The doctrine & directions but more especially the practice and behaviour of a man…The doctrine & directions but more especially the practice and behavior of a man…

WE have run through two affections, Hope & Desire, and the next is Love: A possible good stirs up Hope, a necessary excellency in that good, settleth Desire, and a relish in that good settled, kindles Love. Thus is the order of Gods work: If the good be absent, the understanding saith, It is to be desired, O that I had it! then it sends out Hope, and that waits for that good, and stays till it can see it; and yet if that good cannot come, then Desire hath another proper work, and it goes up and down wandering, and seeketh and sueth for Christ Jesus. After this, if the Lord Jesus be pleased to come himself into the view of the heart, which longeth thus after him, then Love leads him into the soul, and tells the Will of him, saying, Lo here is Jesus Christ the Messiah, that hath ordered these great things for his Saints and people.

VVE have run through two affections, Hope & Desire, and the next is Love: A possible good stirs up Hope, a necessary excellency in that good, setleth Desire, and a rellish in that good setled, kindles Love. Thus is the order of Gods work: If the good be absent, the understanding saith, It is to be desired, O that I had it! then it sends out Hope, and that waits for that good, and stays till it can see it; and yet if that good cannot come, then Desire hath another proper work, and it goes up and down wandring, and seeketh and sueth for Christ Jesus. After this, if the Lord Jesus be pleased to come himself into the view of the heart, which longeth thus after him, then Love leads him into the soul, and tells the Will of him, saying, Lo here is Jesus Christ the Messiah, that hath ordered these great things for his Saints and people.

The Motive or ground of this Love, is Gods Spirit in the Promise, letting in some intimation of Gods love into the soul; thus Psal. 42. 8. The Lord will command his loving kindness in ¹the day time: This is a phrase taken from Kings and Princes, and great Commanders in the field, whose words of Command stand for Laws; so the Lord sends out his loving kindness, and saith, Go out, my everlasting love and kindness, take a Commission from me, and to go that humble, thirsty and hunger-bitten sinner, and go and prosper, and prevail, and settle my love effectually upon him, and fasten my mercy upon him; I command my loving kindness to do it. Thus the Lord doth put a Commission into the hands of his loving kindness, that it shall do good to the poor soul, yea though it withdraw it self, saying, What, I mercy? will Christ Jesus accept of me? No, no; there is no hope of mercy for me: indeed if I could pray thus, hear thus, and perform Duties with that enlargement, and had those parts and abilities, then there were some comfort, but now there is no hope of mercy for me. We demand, Is this your case? is it thus and thus? are you thus humbled? and have you thus longed for the riches of his Mercy in Christ? Lo then, the Lord hath put a Commission into the hands of his loving kindness, saying, Go to that poor soul, and break open the doors upon that weary weltering heart, and break off all those bolts, and rend off that veil of ignorance and carnal Reason, and all those Arguments: Go (I say) to that soul, and cheer it, and warm it, and tell it from me, That his sins are pardoned, and his soul shall be saved, and his sighs and prayers are heard in heaven; and I charge you do the work before you come again.