ordinances of my appointment, they fhall find that I will yield myfelf exorable and eafy to be entreated; and fo it is an encouragement to prayer, in expectation that God will confer the promifed bleffings, and not that our prayers will obtain them; and therefore the more that a man turns fuch a fcripture to a covenant of works, as if he were upon terms with God, that upon condition that he pray and feek, God will give him the promifed bleffings; the more he does fo, I fay, the further is he from all thefe bleffings; where. as the lefs hope and expectation that a poor foul hath from his prayers, he will always find, that he will come the more fpeed,

In a word, the prayer you speak of, man, is either a natural or a spiritual prayer; if it be a natural prayer, then, as the natural man is bound to pray, and yet hath nothing to expect, but of fovereign free grace; fo there is no connection betwixt his prayer and the promife, unless we turn rank Arminians: If it be a Ipiritual prayer, then to be fure, the promise hath prevented his prayer; for to fay that none of these promifes are given, till a man pray in the Spirit for them, is cross to the whole current of fcripture, and fpiritual reafon; for, how can a man pray in the Spirit, till that promife be accomplished in fome measure upon him,

I will put my Spirit within you?" Thus his love prevents our prayers, it prevents our defires and endeavours; "He firft loved us."And fo much fhall fuffice for the first general head,

II. The Second thing propofed was, to fpeak of be. lievers love to God and Chrift; "We love him:"" This is but a fmall ftream that flows from, and runs again to the ocean of his love. love of the faints towards God derations.

We may

We may take up this in the following confi

1. We may confider this love in its Nature. It is not a spark of natural kindling; it is not from natural reafon or common grace, no; it is from the faving operation of the Holy Ghoft, circumcifing the heart to love God; the fruits of the Spirit are faith, love,

and

and the rest of the graces: it is altogether fuper-natural; for the natural mind is enmity against God: we naturally hate God. Sirs, though the worst perfon in the world will fay they do not hate God, yet they really do it; and their hatred appears in their averfion from him and his ways, their oppofition to his commands and counfels, their contempt of his promifes,, and neglect of his falvation, and his Chrift; for they will not come to him, that they might have life. It is God's prerogative to turn the heart from enmity to love, from darknefs to light, and from the power of Satan unto God: no man can turn himself, more than the Ethiopian can change his fkin, or the leopard his spots, Jer. xiii. 23. Men, by their improvement of their natural faculties, and by common grace, which most part of men have fomething of, come to a fermon, and go to their knees, carry fomewhat of morality and modefty, but they are not able to command themselves to love God; nay, duty is a burden; the word is a wearinefs to them; they are mad upon idols; they make the Lord to ferve with their fin; and their duties to ferve as a covering to their lufts; and make use of duty for this, that they may be looked upon as good men, and not Atheists; but let them do their beft, they cannot expel that curfed habit of enmity, nor introduce the contrary habit of love, till the power of God come along difcovering the beauty and glory of Christ, and transforming the foul after the fame image; for this love imports a faving knowledge of this glorious object beloved, a high esteem of the object thus known, a hearty choice of him whom we thus esteem, and a sweet recumbancy in this choice. The under flanding is made to fee, the judgment to efteem, the will to chufe, and the foul to acquiefce in him.-But these things I cannot enlarge upon.

2. We may confider this love in the kinds of it, And here I would speak only of two kinds in general, namely, a more common, and a more fpecial love.

(1.) There is a more common love, which even hy、 pocrites may have, and may have it as a fruit of God's Spirit in this common operation, while yet they are

not

་་

not renewed in the whole man. As they may have. a temporary faith, fo they may have a love propor. tioned to this. The feed of the word falls into the heart, as into ftony ground, and it quickly fprings up in fome flathes of affection, and fair flourishes of a profeffion, so as they may feem, to themfelves and others, to be among the beft of Chriftians, while yet it is not any fpecial work of God's Spirit, but a common gift and grace. The Lord defigns to tame and civilize fome, as well as to fave and convert others. Now, this love, however great and vehement it may be in appearance, yet it is but a land-flood at the belt: it hath not a fpring; it is nourished as a pool of water, not as a well of water; the water which the Lord gives to his people, it is in them a well of water, fpringing up to everlasting life, John iv. 14. But the hypocrite's love is a returning to the Lord, but not with the whole heart. It is a love as is described in the Jews, They ferved the Lord, and they ferved Afhtaroth:” To pacify their confciences, they will ferve the Lord; but to fatisfy their affections, they will ferve their lufts: they never fell their ALL for the Pearl of great price; they never reft upon him as their prefent, only, and greatest good, nor find full fatisfaction in him. They never come to that with it, "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none in all the earth that I defire befides thee." There is fomething befide Chrift that they defire; they have fome esteem of him, when he fmiles on them in his providences, when they get ease to their confciences; and, by their falfe hopes of heaven, apprehend matters to be well-enough with them. But when the Lord begins to frown, and the courfe of his providence is turned, then their love is turned into hatred; and the hatred wherewith they hate him, is greater than the love wherewith they loved him. As John's hearers rejoiced in his light for a feafon, and but for a feason; and Chrift's hearers cried this day, Hosanna, and the next day, Crucify him; and, as many people followed Chrift for the loaves, because he fed them; fo many still follow Chrift, fome for outward things, and

because

because of his general merciful difpenfations; yea, fome for inward things: O, fay they, ordinances are. pleafant; it is a fweet thing to get a tear at a fermon, and to be ravifhed with fomething of the glory of heaven, and privileges of the faints: no doubt the joy with which the flony-ground hearers received the word, had its fweetnefs and pleasure, and thereupon their hearts are aloft, and they think they love Christ above all things; but yet their root is rottenness; they never truly come to Chrift, to get reft to their hearts and confciences from the filth and guilt of fin. But,

(2.) There is a special love, whereby the whole foul is carried out towards the Lord, as the chief, prefent, and only good, and whereby the foul fees nothing in heaven or earth defirable in comparison of him; and that acts towards a prefent Chrift, in rejoicing in him; and towards an abfent Chrift, by lamenting after him: it acts by cleaving to him, when they have the greatest temptations to go away, and it appears most when Chrift threatens to depart; and it cleaves most to him, when many are departing from him; "To whom fhall we go, thou haft the words of eternal life." It counts all but lofs and dung for him: Chrift gets the throne of their hearts, the cream of their affections, the very foul of their fouls, their moft vehement love; whatever other things they love, it is but in a fubordi. nation to him; whatever other things they rejoice in, he is their chief joy; "I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy," Pfal. xliii. 4. Their joy in him exceeds the joy that they have in any thing else in a world.

3. We may confider this love in the degrees of it. I would not be for the breaking a bruifed reed, or quenching a fmoaking flax; my heart's defire is, that all that love Chrift, even in the weakest degree, if it be a special love, may go away rejoicing in him; therefore I tell you of these four degrees of this love.

(1.) There is a love of defire after Chrift, that is not yet arrived at a full complacency in him; "The defire of our foul is to thy name," fays the Church. A poor

creature

;

creature may have a rooted defire after Christ, that is not yet come the length of a rooted delight in him because through unbelief they question their fpecial interest in him: but, "Bleffed are they that hunger and thirst after righteoufnefs; for they fhall be filled." If a gracious defire after Christ be rooted in the foul, there is true love. Yea, further, this defire hath several degrees alfo: fometimes the defire is like a fmoaking flax, hardly can one difcern the spark of red fire, only they fee finoak as a fign of fire; a fmoaking flax.-This defire may be strangely chocked, fometimes through the prevalence of unbelief: even the children of God, that have found and saving defires, may become so heartless, as that they have no boldnefs to come to the Lord, and exprefs their defires; all they can say is, that there is fomething about the bottom of their heart of an earnest wish, that the Lord would come to them, when they cannot come to him: all they can fay is, O, when will he come to me! Or, when will he give me a vifit! O, there is none in the world needs a vifit fo much as I!-Sometimes their defires are more vivid and lively, more bright and fhining, and break forth in ardent prayers and pantings of foul after him; "As the hart pants after the water-brooks, fo pants my foul after thee, O God: my foul thirfts for God, for the living God. With my foul have I defired thee in the night, and with my spirit within me, will I feek thee early." Sometimes, again, their defires become fo ftrong, as that the perfon is made to put on a refolution, as David did, "I will neither give fleep to mine eyes, nor flumber to mine eye-lids, till I find out a place for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob. Lo, we heard of it at Ephrata, we found it in the fields of the wood," Pfalm cxxxii. 4, 5, 6.—— Their defires may be fuch as to make them reftlefs, till they get their hearts made a fit habitation for him; they may be fuch as to carry their fouls aloft above all temporary enjoyments, and make them mount up on wings as eagles; and to look down upon all the enjoyments of time, and fublunary comforts, as altogether contemptible. But then,

(2.) As