The true Christians love of the unseen Christ, or, A discourse chiefly tending to…

And what do you now say after all Motives to excite and persuade you to the Love of Christ, and Directions therein? shall all be in vain?

And what do you now say after all Motives to excite and perswade you to the Love of Christ, and Directions therein? shall all be in vain?

What do you say, Sinners? shall Christ have your hearts or no? will you harbour base lusts in your hearts, that will damn you, and keep out the Lord Jesus Christ who alone can save you? shall I gain no hearts for Christ by all may Sermons which I have preached concerning the Love of Christ? My Lord and ⟨p. 165⟩Master hath sent me to woe you, to win your hearts for him; may I speed or no? shall my Message be accepted, and Jesus Christ the most lovely person find entertainment with you? If any person or thing in the world which you do most dearly love, do so well deserve your love, lock your ears still against all my words, and let them perish like an empty sound in the Air; lock your hearts against Christ, who stands knocking at the door, and give an absolute and peremptory refusal to give him any room there; But if in the whole world you cannot find out a suitable Beloved besides Christ, if there be nothing here below but is unworthy of your hearts, if all inferior things whilst they have your chief Love do debase you and defile you, and unless your hearts be taken off from them, will certainly ruin and destroy you everlastingly; O then be persuaded without any further delay to open the everlasting doors of your hearts, to let Christ into them, and set Christ up in the highest seat of your Affections; O be persuaded to give Christ your chief Love, to give him your Heart, and your whole heart; with grief and hatred let go your hold of sin, and embrace the Lord Jesus Christ in the ⟨p. 166⟩Arms of your dearest Love. And then I would say to you as our Saviour did to Zacheus when he gave him entertainment in his house, This day is Salvation come unto you. O happy day unto you! O happy you that ever you were born, if this day Christ should be heartily entertained by you! This then would be the day of your Conversion, in which the Angels would rejoice; and though Grief and Trouble might invade you for a while because of your sin, yet this would make way for your spiritual Joy; weeping might endure for a Night, but joy would come in the Morning; but O the Joy which you will then have in the day of your Coronation, when all tears shall be wiped away from your Eyes, and when you shall have admission into the glorious presence of the Lord, where there is Fullness of Joy and Pleasures for Evermore.