Properties of true desires after Christ.  
NOw that ye may see what it is truly and fervently to desire after Christ, I shall lay down these six Properties of true desires after Christ.  
1. They are most importunate desires: therefore in Scripture they are compared to the strongest desires, as to the Hearts panting after the Water-brooks, Psalms 42.1. As the Hart panteth after the Water-brooks, so doth my soul pant after thee, O God. It is compared to the long of pregnant Women: my soul longeth, verecunde, desiderate, as some translate from the Hebrew word in Psal. 84.2. 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  with a bashful and modest kind of wishing, and Psalm 119. My soul fainteth for thy salvation: It even pineth away with longing: these desires are also compared to hunger and thirst, both are importunate desires: Oh that one would give me to drink of the water at the well of the gate of Bethlehem, said David: a Kingdom for a cup of water, said Croesus and Lysimachus in their thirst. Those who truly desire Christ, will he at the door of God's grace and will never give him rest night nor day till God give them Christ.  
2. They are such desires which nothing can satisfy but the proper object, even Christ Jesus; and in this respect compared to hunger and thirst, which desires are satisfied with nothing, but by their proper objects: Offer Gold and Silver, and no Bread to an hungry man; he saith, Give me Bread. What good will Gold do me, if I have no Bread? Offer such a soul that thirsteth after Christ, (as the Devil did to Christ) the glory of all the Kingdoms of the world; and he will say, what good will all this do me? I must have Christ. Wicked men's desires after Christ are like children's crying for a piece of gold, when they see it, they will make a great cry; but give them an Apple, and that stills them: they have their fits of longing after Christ, but give them golden Apples they are content; their desires after Christ are like saul's Evil Spirit, a little Music on the Harp will lay their desires flat again.  
3. They are such desires as are proportionable to Christ, whole Christ is the adaequat object of their desires, in quantum est appetibilis. Such men cry out, O let Christ justify me, renew me, sanctify me; Grace is as much desired, as pardon of sin; holiness as much desired as mercy: let me have Christ to rule over me, and govern me, let him be my all in all: Thy Law (saith David) is my delight; that holy, strict commanding Law, that presseth men to that which, is most contrary to their lusts, is his desire and delight. The wicked can say, Lord thy mercies are my delight, thy comforts, thy joy, thy salvation, are my delight, but not thy word, nor thy holiness: let Christ be presented to him that truly desireth him any way, he cries out, O give me Christ upon any terms, give me the cross, so I may have Christ, tell him of forsaking all, he cries out, Farewell all things that I may win Christ.  
4. They are constant desires; such a man longs for Christ at all times, he longs for Christ as earnestly in health as in sickness, in time of serenity, as in time of eminent danger, in time of peace, as in time of trouble, prosperity dulieth not his desires.  
5. They are such desires as are accompanied with an holy impatience of delay; delays do not dull, but quicken a Christians desires after Christ; in this respect they are also compared to hunger and thirst, which are impatient of delay. Tell a thirsty man, he shall have drink the next week, he is impatient; O saith he, I must have it now, I may be dead before that time: so let Christ go to put off such a soul, he saith, I will not be so put off, Oh give me Christ now, else I may be eternally undone: How long Lord, how long? Do not stand off for ever; Gods momentany delays are accounted Eternal with a soul that ardently desireth after Christ; one day is as a thousand years in his account.  
6. They are such desires as carry a man through all difficulties whatsoever: hunger will break through stonewalls, so will hunger after Christ break through the greatest difficulties that lie in the way: When David cried out, Oh that one would give me to drink of the waters of Bedlam, three of his Worthies hearing of it, charged through an Army of Philistines, to fetch him some of that water. Oh that one would give me to drink of these spiritual Flagons, saith a soul that thirsteth strongly after Christ. Tell him of Bears and Lions, Bonds and Imprisonments in the way, yet through them all he will go, that he may drink his fill out of these flagons; but the slothful man saith, There is a Lion in the way, and so goeth not forth at all.  
7. They are most industrious desires: and indeed according to a man's industry, so are his desires after Christ; to this purpose consider,  
1. That true desires do put a man upon the diligent use of all appointed means to obtain Christ; the Spouse in this Book of Canticles was restless, till she found him whom her soul loved; she ran up and down the Streets, charged every one she met with, to tell him she was sick of love: a man that truly desireth Christ, will run from duty to duty, from Ordinance to Ordinance, and is very earnest to see whether he can find Christ there; lazy desires separate the means from the end, they desire Christ, but neglect the means, neglect the Ordinances which are vehiculum Christi.  
2. True desires do put a man upon the diligent improvement of all opportunities: as a thriving Tradesman lays hold on all advantages and opportunities: if he hath an opportunity of doing, or receiving good, he doth not omit it.  
3. It puts a man upon constant endeavours, not for a fit or a start, or for a Mood in a good humour, but it is his constant work to make sure of Christ; as they say of the labour of an Husbandman, it is labour actus in orbem, his work is never at an end, so it is with him that truly longeth for Christ.  
4. Right desires do put a man upon present endeavours after Christ; he will not (like the sluggard in the Proverbs) cry, Yet a little more slumber, etc. so damnation may seize upon him like an armed man, as poverty did upon Solomon's sluggard; but no sooner are these holy desires wrought in the heart of a faithful Christian, but they put him instantly upon seeking after Christ; he cries out presently to his own lazy heart, awake O my soul, and seek out for Christ, lest thou perish eternally.   

CHAP. X.  
I Now come to consider the reason of the Churches importunate thirsting after Christ. For I am sick of love.] Love, where it is strong causeth a fainting or languishing desire toward the thing beloved. Love, is of all other the most inward and visceral affection; therefore called by the Apostle, The bowels of Love: We read of the yearnings of joseph's bowels over Benjamin, his Mother's Son, and of the true Mother over her child: incaluerunt viscera, they felt an agitation of their bowels. Love, the more vehement it is, doth work the more sudden and sensible decay and languishing of Spirits, as Amnon is said out of wanton love to wax lean from day to day, and to grow sick for Tamar, King. 2 13. So here in Spiritual love you have the like expression: O give me Wine to exhilarate, 
Reynolds Treat. de Passionibus.  and Apples to refresh those spirits, that were as it were wasted and melted away by an extreme outlet of love, Hence I note,  
Observe. That true love carrieth out the soul after Christ with such vehemency, that it is even sick for the want of Christ: affections when they are strong, will work disquiet, when they obtain not what they are earnestly set upon; when love is hindered, it causeth a soul-sickness.  
In handling of this point, I will first show what Love to Christ is,  
Love to Christ is a supernatural grace wrought in the soul of a Christian by the spirit of God, 
Descript.  through the knowledge of God in Christ and faith, whereby we delight in Christ, desire Union and Communion with him, wish well unto him, and rest upon him as the chiefest good; where you have,  
1. The nature of it, It is a supernatural virtue: I call it a supernatural and heavenly love, to distinguish it from other kinds of love: there is a natural love, 
Ista quam tu describis, negotiatio est, non amicitia, quae ad commodum accedit. Senec. Epist. 9  which is naturally imprinted in us, fastening us to those objects that are delightful to us; this love is between Father and Child, Husband and Wife, etc. There is a sensible love seated in the lower part of the soul, and hath so much commerce with the senses, from whence it borroweth its name, as it always makes impression upon the body, and this it is which is properly termed passion. There is a sensual and carnal love, which may rather be called a fury then love: there is worldly love, when men are lovers of riches, honours, pleasures, more than of Christ: there is an immoderate self-love, when men love their ease, credit, profit, life, more than Christ: Yea, many that pretend they love their friends, they love them not so much for any virtue they observe in them, as for the good they hope to reap by them. Observe a man transfixed with any violent love, you shall find a man whose mind is bewitched, whose wit and reason is Eclipsed; all he beholds, thinks, and talks of, is the object of his love: but love to Christ is of a supernatural excellency, it is a ray of Christ's own love, therefore he calls it, his love, Continue ye in my love, John 15.  
2. The efficient or worker of it, is the Spirit of God, we have it not from Nature, but from the Spirit: love is one of fruits of the Spirit, Gal. 5.22. Neither have we it from custom, as Philosophers speak: neither is it gotten by art or industry: It is shed abroad upon our hearts by the Holy Ghost in us, Rom. 5.5. Love is of God, and every one that loveth is born of God, 1 John 4.7. Now it is above the power of corrupt nature to love Christ.  
3. The object of this love, is Jesus Christ; the Spouse calls Christ, him whom her soul loved, Cant. 3. Christ is the object, who is the Author of this love. The objects of other loves are many times faulty and vicious; Loves fancy may err in choosing an evil object, but here it is not so; for God and Christ are the only objects of this love.  
4. The grounds of this love: that, is, through the knowledge of God in Christ and faith:  
1. Through the knowledge of God in Christ: there must be a knowledge of God's love to us, before we can love him: for as a stone that lies in the bowels of the earth, is not hot, till it be out of the earth, and the Sun first shine upon it: so we cannot love God, till we first know his love toward us, for our love is rather an effect, than a cause of his love, We love him because he loved us first, 1 John 4.19. and we love not him, till he hath first loved us: If a man will love God in Christ, he must first know God in Christ; for our love to him is grounded upon our knowledge of God in Christ.  
2. A second ground of this love is faith, there must be faith to believe the remission of our sins, and that Christ loveth us in particular, before we can truly love him. The end of the commandment is love, out of a pure heart, and good conscience, and of faith unfeigned, 1 Tim. 1.5. So that true love to Christ must spring from faith.  
Object. But it may be said, that the woman in the Gospel, had many sins forgiven her, because she loved much, Luke 7.47. Here was her love first, then follows the remission of her sins.  
Sol. The word [Because] doth not note out the cause of pardon, but only a sign that her sins were pardoned. You are to understand it thus; it appeared that many sins were forgiven her, because she loved much; such a man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lover of God, because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beloved of God; he loveth much, because much is forgiven. This crosseth the opinion of the Papists; they say, Love is the form of faith; for they make a double love, one without faith, and such a wicked man may have; another with faith, and such a wicked man cannot have.  
Object. But they object, That which gives the operation to faith, is the form of faith: but love gives the operation to faith; In Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but faith working by love, Gal. 5.6. where love (say they) gives the operation to saith: Ergo love is form of faith.  
Resp. Love gives the operation of faith, not quà causa, sed quà instrumentum, not as the cause, but as the instrument: Love is not the cause of faith's operation, but love is the instrument in its operation.  
Object. But S. James saith, As the body without life is dead, so faith without works is dead, James 2.26. therefore love which makes faith to work, gives life to it, and is the form of it.  
Sol. The works of faith, as love, etc. do show there is faith, as the Spirit shows there is a soul: if works were not, there would appear to be no true faith.  
Object. That which doth perfect faith, is the form of faith; but works, as love and other virtues do perfect faith, James 2.22. By works was Abraham's faith made perfect.  
Resp. Works do perfect faith, not in actu primo, sed in acts secundo; not in regard of the first act, but in regard of the second, as a tree is said to be perfected by the fruit; not that the fruit gives the essence to the Tree, but the fruit showeth that it is a perfect Tree.  
5. The effects of this love follow.  
1. Hereby we do delight in God; this showeth, wherein true love consisteth. There is always a delight and complacency in the thing beloved; we read in this book of the Canticles, of the bed of love: the soul of a believer reposeth itself in Christ, as in a bed of Roses: therefore his love is grounded upon Experience; he loveth God exceedingly, as best deserving love above all other, Magnes amoris amor: Love, we say, is the Loadstone of love; they easily delight most in him, of whom they find themselves most beloved. A carnal man saith, he loves Christ, but doth not delight in him, he pretends to love him, but doth not like him, Christ is not an object suitable to his crooked heart; therefore he often picks a quarrel with God's deal, as if God were engaged to him for his love: he excepts against God's Providence, as if it were too partial, for giving too much to others, too little to himself: He takes Exceptions against the Law of God, as if it were too strict, for tying him up from seeking his own pleasures on the Lord's day, and at no time suffering him to make provision for the flesh. Can any man love Christ truly, unless he delight in him? Who can love his Prince, and dislike his Laws, his Government? Who can love his Image, that delighteth not in his person? nay, where there is dislike upon distimilitude, there can be no true love; affection cannot subsist, nor be constant without judgement, nor love without conformity; now where there is true love, there is a delight in Christ, and a constant affection toward him.  
2. 
Amor, est unio amantis ad antatum;  It makes a man desire to be united to Christ, to enjoy the comfortable presence of Christ, to have fellowship and communion with him. Love is a desire of Union to the person beloved. Upon the affection and liking that we take of Christ, it will beget a desire in us to possess and enjoy him: Fruition is that which love seeks, it is never at rest, till it can join itself to the object that it loveth; till it gets to enjoy and possess it: some have therefore resembled love unto fire; whatsoever you cast into the fire, it is the property of fire to assimilate it, to transform it into its own nature and likeness; such is the operation of love, it transforms a man into the nature of that which he loveth: if it be a fleshly object that he loveth, it makes him carnal; if earthly, it makes him earthly: if heavenly, it makes him heavenly.  
3. It makes a man wish well to Christ: the honour of Christ is more dear to him then all the world, than his own life, 
Coeffet. Tabul. human, passion.  yea, than his own salvation, as Moses could have been even contented to have been blotted out of the Book of life, then that Christ should be dishonoured. One defineth Love thus: Love is a well-wishing, which we testify with all our power to those to whom we are inclined, procuring them for their own sakes all the good we think may give them content. The son of Antigonus being sick, and none knowing what he ailed, the Physician discovered the cause of it to be his love to his Mother-in-law; for still as she came into his presence, his pulses fell to beat extraordinarily. Thus in our love of Christ, when we see any thing done which makes for the honour of Christ, it will make our spirits to exult, and our hearts to leap within us. On the other side, when we see his holy name profaned and dishonoured, his Sabbaths defiled, his Ordinances contemned, this will fill a man that loveth Christ, with an holy indignation, burst his heart with grief, and force his tongue to speak for the honour of him whom his soul loveth. You have heard of the son of King Croesus, that was born dumb, and never spoke word in all his life; yet in the Battle, when he saw the life of his Father in danger, the string of his tongue suddenly burst asunder, than he cried to the Enemy to save him, it was the King that he fought withal. As it was with him, when he saw the life of his Father endangered; so it is with him that truly loves Christ, when he sees the holy Name of God to be dishonoured, it goes to his heart to see it, and makes him break through all resistances of nature, and speak then for the honour of Christ, though he never speak more.  
4. The soul resteth upon Christ as the chiefest good: rest is the utmost end that love seeks after, and having gotten it, it rejoiceth in it without end. It is so in Gods own love, where he loveth, he doth after a sort acquiescere: he doth rest pleased and satisfied with it, Matth. 3. ult. where speaking from heaven, and testifying of his beloved son, he saith, Hic est filius meus dilectus, and what he meant by it, the following words do declare; in quo mihi complaceo, or inquo acquiesco, in whom I am well pleased, or do rest satisfied: that is the sweet effect that love hath: where it obtains fruition, it receiveth full satisfaction Other objects do not satisfy us, and no wonder! they be flying and transitory. What certain aim can a man take when he shoots at a flying Fowl? Such be all terrestrial objects, when we aim at them, and hope to catch them, as Solomon speaks of riches, they take the wings of an Eagle, and fly away from us: Jesus Christ is an object more continuing; and therefore gives more contentment. In setting our loves upon him we find rest and peace: it is not so when we set our hearts upon other things, our hearts are then full of restless agitations and motion. The inferior part of the elementary Region that is toward the earth, is the seat of Winds and Tempests; but the upper part that is toward Heaven, that is ever said to be calm and peaceable; in like sort are our hearts and souls, when the love of them doth propend toward these inferior and earthly things, they be full of unquiet agitations, tempestuous and troublesome; but when they be higher raised, viz. to Christ and Heaven-ward, than they be calm and quiet; there is rest, peace, solace, satisfaction, and abundance of tranquillity.   

CHAP. XI.  
IN the second place, I shall show what this Love-sickness is, and whence it ariseth.  
Love-sickness is a strong impulsion of love in the soul after Christ, and a most vehement thirsting after him, upon the sense of the want of him. It is observable, that in this Book of Solomon's Song, the Spouse is said twice to be sick of love; once in the absence of Christ, once in his presence. In his absence, when the Watchmen that went about the City smote her, and wounded her, and the Keepers of the walls took away her vail from her, than she chargeth the Daughters of Jerusalem thus, go tell my beloved, if ye find him, that I am sick of love. Here likewise, in the house of Wine she is also sick of love: there is an excitation of vehement affections to Christ sometimes through the absence of Christ, sometimes in his presence; the one is the sickness of hope, the other the sickness of desire? Hope deferred (saith the wise man) makes the heart sick, and desires not fully satisfied do cause a languishing in the soul; when Christ is either wholly withdrawn from the soul, or the soul hath but a partial enjoyment of him, it causeth this spiritual sickness. The want of the thing beloved is a grievous torment to the lover, David's desire of enjoying God was such, that it was even his death, as it were to want God, 
Pagnin Psal. 84.2.  it holds forth as Pagnine observeth, that David's soul either extremely desired the Lord, or even died upon the absence of God. There is a kind of holy Antiperistasis, a strong desire after Christ occasioned through the sense of his absence, as we are hottest in seeking after precious things when they are absent, and furthest from our enjoyment, absence sets love on fire: The impression of Christ's kisses, of his spiritual embrace, and of his patiented knockings at the door of the soul, the print of his footsteps, the remainders of the smell of his precious ointments, his shadow when he goes out of doors, are coals to inflame the soul; then is a Christians love to Christ strongest, his bowels move, the smell of his love, like sweet smelling myrrh is very sweet and piercing. The Ancients in their Hieroglyphics painted Love with a Gate or Window in his Stomach, wherein were written these two word; procul & propè; afar off, and at hand, to show that he that is a lover, loveth as well in absence as in presence, or rather his love burneth more strongly, when he is absent from his beloved. As the Harr panteth for the water brooks, so my soul panteth for thee O God, saith David, Psal. 42.1, 2. My soul thirsteth for God, even for the living God. No Beast is more thirsty by nature, than the Hart is; and the Learned observe, it is the female kind, whose passions are more violent than the Males: it is as if one should say, no Hart nor Hind can thirst more after waters, than his soul did after God; and the word [panting] is to be observed, by which David showeth, that he did not only work himself out of breath to enjoy God; but also the little breath he had, he spent it in breathing after God; yea, that he might show his vehement desire, he again repeats it, My soul thirsteth for God, even for the living God. Moreover, he showeth his vehement grief for the want of God's presence, My tears have been my meat and drink continually; as if he had said, such abundance of tears fell from him, that he might be said to feed upon them. It is an Hell upon earth to be deprived of the presence of God in his Ordinances, for what is the chiefest part of Hell, but an eternal loss of God's glorious presence! and as the damned shall weep and wail for ever, because they shall never enjoy God, so the gracious soul will weep and wail as long as he is deprived of God in his Ordinances here upon earth.   

CHAP. XII.  
IS there such a vehement love in some Christians, Use 1 that they are sick of love for Christ? then here you may see the cause, why Churches at their first plantation, and Christians at their first conversion, are wont to be raised up to an extraordinary zeal for God, it is because Christ hath shed abroad his love into their hearts, and love makes them so zealous as they are: Indeed carnal men stand wondering at so great a change that is wrought in a Christian, that he doth not now run with others to the same excess of riot. Many in Jerusalem were astonished at Paul, that he in so short a time was so zealous for Christ, that a little before was so mad against him, that he was now become a Preacher of that saith which before he persecuted: what was it that wrought so effectually upon his heart: it was the love of Christ. The love of Christ constraineth us, 2 Cor. 5.12. there was a strong and secret compulsion upon the spirit of Paul, that he could not choose but be so affectionate toward Christ and his truth; and else where he saith, We can do nothing against the truth, but all for the truth: we cannot but speak the things that we have seen and heard.  
Try the strength of your Love to Jesus Christ; Use 2 there are many that pretend they are greatly in love with Jesus Christ, that are but feigned Lovers; therefore I shall give you the properties of this vehement love to Christ.  
1. It is a transcendent love: such a man loves Christ above all other things; he can look upon all things with Paul as dross and dung in comparison of him, he desireth nothing else in comparison of him. Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth, that I desire besides thee? Psalm 73.25. God and be only was the object of his desire? whom have I in heaven but thee? Is not glory and happiness, joy and peace in heaven? is there not a Crown of righteousness, a Crown of immortality and glory there? are not these things desirable? Is not the sight of, and fellowship with Angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect desirable? no, these are not the things which David desireth in heaven, it is God only that he thirsteth for, let me have God, and I have all things, without God and Christ, even heaven itself is not heaven: so upon earth, are there not riches and honours, and many other desirable things: no, saith he, there is nothing on earth that I desire besides thee. Vehement love to Christ, drives away a Christians love to other things, as the flower of the Vine dissipates Serpents. An ancient Lover said, that Love had made a Butt of his heart, where as soon as it had shot all its arrows, it threw itself as an inflamed dart into the bottom of his breast, to set him all on fire. I have read of another, that was so full of love to Christ, that when he saw an Epistle or Letter, wherein the name of Jesus was not premised, it much tormented him, saying Saracens had more devotion for Mahomet a man of sin, setting his name in the front of their Letters, than Christians had for their Redeemer: some took delight to ask him many questions: From whence comest thou? he answered, from love: Where dwellest thou? in love: Whom seekest thou? after my love: he answered them nothing, but the word Love. You may set bounds and limits to your love to the world, to friends, to one another, 
Amor nescit, reverentiam, quod amat, amat, & aliud novit nihil. August.  but who can express the greatness of his affection to Christ, who is sick of love for him? Love knoweth no reverence, what it loveth, it loveth, and it knoweth nothing else; Take all from me O Lord, so thou leave me thyself, saith St. Augustine.  
2. It is an elevating and transporting love. men's hearts, thoughts and discourses are upon the objects of their love: If a Woman love her husband, she is ever thinking and talking of him in the time of his absence: Absence is a short death, 
Se●●alt. de usu passion.  which entails upon us as much sorrow, as the presence of the beloved giveth satisfaction: Talk with a man that is Lovesick, you talk with a man that is not at home; with a man that is absent from himself; 
Extasim facit amor, amatores ●uo statu dim●vit, ●ui juris esse non s●ait; sed inea quae amant penitus transfert. 〈◊〉 de divinis nominib. cap. 4. Deplicibus desideriis nemo incedere potest.  the soul is more where it loveth, than where it dwelleth; a man that is Lovesick for Christ, he passeth through his ordinary employments and doth scarce heed them, he passeth through the world as a man at random, he regards not the things of the world, for Christ is gotten into his heart, and draws up all his affections to himself. Take a man that is sick for any earthly thing, whether of Ahabs' sickness, (who was sick for Naboths Vineyard) or of Amnons' sickness, who wasted his Spirit in an impure flame, burning in lust toward his Sister Tamar: that which the soul is sick for, it daily dreams, thinks and talks of it; so the soul that is sick of love for Christ, will be as it were ecstasied and deadened to the things below, and be wholly taken up with Jesus Christ: He wisheth that all the parts of his body were turned into tongues to praise him, or into an heart to love him; he seemeth to torment himself that there are given to him, two hands to act, two eyes to see, two ears to hear, two feet to walk, and but one heart to love: he doth not prescribe any bounds to his love: he is troubled, that God's greatness is so well known, his goodness is no more loved, and that having so many subjects, he hath no more that love him: he doth not prescribe any bounds to his love to Christ, but makes it his sole desire, and wishes that his heart were dilated, that he might infinitely love him (if it might be) who is infinitely lovely.  
3. It is a pure and Virgin Love, Cant. 1.3, 4. Because of the savour of thy good ointments, 
Modus amandi Christum sine medo. Bern.  thy Name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the Virgins love thee: it is a chaste love, not an adulterous love, a love of Christ for himself, and for his own sake, for the savour of his precious ointments during the state of innocence, man had no love save only for God, and nature was so well tempered with grace, as that all her inclinations were holy: in this happy state, holy love and self-love were as it were the same thing, but since man's disobedience, his love altered nature, and he that looked upon the glory if God and his own good with the same eye, began to separate them, and forgetting what he owed unto God, he even made a God of himself; but now for a remedy of this mischief, Jesus Christ is come into the world to banish self-love from our souls, for as one well noteth, his coming, had no other motive, nor his doctrine any other end, than the ruin of this dreadful monster; and he admits of no disciples, who have not changed their self-love into an holy aversion; a man cannot therefore be a good Christian, nor can he have any strong affections to Christ, who doth too excessively love himself. Dost thou love Christ for himself, or for the loaves? Dost thou find a sweetness in his person, in his doctrine, in his offices, in his death, blood, mediation, resurrection and ascension, dost thou love him for himself, and not for any carnal respects, then is thy love a pure and unmixed love?  
4. It is an obedient love: If you love me, keep my commandments saith Christ, John 14.15. The greatest demonstration of our love to Christ, is the love that we bear to his commandments. David cries out, Oh how I love thy Law: I love it above gold. Many there are now a days, that profess much love to Christ, yetthink themselves lose from his commandments: but certainly, he that doth not look on Christ as a Lawgiver, as well as a Saviour, doth not love him: Indeed nothing will so enable a man to keep the commandments of Christ as Love will do. This is love, and his commandments are not grievous: therefore saith Austin, 
Nullo mode sunt onerosi labores amantium; interest ergo quid ametur; nam in eo quod amatur, aut non laboratur, aut amatur. labour August.  Love never finds difficulties: the reason why men object difficulties is want of love. Love neither frames, nor accepts of excuses, love finds no difficulties which it overcomes not: love charmeth troubles, mingleth pleasures with pains, and to encourage us against all difficulties, finds out inventions to make them either pleasing, or less troublesome to us. The troubles of men, that love Christ vehemently, are never troublesome, and they never find pain in serving him whom they love, or if they do, they cherish it.  
5. It is a love that swalloweth up all other loves whatsoever. There are three sorts of love; one ever good, the other ever bad; the third of its own nature good, but accidentally made bad: and that which is ever good is this love to Christ, which I am now speaking of; that which is ever bad, is the love of sin: that which is of its own nature good, but accidentally made bad, is the love of those things which we may lawfully affect, but we offend in them when we love them disorderly or excessively; now this love to Christ swallows up the other loves; for the one of them it quencheth and quite extinguisheth it, even as water quencheth fire; there can no evil motion come into the heart, but if the love of Christ be there it will chase it out, not at all giving it any place of rest or residence; and for the other love, it helps to order and rectify that too, teaching a man, if he love any such thing, yet to love it in due manner, and in due measure, not preferring his love of that above him, for whose sake only he must love it: be it parents or children, husband or wise, or friend, be it credit, pleasure, or profit, ease, health life; be it what it will be, the love of Christ ruleing in our heart, will so qualify and moderate the love of these things, that it will make it hold its due place and proportion, ever reserving the predominance to him, whom all creatures must serve: chief it teacheth us, that as God is to be loved for his own sake, so all other things for his sake, and therefore in an inferior and secondary place: Christ must be loved first of all, and most of all, first in time, and first in place; many begin to look toward Christ and heaven, when they can look no way else; they serve sin, the Devil, the world first, and themselves also before God, reserving only the furrows and wrinkles of their old age for God, but true Love honoureth Christ with its first fruits; it gives God (as I may so speak) the Maidenhead of its love; it's serves him first, and none else before him— And as first in time, so first in place also; it lets God have the first and best place, it lets him have the highest and chiefest room in the heart; it gives the priority to none else, sets none before him, none equal with him; 
Amor meus Deus meus.  That which I make my love, I make my God: therefore covetous men are called Idolaters; they make a God of their money, though not because they offer sacrifices to it, yet because their hearts and affections are set upon it; the world hath more from them then God hath: but a man that loveth Christ, reserveth the first and the fattest for Gods use— And as such a one loveth Christ first of all, so likewise most of all, as primarily, so totally, he divides not his love betwixt Christ and others: Pharaob would have had the Israelites, to have left their Cattle behind them, when they desired leave of him to go and sacrifice in the Wilderness, but what saith Moses? non remanebit ungula, there shall not an hoof be left behind: so when Satan would persuade a lover of Christ, not to give all to God, but to leave something behind for him, and his service; he answereth him no; there shall not an hoof stay behind; he that hath given us all, shall command, and have all. One of these two that entered into the land of Canaan was Caleb, 
Philo jud.  and Philo the Jew etymologyzing his name saith, it was quasi Col-leb, which in the Hebrew signifies all heart, thereby teaching us, that Christ must have all our heart, all must be given to him, if we will enter into the heavenly Canaan.  
6. This Love is such as being placed upon its object, the Lord Jesus, it will not be willing to part with him upon any terms. What we eagerly desire to have, we fear to lose: 
Quod vehementer cupis habere, times perdere.  he that loveth money, oh, how loath is he to part with it? You shall as soon wring water out of a stone, as money out of his purse; it was a sign Esau loved not his birthright very dearly, because he parted with it so easily; but the man in the Gospel loved his sheep well, and the woman loved her groat well, that took such pains as they did to seek them out again when they had lost them: Certainly Christ is worth keeping, if you have him, worth a seeking, if you have lost him; they that love him as they should, will rather do any thing than part with him; to others the matter is not great, whether they part with Christ or keep him, they are indifferent; and the services they do him, they do rather out of fashion, than out of love: he that serves a master whom he loves not, his service is an hard task to him; but they that love him hearty, serve him cheerfully, they will suffer no occasions to part them from him, or if at any time they do chance to lose him, they will never leave till they have recovered and found him: A man who loseth his friend, loseth one half of himself, he is at once both alive and dead, and death accords not with life, save only to make him more miserable: The absence of Christ is bitter to him, to whom his presence is sweet. See how restless the Spouse was, Cant. 3. when she sought him whom her soul loved; when she sought him and found him not, she could never be at rest, till she had got where he was, and when once she had him she held him; she would not let him go then till she had brought him home to her Mother's House, to the chamber of her that conceived her. A Lovesick soul desireth nothing more than the presence of Christ, here and in Heaven: here in the use of his Ordinances, Word and Sacraments; and they that do indeed love Christ, do love to meet him in these; in his Word, that they may confer with him; in his Sacraments that they may eat and drink with him. Latatur ancilla ad vocem Petri, laetatur anima ad voeem Christi: The Damsel rejoiced at the voice of Peter, and the soul rejoiceth that the voice of Christ; but these are but his back parts, the shadow of his presence hereafter: then we shall have his presence in glory, and this also all that love him do long for; I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ, which is best of all, saith holy Paul, Phil. 1.23. and saith he, the Crown of life shall be given to all that love the appearing of Christ: as if none could love him, that did not love his appearing.   

CHAP. XIII.  
THe second Use is for Exhortation: Use 2 Labour you to be vehement in your love to Christ: labour every day for more communion with him: Love is the liquefaction and melting of the soul toward her beloved; here no excess is, or can be vicious, the object will warrant the greatest excess of love: it is a sin in other things to be violent, but not to be violent for the Kingdom of God; it is a sin to be sick of love for a poor skin-deep beauty, or for any worldly thing whatsoever, but not for Christ. True it is! there may be some accidental errors about the greatness of a Christians affections to Christ, when our hearts are so intent upon him, as that we are impatient, when he delays the manifestation of himself to us: but let me tell you, if there be any errors in your love to Christ, he will pardon them; therefore let your affections be ardent and burning toward Christ. Reason teacheth us, that he is the Abysle of all perfections, and the Centre of all love; so as a man need not fear committing any excess in loving him with all his might. Consider the greatness of Christ's love to us; When the Lord Jesus did first look upon sinners, how black did he see them to be? but Christ's banner over his people is love; he loved us not according to what we were, but according to what we should be by grace, He hath loved us, and washed our sins in his blood, Rev. 1.5. What was there in man that could atract Christ's love to him? there was neither descent, nor beauty, nor parts, nor riches, not innocence and goodness; Now that the love of Christ might be excessive, he makes it to out run the wickedness and sinfulness that is in man: Christ is so good, as he cannot be loved so much as he ought to be, and let a man do his utmost, he is obliged to confess, that the love of Christ doth far exceed the greatness of man's love.   

CHAP. XIV.  
ARE any of you sick of love for Christ; Use 3 than let me excite you, with the Lovesick Spouse in my Text, diligently to seek after him whom your soul loveth; and let me tell you for your encouragement, that the Lord Jesus will freely bestow himself upon all those that are sick of love for him, and that earnestly pant and seek after him; to that end seriously weigh these following particulars.  
1. Christ's giving himself to those that were never sick for him, nor sought for him at all. I was found of them that sought me not, Isa. 65.1. So he gave himself, tendered, and revealed himself to those that never heard of him, and into whose hearts it never came to beg such a gift of God; how much more than shall they find him, that are sick of love for him, and earnestly seek him being revealed and tendered to them in the Gospel, their want and need of him being discovered to them. Seek and you shall find, knock, and it shall be opened to you, ask and you shall receive. Shall such receive that never asked? how much more shall they receive, that ask and cry after him! If the door of God's free grace be opened to such who never knocked at the gate of mercy, how much more will he open the door of mercy to such, who in the sense of misery shall knock earnestly for mercy? It is said of a Roman Emperor, 
Sucton.  that he would never suffer any Petitioner to go from him with a sad countenance: Christ that is full of such bowels of compassion (put all the tendernesses and bowels of all the compassionate men in the world into one, none can be so tender as his heart is) he will not suffer his Petitioners to go from him with a sad countenance. Jesus Christ may defer his grace, but will not give an absolute denial.  
2. Consider that Christ doth as it were woo poor sinners to seek and sue unto him; he doth as it were put up his bills unto us, when we go to prayer, that we would earnestly pray to his Father, that he might be given to us, which is a manifest proof that he will freely bestow himself upon such as thus sack for him: God calls to us in this manner, Call unon me in the day of trouble; ask and you shall receive; seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you: What are these but wooing commands? and begging commands? it is a remarkable phrase. Cant. 2.14. O my Dove that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice, for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely. Lo here he takes pleasure in beholding his people praying to him, mourning and lamenting after him; therefore he wooeth his Spouse with prayers, requests and petitions to pray unto him: the prayers of his people are his delight: the praises of Angels and Saints in heaven, and the prayers and praises of the Saints on earth, is all the music Christ delighteth in: so in the answer of Christ to the woman of Samaria, John 4.10. If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith unto thee, give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water: Christ there did, as it were, beg of her to seek him for living water: he manifested to her, what he was, what he would give unto her, and give it her he would, if she would but ask it of him. The same in effect he speaks to every one of us; if you would ask of me, I would give you living water; Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it, open thy heart wide, open thy desires wide, and I will fill thee with mine hidden treasures.  
3. Christ so far condescendeth, as to seek to us to receive him; he follows and pursues rebels with entreaties to make up their peace with God, then much more will he give himself to them that shall pursue him with entreaties. I am come saith he, to seek the lost sheep of the house of Israel: My great errand into the world, is to seek those that are lost, to bring them back again. But note that place, 2 Cor. 5.20. Now than we are Ambassadors for Christ, etc. Ministers are Christ's Ambassadors; and our commission is to treat a peace between an angry God and sinful men; the word that we preach is nothing else but an Embassy of peace; the Gospel is called a word of reconciliation; but here are the expressions of wonder and astonishment; as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead to be reconciled unto God: God himself by the mouths of his Ministers entreats you; we are the Mediators of peace between you and him; what arguments we use to draw you to Christ, are Christ's arguments, when we command you it is as though God commanded you, when we exhort you, it is as though God exhorted you: so when we pray, when we threaten, etc. so we pray you in Christ's stead; when we pray you by all the mercies of God, by all the bowels of Christ, by all the love of Christ manifested in giving himself for you by his sufferings; it is as if Christ did in his own person lay open all that he done and suffered for you, and entreat you to be reconciled: Now shall the God of infinite glory and Majesty so far condescend as to beseech us, and to pray us to be reconciled, will not he then freely bestow himself upon us when we are sick of love for him, when we beseech him and diligently seek him!  
4. Consider he makes a gracious Proclamation, inviting all, excepting none out of it, manifesting his readiness, freely to bestow himself on every one that shall seek unto him, John 7.37. In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink. Where the greatest concourse of people was, there the Proc amation of mercy was published. If any among you thirst after living waters, let him come to me and drink let him that will come, He, every one that is thirsty, come and buy without money; the poorest sort are the most acceptable customers: so Prov. 1.20, 21. Wisdom crieth without, she uttereth her voice in the streets, she crieth in the chief places of concourse, in the openings of the gates, in the City, she uttereth her words without in the streets; in the high street, among the press, in the Congregation, in the assemblies. Why doth wisdom make such public Proclamation? It is 1. To show his freeness and readiness to receive all that come, and to refresh every thirsty soul that cometh to him. 2. To take off all excuses, that none shall pretend ignorance, nor pretend they had no offer of salvation.  
5. Consider, that Jesus Christ will put by none that seeketh him; Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast off, John 6.37. Whosoever betakes himself to Christ for his only Saviour is embraced. I will in no wise cast him out. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is a double Negative. The unworthiest of sinners, the greatest of sinners have been received when they have come unto him; The blind and the lame, let them come in; let the door of mercy and righteousness be opened that they may enter in.  
6. Consider Christ's unspeakable readiness to do what he did, and suffer all that he did for us. Christ speaking of his sufferings saith With a desire have I desired to eat this : Shall be love us so much as to give himself to death for us? and will not the same love incline him to give himself to those that are sick of love for him, and earnestly seek him? Christ did manifest more love in dying for sinners, than he doth in giving himself to sinners that long after him.  
7. Consider his manifold and gracious promises made to the generation of seekers: he hath spoken it in the word of a God that cannot lie, You shall find me: I will be found of you: I will hear you, Turn and you shall live, Those that hunger and thirst shall be filled: He is faithful and just, and will keep promise. The Promises of God show two things, 1. God's willingness to communicate himself to his people in all kinds of mercies, for promises are but the manifestations of his will. 2. To encourage every thirsty and lovesick soul to seek him: Promises are God's earnest-penny that he will make good his word unto us.— To this, let me add the reason of it, consider Christ's nature, though he be in heaven, he is full of bowels of compassion, and much tenders the deplorable estate and case of the lovesick spouse that thirsteth & seeketh after him: he knoweth his people's wants, their straits, their fears, and when they fly to him for succour and relief, being faithful and merciful, he will help them, Heb. 2.17, 18. See why Christ would be made like unto his brethren, like us in substance of nature, in natural properties, in natural infirmities, in suffering of miseries, in tentations, it was that he might be merciful, and that he might be able and willing to secure us: his participation of our nature, miseries and temptations, is a pawn and pledge that he will help us.   

CHAP. XV.  
I Shall now give you directions how ye may get your hearts into a longing frame after Christ: Use 4 Beloved the least thing tending to salvation is very difficult; most men say, who doth not desire Christ, and ask after him, but much is required to get true desires after Christ.  
1. Labour to know what thou art without Christ; Thou art a cursed, sinful, helpless, hopeless creature without him. Thou art a condemned person to eternal death: hell waits to devour to thee; and the wrath of an Almighty God is ready to fall on thee every moment: Thou must answer God for every sin, and thou canst not answer for one of a thousand. Thou must endure the extremity of his wrath to eternity, and art not able to endure it for a moment; labour to believe and know this, and to persuade thy own heart, that this is thy estate and condition.  
2. Labour to know what God hath appointed and ordained Christ to be, viz. to be a Saviour, and to be the only Saviour of such wretched men as thou art: if ever thy sins be-satisfied, it is by Christ alone that died, if ever thou hast redemption from the curse and condemnation, it is by Christ that died for thee.  
3. Labour to know what a man is having Christ, viz. righteous before God, a reconciled friend to God; a Jedidjah, beloved of God, one (as God said of Christ) in whom he is well pleased, an heir of heaven, that art as far above all thy sins, the curse, the wrath of God, as the highest heaven is above the lowest hell: were men but truly persuaded of these things, Christ would be the desire of their souls, they would be sick of Love for him.  
4. Know thy wants, thy utter insufficiency and inability without him; labour to persuade thy heart thou hast nothing, thou wantest all things, thou canst do nothing, want will put thee upon long after him: Beggars wants will make them importunate, hunger and thirst will make a desire Manna and Living waters.  
5. Persuade thyself of thy absolute need of Christ, labour feelingly to know thy necessity of him: Christ thou must have, if thou wilt escape the damnation to come.  
6. Know the worth of Christ: all created glories, comforts good things, are no more to be compared to him, than a pins head to the terrestrial globe: Worth hath an attractive power, it will draw out the long of men after it.  
7. Labour to see the necessity of ministerial pressing the terrors, the curse of the Law home to the hearts of sinners: Ministers of the Gospel must be Boanerges, sons of thunder, they must lift up their Voices like trumpets, and cry woe, woe: The end of such a way of Preaching is not to drive men to despair, as the world injuriously censureth it; the end is to convince men of their misery, of their doleful estate, that they might long for Christ, and be sick of love for him: We preach the Law to drive you to Gospel-mercy; we preach damnation to drive you to Christ, the Author and finisher of our salvation: When a man cries Fire in the streets, it is to stir up men to labour to quench it: When a Physician tells a man he is ill, it is to make him to take Physic, and not to make him to despair of life.  
8. Labour to see the necessity of the work of the spirit of bondage upon our hearts; the spirit of comfort is first, a spirit of bondage, of fear and terror to us; he therefore terrifieth us with sin, that our hearts may break for long after Christ. He makes us sorrowful, that sorrow may beget vehement desires in us after Christ, 2 Cor. 7. God brings his Church into a wilderness, and then he speaks comfortably to her, Hos. 2.   

CHAP. XVI.  
BUt here some poor soul is apt to say; Object. I have been long sick of love for Christ, thirsted after him, asked for Christ of God my Father, yet my request is not answered, I go mourning all the day for want of him whom my soldier loveeths: insomuch that I fear, I shall go without him.  
For answer hereunto consider these four things. Resp.  
1. That Christ will make himself known to his people in his own time, not when we will, but when he pleaseth: he will turn our Waterinto Wine in his time, not in ours, and his time, is in truth. As Joseph did not presently manifest himself to his brethren, but dealt roughly with them for a while, and put them into great fears what should become of them, but at last could refrain no longer, but told them with tears, I am Joseph your Brother whom ye sold: so Christ suffers his people to long for him, and they are in fears what will become of them, but at last he will manifest himself to them, I am your Christ, your Saviour, whom you seek, whom you long after.  
2. Some obtain Christ sooner than others; some lie a great while under terrors, under desires, under soul-sickness; others but a little while; some like the impotent man, lie many years at the pool, before they are put in, others are put in within a while after they come to the pool: Some lie like Christ himself, but three days in the grave, and then they rise triumphant Conquerors over their doubts, sorrows, fears and terrors: over sin and Devils; being assured that Christ is theirs: others lie a long while in the grave of fears and terrors: Some God leadeth into Canaan through a vast, solitary, dry wilderness; others go but a few steps from Egypt to Canaan: Some feed on honey, and are carried in Christ's bosom to heaven, saith a Judicious Divine, and others are floating in floods of wrath, and their first smile of joy, is when the morning of Eternity's Sun dawneth in at the window of the soul: 
Rutherf. in John 12.  some sing, and live on sense all the way, and others go in at heaven gates weeping.  
3. A man may have Christ and not know it; a man may be in the state of grace, and not assured; for assurance is not of absolute necessity to make a man godly; it conduceth to the bene esse, but not to the esse, to the comfort of godliness, not to the being of godliness. Take an instance for illustration: a King that is crowned in his Cradle, is truly and rightly the King, though he knows not so much for the present; and while he is in the Cradle, he is attended with Princes and Nobles, that give him Royal respect, and service: so a man may be in Christ, in the state of grace, and not be assured of it.  
4. True and unfeigned desires after grace, are grace: Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after Christ's righteousness, they shall be satisfied, Matth. 5.6. Your very desires, if they be true and constant, do entitle you to the promise of righteousness: constant desires are streams of those living waters that flow out of the bellies of true believers.   

CHAP. XVII.  
THe last Use is for comfort to poor distressed Christians that are cast down with the sense of the decay of their first love to Christ: Use 5 it is a strong temptation upon many Christians, because they find their love abated, and not to be so strong as it was at first, therefore they question the truth of their conversion, and think they had never any sound work of grace wrought upon their hearts.  
1. Christians in this life are like unto children, Resp. whose growth is not always perceived by those that always live and converse with them; so a Christian grows in grace and in love to Christ, though perhaps himself perceiveth it not.  
2. Though be may not have such a fair flourishing top, and branch, yet he may be better rooted than before, have a deeper and stronger rooting in grace: The Apostle Paul speaks of being rooted and grounded in love. The affections of Christians to Christ at their first conversion, are like the affections of new married persons: at first their love seems to be excessive, but after they have lived together some years in a married estate, this excess of love, this violent tide of affection abateth, yet true love abideth still between them: so a Christian may not have such violent pangs of love, and such passionate affections to Christ, and such strong expressions of love to Christ afterwards, as he had at his first conversion, yet true love may still abide in the soul.  
3. A Christian that is of long standing in Christianity, is a more experimental Christian, is more grave, more solid, and practical than he was before; he hath now more ability to resist tentations, to overcome corruptions, to perform holy duties than at his first conversions, 
Sym. desert. soul.  than a Christian is nothing but love and affection, but afterward more experimental and practical: an Apple, that is green and unripe, may look as fair and be as big then as ever afterward; but it hath not that sweetness, that good juice and nourishment, as it hath when it cometh to its full maturity: A young man of twenty years old, may be as big and lusty, and more vigorous in complexion, than at any other time afterward, but he hath not that solidity, that judgement, that gravity, that experience, as at the age of thirty or forty years. So it is with a Christian; at first he is but a babe, but a novice, a gristle in grace, but after he cometh to riper years, to be a grown man in Christ, his love is more dilated and extended to all the duties of Religion, to all acts of piety toward God, to all acts of charity towards men, and of sobriety toward himself. So then this is no ground for a Christian, that hath the truth of grace in his soul, to bereave himself of all true comfort, because he finds not his affections so strong toward Christ, as they were or seemed to be at his first conversion.   
FINIS.