The application of redemption

Amongst men in ordinary converse which lies within the compass of humanity he never prizeth a mans friendship or favour who fails him in common courtesies, and deny their desires, or refuse to gratify them in things ⟨p. 169⟩of no great worth. I thought I might have commanded a greater matter at your hands than so; but when I see you stick with me for such a trifle, there is little love when so little a matter can hinder the work of it. A gracious heart will part with all for Christ, and thou wilt part with Christ and his mercy rather than part with a little profit or pleasure, nay, with a beggarly lust that thy heart takes delight in: The Apostle calls it, The labour of Love, 1 Thes. 1. 3. Love is laborious, lays out it self to give content to that which is beloved. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you, John, 15. Thou dost nothing for the Lord, and thy love is very little, or else that which is, is nothing worth in Gods account: Look at the practice of Judas so hellish and detestable as not to be named nor remembered amongst men; and the loathsomeness that lay in the bottom was this, That he sold the Lord Jesus for thirty pieces of silver; a goodly price, says the Prophet, Zach. 11. 12. Turn but the Tables, judg thy practice by this pattern, thou sets the Gospel of Christ, and the Government of the Spirit of Christ at a far lower rate, even the thirtieth part of the price that he set, yea, sell him to satisfy a base lust or humour of thine own heart. It was a just reproach whereby Absalom checked the falseness of Hushas, who forsook David as he conceived in his distress, and followed his Enemy into the Camp: Is this thy love to thy friend? to leave him thus in the lurch, and do nothing for him in the day of distress. The reproof was sharp and just, so far as reason could reach: but it falls far more justly, far more heavily upon thee; Is this thy love to the Name of the Lord Jesus that thou shouldst slight it? to his Law, that thou shouldst despise it, […] it? is this thy love to his Spirit, that thou shouldst grieve it? and that for a trifle, for a twopence, for a booty, for a bargain, which will make thee a beggar when thou hast got all thou canst gain by it; and that when there is no allurement worth the looking after