Looking unto Jesus a view of the everlasting gospel, or, the souls eying of…

2. An out-bidding of all the temptations of other Lovers; before Christ come, souls go a whoring from Christ, their hearts are allured by other lovers; the world, the flesh, and the Devil come in, and they proffer Souls such and such contentments; but when Christ comes; he deals with souls in a more Powerful way, and he out-bids all their former lovers, q. d. Did their lovers proffer them comfort? I will bid more comfort; Did their lovers proffer gain? I will bid more gain; Did their lovers proffer honour and respect? I will out-bid them in that also. And indeed, then hath the Gospel a true, and full, and gracious work upon the heart, when it yields to the proffers of the Gospel, as finding that all that the World can bid is now out-bidden; you know, when one comes to offer so much for a commodity, and another out-bids him, he carries it away; so when the World, and lust, and sin proffer to the soul such and such contents, then comes Christ and out-bids all, and so the bargain is made up, and Christ carries the heart away; sinners, it may be as yet you feel none of these things, but in time you may do, and in the mean time you see here is a word for it, Behold I will allure her, &c.

3. They object, the Saints themselves feel no such things, for ought appears to the World; whose spirits are more heavy and sad? as it is said of Christ himself, that he never laughed, and as David said of himself, Why art thou cast down O my soul, ¹and why art thou disquieted within me? So it may be said of some Christians, if they are strict, that they are seldom merry, or pleasant.—

1. 1Psal. 42.5.