SERMON CXLVI[.
Povr, ans viii. 17. I love them that love me, and they that seek me early shall find me. As the prophets, and the other secretaries of the Holy Ghost in penning the books of Scriptures, do for the most part retain, and express in their writings some impressions, and some air of their former professions; those that had been bred in courts aud cities, those that had been shepherds aud herdsmeu, those that had been iïshers, and so of the test; ever inserting into their writings some phrases, some metaphors, some allusions, taken from that professio|! which they had exercised belote; so that soul, that hath been trausported upon any particular worhily pleasure, when it is entirely turned upon God, and the contemplation of his allsufllciency and abundance, doth iïnd in God fit subject, and just occasion to exercise the san|e affection piously, and religiously, which had before so sinfully transported, and possessed it. A covetous person, who is now truly converted to God, he will exereise a spiritual covetousness still, he will desire fo bave him ail, he xvill have good security, the seal and assurance of the Holy Ghost; and he will bave his security often renewed by new testimonies, and increases of those graces in him; he will bave witnesses enougll; he will have the testimony of all the world, by his good life and conversation; he will gain every way at God's hand, ho will bave wages of God, for hewillbe his servant; ha will bave a portion from God, for he will be his son; he will haro a reversion, ho will be sure that his naine is in the book of VOL. VI. B
]ife; he will have pawns, the seMs of the scraments, ny, he will have a present possession; ll that God hath promiscd, ail that Christ hath purchased, all that the ]:Ioly Ghost hath the stewardship aud dispenstiou of, he will have ail in present, by the appropriation and investiture of an actual and applying faith; a covetous person converted will be spiritually covetous still. So will a voluptuous man, who is turned to God, find plenty and deliciousness enough in him, to feed his soul, as with marrow, and with fatness, as David expresses it; and so an anga.y and passionate man, will find zea| enough in the house of God to eut him up. Ail affections which are common to all men, and those to which in particular, particular men lmve been addicted to, shall hot only be justly employed upon God, but also securely employed, because we cannot exceed, nor go too far in employing them upon him. According to this rule, St. Paul, wlm had been so vehemeut a persecutor, had ever his thoughts exercised upon that; and thereupon after his conversion, he fulfils the rest of the suflerings of Christ in his flesh , he suffers most, he makes most mention of his sufferiug of any of the apostles. And according to this ru]e too, Solomon, whose disposition,vas amorous, and excessive in the love of womet, vhen he turned to God, he departed hot utterly from his old phrase and language, but having put a new, and a spiritual tincture, and form and habit in all his thoughts, and words, he conveys all his loving approaches and applications to God, and all God's gracious answers to his amorous soul, into songs, and epithalamians, and meditations upon contracts, and marriages between God and his church, and between God and his soul; as we see so evidently in ail his other writings, and particularly in this text, I love t]em, &c. In 'hich words is expressed all that belongs to love, all which, is to desire, and to enjoy; for to desire without fruition, is a rage, and to enjoy without desire is a stupidity: in the first alone we think of nothing, but that which we then would bave; and in the second alone, we are not for that when we bave it; in the first, we are without it; in the second, we were as good as we Col. i. 24.
MER. CXLVII.] PREACHED AT DE,IAIIK nOUSEo were, for we bave no pleasure satisfaction, but where those two concur, are and/rut, to love and to enjoy. In sensual love itis so; Quid era quod me delectabat, amare er amari'P I take no joy in this ofld, bnt in loving, and in being beloved; in sensual love it is so, but in sensual love, when we are corne so far; there the saine father confmseth more of himself, than any commission, any oath would bave put him to, Mmatus sure, er pereni occulte adJruendum, I ad all I dedred, and I had it with that ado'anrage of having it seeretly; but what got I by all that, U cwderer eirçia ardentibus ferreis, zeli,uicionis e rixarum; nothing but tobe seourged with burning iron rods, rods of jeousy, of suspicion, and of quaoeels but in the love and enjoying of this text, there is no room for jea]ousy, nor suspicion, nor quarrelsome eomplaining. In this text then you may be pleased fo eonsider these two things, QuMamare, qM frui, what the affection of this love is, what is the blessedness of this enjoying: but in the first of these, we must first eonsider the persons, who are the love in this text for there are persons that are ineredible, though they say they love beeause they are aeeustomed to falsehood; and there are persons whieh are unrequitable, though they be believed to love. beeause they love hOt where, and as they should. XVhen we have found the persons, in a second consideration we shall look upon the afftion itself, what is the love in this text; and ff]en after tiret, upon the bond, and union and condition of this love, that it is mutual, I love tem ta love me; and having passed those three branches of file first part, we hMl in the second, which is enjoying, consider fit, that this enjoying, expressed in the word finding; and then that this finding requires two conditions, a seeking, and an early seeking, secS" me eorly sall flnd me. The person that professes love in this ploee is wisdom heelÇ as appears ai the beginning of the ehapter amare, fo be wise and to love, which peoehance never met belote nor sinee, are met in this text: but whether this wisdom, t Austine.
frequently mentioned in this Book of Proverbs, be sapientla creata or increat«, whether it be the wisdom, or the foot of visdom, Christ Jesus, hath been diversely debated: the occasion grew in that great council of ice, vhere the catho|ic çathers understood this wisdom, to be intended of Christ himself, and then the Arian heretics pressed some places of this book, where such things seemed to them to be spoken of visdom, as could hot be appliablc to any but to a creature; and that therefore if Christ were this visdom, Christ must necessarily be tt creature, and hot God. We will hot dispute those things over agaln now, they are c|early enough, anti largely enough set down in that council; but since there is nothing said of wisdom in all this book, which hath hot been by good expositors applied to Christ, much more may we presume the loyer in this text, (though presented in the naine of wisdom) fo he Christ himself, and so we do. To show the constancy aud durableness of this love, the loyer is a he, that is Christ; to show the vehemency and earnestness of it, the loyer is a she, that is wisdom, as it is often expressed in this chapter, she crietll, she uttereth her voice; yea in one place of the Bible (and only ia that one place I think) where Moses would express an extraordinary, and vehement and passionate indignation in God against his people, when as it is in tlmt text, his wrath,cas kindled, and grievously kindled, there, and only there ", doth Moses attribute even to God himself the feminine sex, and speaks to God in rite original language, as if he should have called him Deam Iratam, an angry she God; ail that is good then, either in the love of man or woman, is in this love; for he is expressed in both sexes, man and woman; and all that can be iii in the love of either sex, is pnrged away, for the man in no other man than Christ Jesus, and the woman no other woman, than wisdom herself, even the uncreated wisdom of God himself. Iqow all this is but one person, the person that professes love; who is the other, who is the beloved of Christ, is hot so easily discerned: in the love between persons in this world, and of this world, we are often deceived with outward signs; we often miscall and misjudge civil respects, and mutual couesies; and delight in one anothers conversation, and such other indifferent things, as only maliity, and curiosity, and self-iltiness, to be minterpretable, we often call these love; but neither amongst ourseives, much less between Christ and ourselves, are these outwrd appcarances always siens of love. This person then, this beloved soul, is hot every one, to whom Christ sends loving message, or writes to; for his letters, the Scriptures are directed to ail; not eve one he wishes wdl to, and swears that he «loes , for so he doth ail; As I lie (sait the Lord) 1 couhl hot the deatl» OE a sinner; hot every one that he sends jewels, and presents to; for they are often snres to eorrupt, s well as muments of love; not though he admit them to his table and supper, for even there the devil entered into Juds vith sop; not though he reeeive them to a kiss, for even with that familiarity Judas betrayed him; hot though ho betroth himself as he did to the Jews,,çonabo te mihi wternum'; hot though he make jointures, i pacto salis, in covennnt of sait, au everlasting eovennnt; hot thougl he bave eommunieated his name fo them, which is an t of marriage; for to how mny hath he said: Eyo dixi, Bii estis, I bave said you are God's; and yet they lmve been reprobates; not ail these outwrd things anaouut so far, as to make us diern who is this beloved persou; for himsdf says of the Israelites, to whom he had nmde 11 these demonstrations of love, yet after, for their abominations, divoreed himself fi'om them, [ hareforsaken mina bouse, I bave loEt nffne owt heritaye, I hare yiren the dearly beloed OE ¥ eoul into tke kands OE her enemies . To eonclude this pern beloved of Christ, is only that soul, that loves Christ; but that belongs to the third brmch of this first part, which is the mutual love: but first having round the peton, we are to eonsider the affoetion itsdf, the love of this text; it is an observation of Origen's, that thotgh these thoee words, Amor, dilectio, nd charitas, love, and affection, and g@ will, be ail of one signification in the Seriptuoes, yet says he, wheresoever there is danger of representing to the fancy a lascivious and earnal love, the Seriptu forbears the wo love, and uses either affection, or « Hos il. 14. Jet. xii. 7.
good will; and where there is no such danger, tho Scripturo cornes direetly te this word love, of whieh Origen's exemples are, that when Isaac bent his affections upon Rebeeca, and Jaeob upon Rachel, in both places it is dilexit, and net ama,:it; and and when it is said in the Canticles', I charge you, dau.qters of Jerusalem, te ter m!/wdl-belo»ed, it is net te tell him that sho was in love, but te tell him, çuod ulneratoe caritatis s«m; that I ara wounded with an affection and good will towards him; but in this Book of Proverbs, in all the passages between Christ and the beloved seul, there is evermore a free use of this word, Miner, love; because it is even iu the first apprehension, a pure, a chaste, and an undefiled love, Eloçuia Domins caste, says David, Ail the words of the Lord, and all their words that love the Lord, all diseourses, all that is spoken te or frein the seul, is ail full of chaste love, and of the love of ehastity. 1N'ow though this love of Christ te our seuls be too large te shut up, or coml)rehend in any defiuition,)'et if we content ourselves with the definition of the schools, 2lare est 'elle alicui l«od bonum est, Love is nothing but a desire, that thcy whom we love should be hapl»y: we nmy easily discern the advantage aud profit which we have by this love in thc text, when ho that wishes us this good, by loving us, is author of all good himself, and may give us as much as plcases him, without inpairing his own illfinite treasure; he loves us as llis ancient inheritance, as he first amougst his creatures in the creation of the world, which created for us: he loves us more as his purchase, whom ho nath bought with [Ils blood; for even nlan takes most pleasure in thiugs of llis own gctting; but he loves us most ibl" our improvement, when by his l,loughing up of out heurts, and the dew of his grace, aud the seed of his word, we corne to give greater scent, in the ri'uit of sanctification than before. And since he loves us thus, and that in hinh this love is telle bonum, a desire that his beloved should be happy, what soul amongst us shall doubt, that when God bath such an abundant, and iufinite treasure, as the merit and passion of Christ Jesus, suflàcient to save millions of worlds, and yet, many millions in this world (all the heathen excluded from any interest therein)when God bath a
ingdom large, that nothing limits it, and yet he hath banished many natural subjects thereof, even hose legions of angels which we cated in it, and ara fallen from it; what soul amongst sha doubt, but that he that bath thus much, and Ioves thus much, will hot deny her a poion in the blood of Christ, or a rm in the ingdom of heaven No soul can doubt it exeept it Imve been a witne to itself, and be so still, that it love hot Christ Jesus, for that is a condition necessary: and t]lat is the third branch to which we are corne now in out order; hat this love b mutual, lod tem, &c. If any man lozes ot out Lord Jeu, let ldm be accured, sa)'s the apostle; now the first pa of this cume is upon the indispoe sition to love; he that loves hot at all is first accursed. That stupid inconsideration, which passes on drowsily, and negligently upon God's creatures, that slen indifferency in onds disposition, to love one thing no more than another, hot to value, hot fo choose, not to prefer, that stoniness, that inhumanity, hot to be aflbcted, hot to be entendered, fo wear those things which God bath ruade objects and subjects of affoetions; that which St. Paul places in the bottom, and lees, and dregs of ail the sins of the Jews, to be without natural affections ¢, this distemper, this ill complexion, this iii nature of the ul, is under the first part of this ctne, if any man love hot; for he that loves hot, knows hot G, for God is love. But this cur determines hot upon that, neither is it principal]y directed upon that, hot loving; for as we say in the schools, 1 mot t primus actu¢ zoluntati8, The first thing that the will of man doeg is to affût, to choose, to love something; and it is scarce poible to find any man's will so idle, so barren, as that it hath produced no act at all; and therefore the first act being los-e, scarce any man can be round, thgt doth hot love something: but the curse extends, yea is principally intended upon him that fores hot Christ Jesus; though he love the creature, and orderly enough; yea, though he love God, as a eat and incomprehensible power, yet if he love hot Christ Jesus, if he acknosvledge hot, that ail that passes between God and him, is in, and for Christ Jesus, let hinl be accursed, for all his love.
8 raro AT Vr.fnlK torsr. [sra. CXLV. I'OW there are but two that cau be loved, God and the creature: and of the creatures, that must necessarily be best loved, which is nearest us, which wc understand best and reflect most upou, and that is ourselves; for, for the love of other creatures, it is but a sccondary love; if we love God, we love them for his sake; if we love ourselves, we love them for our sakes: now to love ourselvcs is only allowal»le, only proper to God himself: for this love is a desire, that ail honour, and praise, and glory should bo attributed to one's self, and it can be only proper to God to desire that: to love ourselves then, is the greatest treason we tan commit against God; and ail love of the ereatures determines in thc love o ourselves: foi" thongh sometimes xve may say, th,t we lox'e them better than ourselves; and though we give so good (that is, indeed, so iii testimony) that we do so, that we neglect ourselves, both out religion and our discretion for their sakes, whom we p'ctend to love,)'et all this is but a secontlary love, anti with relation still to ourselves and our own contentmeuts: f«)r is this love whieh we bear to other creatures, within that defiuition of love, celle botm anato, to wish that which we love, happy; doth auy ambitious man love honour or office thcrefore, beeause he thinks that title, or that place should receive a diity by his h,viug it, or an excellency by his executing it. doth any covetous man love a house or horse therefore, because he thinks that house or horse should be happy in sneh a toaster or such ritler . doth any licentious man covet or solieit a woman theretbre, beeause he thinks it a hal,l,iness to her, to have such a servant. No, it is only himself that is within the definition, cuit bomtm sibi, ho wishes well (as ho mistakes it) to himself, and he is content, that the shtvery, autl dishonour, and ruin of others should eontribute to make up his imaginary happiness. 0 dementiam;wscientem amare ]wmlnes ]umaniterS. t Vhat a perverse madness is it, to love a creature and not as a creature, that is, with all the adjuncts, and eireumstances, and qualities of a creature, of whieh the principal is that, that love raise us to the contemplation of the Creator; for if it be so, we lnay love ourselves, as we are the images of God; and so we may love other men, as they are the images of us, and our nature; yea, as « Augustine.
fiER. CXLVlI.] PI1EACHED AT DENMAI'tK 'ltOUE. they are the memhcrs of thc came hody; for omnes oudes umauita,, all men make up but one mankind, and so we love othcr creatures, as we ail meet in our Creator, in whom princes and subjects, angels and meu, and worms are fc]low servants.,S'i nu, le amareris, tune oditi°; If thou hast loved thyself, or any body else principal|y, or so, that wheu thou dost any act of love, thou eanst hot sa 3" to thine own conscience, I do this for God's sake, and for his glory; if thou ha.t loved so, thou hast hated thyself, and him whom thou hast loved, aud God whom thou shouldest love.,çi boue oderia, says the sanie father, If thou hast hated as thou shou]dest hate, if thou hast hated thine own iuterna] temptations, and the outward solicitations of others, amasti, then thou hast expressed a tnauifo]d aet of love, of love to thy God, attd love to his image, thyself, attd love to thine image, that mau whom thy virtue and thy example bath declincd, and kept ri'oUI oflbudh}g his, and thy God. And as this affection, love, doth beloug to God I,rincil»ally, that is, rather thau to an)'thing else, so doth it al.o t,rincipally auother way, that is, rather than any affection else; for, the fear of God la the begitming of wisdom, but the love of Goal is the eousummatiou, that is, the marriage, aud union of thy soul, and thy Saviour. But can we love God when xve will. do we hOt find, tiret the love of aome other things, or some courses of lire, of aome waya lu our actions, and of some particular persons, that we would thiu love them, and eannot. when we ean object nothing against it, when we eau multiply argumeuts, xvhv should we love thcm,)'et we cannot: but it is hOt so towards od; every ltlall may love him, that will; but tan cvery man have this svill, this desire. Ccrtainly sve eannot begin this love; except God love us first, we eannot love him; but God doth love us all so well, from the beginning, as that every man may sec the fault was in the perverseness of his own wili, that he did hOt love God hetter. If we look for the foot of this love, it is in the Father; for, though the death of Christ be towards us, as a foot, as a cause of out love, and of the aceeptableness of it, yet #Ieritum Cristi aecum amoris 1)ei e'Ta nos o, Thc deth oî Crit was but an effect of thc love of G towards us, No God loved the eorld tka he.qare Ms »S'on: if ho had not lovcd us first, wc had nevcr had his Son; herc is thc roet then, the love of the Father, and thc trce, the merit of thc Son; except there be fruit too, love in us, to them again, both roet and trce will thcr in us, hovsocver they grev in God. I hare loved thee witlz an everla$titçq love, (says God) tkeroEore with ercy I bave &'awn thee ffi, if therefore ve do hot perceive, that wc arc dra to love again by this love, it is hot an everlasting love, that shines upon us. Ail the sunshine, all the glory of this life, though all thesc bc testimonies of God's love to us, yet all theoe bring but a winteFs day, a short day, and a cold day, and a dark day, for except we love toe, God doth not love with an everlasting love: God will hot surfer his love to be idle, and since it profits hhn nothing, if it profits us nothing neither, he will withdraw it; nwr Dei t lumen iyni, «t slezdor oli, «t odor luci, non prwbeti procit, ed utenti,, The sun hath no benefit by hzs own light, nor the tire by his own heat, nor a peumc by the swcetness thereof, but only they who makc their use, and cnjoy this heat and fi' grancy; and this brings us to out other part, to pass ri'oto loving to enjoying. Ttleru Domizum meure, They bave tahen away my Lord, and I know hot where they bave laid him; this was one strain of Mary Magdalen's lamentation, when she round hot ber Saviour in the monument: it is a lamenblc case to be fain to cry so, T«le'ut, They bave taken, other men bave taken away Christ, i,y a dark and corrupt education, which was thc state of out fitthers to the omau captivity. But when thc a/]ecerutt Domitum, which is so often complained of by God in the prophets, is pznounced against thee, wheu thou hast had Christ oflbred to thee, by the motions of his grace, and sealed to thee by his sacraments, and yet wilt cast him so far ri'oto thee, that thou knowest hot where to find him, when thou lmst poured him out at thine eyes in profane and counterfeit tears, which should be thy ul's rebaptization for thy sins, when thou hast blown him
SER. CXLVII. 1 PREACHED AT DF.NMARK HOUSE. 11 away in corrupt and iH intended sighs, which should ho yitus @lumbw, the voice of the tulle, to und thy peace and rcconciliation with G; yea when thou ht spit him out of thy mouth in execrable and blmphemous oat; when thou hast hot only cast him so far, as that thou knowe not where to find him, but hast ruade so ordinary and so indifferent a thing of sin, as thou knowest hot when thou didst lose him, no nor dost hot renember tiret ever thou hadst him; no, nor dost not know that there is any such man, Dominus turcs, a Jesus, that i thy Lord. The tuleru»t is dangerous, when othe hide Christ 5"mn thee; but thc alecertt is dcsperate, when thou thylf dost cast him away. To losc ('hrist may befall the most righteous man that is; but thon he knows where he leK him; he knows at what sin he lost Iris way, and where to seek it again; even Christ's imagined father and his truc mother, Joseph and 5Iary, lost him, and lost him in the holy city, at Jerulem; they lost him and knew it hot, they lost him and went a day's journey without him, and thought him to be in the company; but as sn as they deprehendcd their error, they sought and they round him, when as his mother ld him, his father and she had ught with a heavy heart: Mas, we may loso him at Jerumlem, even in his own housc, even af this present, whilst we pretend to do him service; we may lose him, by suffering out thoughts to loek i,ack with pleasure upon the sins which we bave committed, or to look forward with greediness upon me sin that is now in out purlse and prosecution; we may lose him at Jerusalem, how much more, if out dwelliug be a Rome of superstition and idolatry, or if it be a Babylon in confusion, and mingling God and the worid gether, or if it be a Sodom, a wanton and intemperate misuse of (od's benefits to us, we may think him in the company when he is not, we may mistake his bouse, we may take a con'enticle for a church; we may mistake his apparel, that is, the outward form of his worship; we may mistake the person, that is, ass ciate ourselres to such as are no members of his body: but if we do hot retum to out diligence to seek him, and seek him, and seek him with a heavy heart, thotgh we begun with a tulerunt, other meu, other temptations tk him away, yet we end in an
"[oE PREACIIED AT DEN,fAI1K HOUSEo [SER, CXLVII. abjeceru»t, we ourselves cast him away, since we have been told where to find him, and have not sought him: and let no man be afraid to seek or find him for fear of the ls of good company; religion is no sullen thing, it is nota melancholy, there is hOt so sociable a thing as the love of Christ Jes»s. It was the first word which he who first found Christ of ail the apostles, St. Andrew, is noted to have said, lnvenim [essiam, We have round the Messias, and it is the first act that he is noted to bave done, after he had found him, to seek his brother Peter, Et duit ad Jesum , so communicable a thing is the love of Jesus, when ve have found him. But when are we likeliest to find him It is said by Moses, of the words and precepts of God, They are hot hid ri'oto thee, neitber are far o "]', not in heaven that thou shouldst say; Who shall go up to heaven for us to bring then down nor beyond the seas, that thou shouldest go over the sea for them; but the word is very ncar thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy hea; and so near thee is Christ Jesus, or thou shalt never find him; flou must hot so think him in heaven, as that thou eanst not have immediate aeeess to him without intercession of others, nor so beyond sea, as to seek him in foreign church, either where the church is but an antiquary's cabinet, full of rags and fi'agments of antiquity, but nothing fit for that use for which it was first ruade, or where it is so new a built house with bare walls, that it is yct unfurnished of such ceremonies as shoultl make it comely and rcverend; Christ is at home with thce, he is at home within thee, and there is the nearest way to find hinl. It is true, that Christ in the beginning of this chapter, shadowed under the naine of Visdom, when hc discovers where hc may be round, speaks in the person of human wisdom as well as divinc, Doth hot wisdom cry, and understanding utter her voice whcre those two words, cisdom and nnderstandi»g, siify sapientlam, and prudentiam; that wisdom whose object is God, and that which concerns our conversation in this world; for Christ hath hOt taken so narrow a dwelling, as that he may be round but one way, or in one profession; for in ail professions, in ail nations, in all vocations, when all our actions in our several a Jo i. 34. Deut. x.!!
courses are directed principal|y upon his g|ory, Christ is eminent, and may easily he round. To that purpose in that place, Christ, in the person of Visdom, offers himsdf to be found in the tops of high places, and in the gates of cities; to show that this Christ, and this wisdom which nmst save our souls, is uot conflned to cloisters and monasteries, and speculative men only, but is also evidently and eminent|y to be found in the courts of re|iglous princes, in the tops of high places, and in the courts of justice (in the gares of the city) hoth these kiuds of courts may bave more directions from him thau other places; but yet in these places he is also gloriously and conspicuously to be fouud; for wheresoever he is, he cries aloud, as the text says there, and ho utters his voice. Now temptations to sin, are ail but whispering«, and we are afraid that a llusband, that a tïtther, that a compctitor, that a rival, a pretender, at least the magistrate rnay hear of it; temptations to sin are all but whisperings; private conventicles and clandestine worshipping of God in a forbiddcn manner, in corners, are ail but whisperiags; it is hot the voice of Christ, exeept thou hear him ery aloud, and utter his voiee, so as thou n]ayest eonfidently do whatsoever he eomnands thee, in the eye of ail the world; he is eveD-where to be round, he ealls upon thee every where, but yet thcrc beloags a diligence on thy part, thou must seek hiln. Esaias is bold (says St. Paul) and says, l ccts round of tkem that so«.oht me hot, when that prophet derives the love of Goal to thc Gentiles, who eould seek God no where but in the book of ereatures, and were destitute of all other lights to seek him by, and yet God was round by them; Esaias is bold (cries the apostle") that is, It was a great degree of confidence in Esaias, to say, That God wa found of the»z tlat sot«ykt lin hot: it was a boldness and confidence, whieh no partieular man may bave; that Christ will be round, exeept he be sought; he gives us light to seek him by, but he is hot round till we have sought him; it is truc that in that eommandment of his, Primu»z qwerite Dei; First seek the kingdom of God; the primu» is hot fo preveut God, that we should seek it before he shows it. that is impossible; without the light of graee we dwe|l in darkness, and Rom. x. 20.
]4 PREACHED AT DENMARK HOUSE. [SEI. CXLYII. in the slnadow of death; but the prirnum is; that we shou]d seek it belote we seek anything else, tlnat when the sun of grace is riseu te us, the first thing tlnat we de be te seek Christ Jesus: Quwrite me et 'ietis, Seek me, and yo shall livo le, Why. wo were alive before, else we could net seek him, but it is promise of another lire, of an eternal lire, if we seek him, and seek him eafly, which is out last consideration. The word there used for early, signifies propefly aurorara, the morning, and is usually transferred in Scriptures te any beginning of any action; se in paoEicular, Evil shall corne tpon tkeo, and tkou skalt ot know, shakrah, the morning, the beginning of itl and therefore this text is elegantly translated by one, Autotantes ad »e, They that have their break of day towa»ds me, they that send forth their first morning beams towards me, their first thoughts, they shall be sure te final me. St. Hiemme expresses this early diligence, required in us, well in his translation, Qui nae ziyilazerint; They that wake betimes in the moming shall find me; but the Chaldee paraphrase better, Qui nane consuryunt, They that rise betimes in the morning shall find me; for which of us doth net know that we waked long ago, that we saw day, and had heretofore some motions te find Christ Jesus: but though we were awake, we haro kept our bed still, ve bave continued still in out former sins; se that there is more te be donc than waking: ve sec the spouse herself says, In ny bed, by qti.oht, I sought him u'hom my seul lored, but I bave round him not'; Christ may be sought in the bed, and missed; other thoughts may exelude him; and he may ho sought the»e and found, we may bave good meditations the»e; and Christ may be neare» us when we a»e asleep in ou» beds, than when we are awake; but howsoeve» the bed is net his ordinary station; ho may be, and he says he will be, at the making of the bed of the sick, but net at the marriage of the bed of the wanton, and licentious.
« Amos v. 4. Isaiah xvii. 11. _rl_F2, auroram. But this more probably means, "a morning after the night of evil;" although all the versions rentier it otherwise.Ev. s Cant. iii. 1.
SEBo CXLVII.] PHEACHED AT DENb|ARK IIOUSEo To make baste, the circumstance only required here, is that he be sought ear]y; and to invite thee toit, consider how ear]y hc sought thee; it is a great mercy that he stays so long for thee; it was moe to seek thee so ear]y: Dost thou hot feel that he seeks thee now, in offering his love and desiring thine. Canst hot thou remember that he sought thee yesterday, that is, that some temptations besieged thee then, and he sought thee out by his grace, and preserved thee . and bath he hot sought thee so, so ear]y, as from the beginning of thy life . nay, dost thou hot remember that after thou hadst committed that sin, he sought thee by imprinting some remorse, some apprehension of his judgments, and so 3llro et divino rnodo, et quando te oderat diligebat », By miraculous and powerful working of his Spirit, he threatened thee, when he eomforted thee, he loved thee when he chid thee, he sought thee when he drove thee from him; he hath sought thee amongst the infinite numbers of false and fashiona] Christians, that ho might bring thee out fi'om the hypoerite, to serve him in earnest, and in holiness, and in righteousness; he sought thee hefore that amongst the herd of the nations and Gentiles, who had no ehurch to bring thee into his inelosures and pastures, his visible ehureh, and to feed thee xvith his word and saeraments; he sought thee belote that, in the catalogue of ail his ereatures, where he might have left thee a stone, or a plant, or a beast; and then he gave thee an immortal soul, capable of all his future blessings; yea, belote this he sought thee, when thou wast no where, nothing, he brought thee then, the greatest step of ail, from being nothing, tobe a creature; how early did he seek thee, when he sought thee in Adam's eonfused loins, and out of that leavened and sour loaî in whieh we were all kneaded up, out ot that massa dannata, that refuse and condemnable lump of dough, he sought and severed out that grain whieh thou shouldt be; yea, millions of millions of generations belote all thls, he sought thee in his own eternal deeree; and in that first Scripture of his, whieh is a old a himself, in the book of lire, he wrote thy naine in the blood of tllat Lamb which wa slain for thee, hot only from the beginning of this world, but from the writing of that eternal decree of thy salvation. Thus early had he sought thee in the church anaongst hypocrites; out of the ehtirch amongst the heathen; in his creatures amont crcatures of an ignoble nature, and in the first vacuity, whcn thou wast nothing he SOUg]lt thce so early as in Adam, so early as in the hook of lire, and whcn wilt thou think it a fit time to seek hiln. Thcre is an earliness which will hot ser'e thy turn, whcn atictions, and anguish, shall corne tl]3Ol! thee; T/w!! 81«d[ 8ee]" w early, and skall hot flnd me *, eal'ly in respect of the puni.shnlent, at the beginning of tllat; but this is late in respect of thy fault, or of tlline age, when thou art grown old, in the eustom of sin; for thus we may misuse this eal'ly, and make it serve all ill uses, if we will say, we will lea'e co'etousness eal'ly, that is, as soon as we are rich enough; incontinence eal'ly, tllat is, as SOOll as we are old or siek; anlbition eal'ly, that is, as SOOll as ve llave o-erthrown and crushed ottr enemies irrecovel'ably; fol" thus, we shall by this habit, earry on this early to out late and last hour, and say, We will repent early, that is, as soon as the bell begins to toll for us. It is good for man tllat he bem" his yoke ill his youth, that lle seek Christ early, for even God himself, when he had given over llis people to be afllicted by the Chaldeans, yet COllWlains of the ('haldeans, that they laid heavy loads upon old men; though this yoke of this amorous seeking of Christ be a light yoke, yet it is too heavy for an old man, that hath never used ]limself in ail llis life to bear it; even this spiritual love will hot suit well with an old lnan, if lle never began belote, if he nec'er loved Christ in his youth, e'en this love will be an unwieldy tlling in his age. Yet if we ha'e omitted out first early, out youth, there is one eal'ly left for us; this minute; seek Christ early, now, now, as soon as his Spirit begins fo shine upon your hearts. Now as soon as you begin your day of regeneration, seek him the first minute of this day, for you know hOt whether this day shall have two minutes or no, that is, 'hether his Spirit, that descends upon you now, 'ill tarry and test upon you or not, as it did upon Christ at his baptism. Therefore shall every one that is godly make his prayer unto e Prov. i. 28. Isaiah x.vi. 6.
thee 0 God, in a time when thou mayest he found'ee*; we acknowledge this fo be that time, and vo tome to thee now early, with the confession of thy servant Augustine, ç'ero te amari, chritudo tare antiqua, tare nova; 0 g]orious beauty, infinitely reverend, infinitely fresh and young, we corne late to thy love, if we consider the past days of out lires, but early if thou beest pleased to reckon vith us from this hour of the shining of thy grace upon us; and therefore 0 God, as thou hast hrought us safely to the beginning of this day, as thou hast hot given us over to a final perishing in the works of night and darkness, as thou hast brought us to the heginning of this day of grace, so defend us in the same with thy mighty poxver, and grant that this da)', this day of thy visitation, we fall into no sin, neither run into any kind of danger, no such sin, no such danger as may separate us from thee, or frustrate us of our hopes in that eternal kingdom which thy Son our Saviour Christ Jesus hath purchased for us, with the inestimable price of his incorruptible blood. To 'hom with th« Father, &e.