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O, it makes us sick at heart; a froward yoke-fellow, an unthrifty servant, an ill neighbor, a scoff, a slight cannot be borne; but O, how much sin can be borne! While our flesh will bear nothing, O how much can conscience bear, and never complain!

Christians, consider. When our flesh must be thus caressed, whatever come of it-must be tenderly fed, must have soft raiment, soft lodging, soft usage-be dealt gently with, though to maintain it conscience must be racked, and racked, and wasted; when our wills cannot be crossed, our appetites cannot be denied, but a tumult follows, the soul is in an uproar, and conscience meanwhile must be denied, and sent away in silence; when the word works no more, when the prints of it are not received, the power of it is resisted; when the rod works no more, when our stripes make no sign, when the lashes on our backs touch not our hearts; when we remain so vain and so wanton, so wilful, carnal, and earthly, after the Lord hath been preaching and chastising us into a better frame; when we stand upon our terms, keep our distances, our animosities, our heats and heights of spirit, our censurings, our quarrellings one with another, Christian with Christian, professor with professor, after the Lord hath been beating us together to make us friends, and all to teach us more humility and charity-is this our brokenness? Is this our tenderness, when upon any of the Lord's rougher dealing with us, smiting our faces, throwing us on our backs, trampling us in the dirt, we are yet no more brought on our knees? Is this our brokenness, when

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the Lord hath been awakening us out of sleep, putting his spurs and goads in our sides to quicken us on our way; calling to us, "Arise, sleepers, stir up your spirits, sluggards, mend your pace: I will not be put off as I have been; no more such loitering and idling and trifling and halting as hath been; I must have another manner of service, of praying and hearing and walking and working, than hath been: be zealous and amend; more labor, more care, more watchfulness, more activity, more of the spirit and soul of what you profess?" When the Lord hath been thus goading and spurring us on, and though our flesh feels, yet our hearts will not feel, nor answer the goad or spur, is this an evidence of tenderness?

When great duties are little, and lesser are none; when great sins are infirmities, and little ones are nothing; when lying and defrauding, when false weights, false wares, and false dealings, when defaming, backbiting, talebearing, railing, reviling, do stand for little more than ciphers; when fellowship and familiarity with evil men in their sins, and compliance with or connivance at their wickedness; when sinful courtings and complimentings of such, to the hardening them in their ways, do pass for virtues and civilities; when frothy, wanton discourse and communication, when scoffing and making a sport at the sins or infirmities of others, when sinful, vain jesting, wherein rather conscience than wit must be denied when all these pass for our ornaments rather than our evils, where is our tenderness?

When upon auditing our accounts, examining our

books, and reckoning up our scores, where a talent is owing, we bid conscience, "Take thy bill, and write down a shekel ;" where twenty or a hundred sins are to be reckoned for, "Take thy bill, and write down ten, or but one, and that a little one:" when we are so free in multiplying and so false in numbering our iniquities, where is our tenderness?

Well, Christians, the Lord hath promised a tender heart, to make these stones flesh; and something possibly is done already upon you towards it. O let this sad sight now laid before you, this view of what is wanting, have some influence upon you. Let sorrow that no more is done, work what is yet undone; let your unbrokenness break your hearts; let the stone that yet remains make your flesh bleed. If you yet feel no more, may you at least feel this-that you feel not.

CHAPTER X.

A HEART TO LOVE THE LORD.

"THE Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul." Deut. 30:6. Love is the soul of the new creature; the closing of the soul with God. He that hath most of God, is most a Christian; and he that hath most of love, hath most of God. God is love.

In treating of this love to God, we shall consider its object, and its act.

I. ITS OBJECT. The object of divine love is God. God is good, and good is amiable. God is all good: there is none good but one, that is God. God is essentially good, goodness in the abstract; he is infinitely excellent, he is all perfection. In this one attribute all the rest of the attributes of God are included, and this in each of them. However the Scriptures, speaking to our capacities, describe God and his glorious attributes in several and distinct notions, yet in each one all are included; each one is infinite, and infinite perfection is essentially all perfection. God is originally good, the fountain and pattern of all that moral good which is in his creatures; he is bountiful and gracious, ready to do them good; and he is the felicitating end, or the final blessedness of the soul.

The goodness of God to his creatures has its different and various appellations. As it is freely bestowed, it is grace; as it respects them as needy, it is bounty; as in misery, it is mercy and compassion; as provoking, it is patience; as it intends their good, it is love; as it answers both their necessities and capacities, it is all-sufficiency. All these, his bounty, mercy, compassion, patience, love, all-sufficiency, all these are in one word his goodness, and goodness calls for love. The object of this love is God: particularly, 1. God in himself; 2. God in Christ; 3. God in all the things of God.

1. God in himself, as he is infinitely excellent, and so worthy of all love. God is to be loved in himself, and for himself, for his own worthiness; God is good in himself, and therefore to be loved for himself.

2. God in Christ. In whom alone, considering us as sinners, he can be said to be good to us. There is a fourfold incentive of love-perception, proportion, propriety, possession.

Perception, the apprehension or understanding of the object to be loved. We must know before we can love now God cannot be seen by mortals; he dwelleth in light, but that light is to us invisible. Christ is the glass, in which this glory may be seen. We cannot see God but through a veil of flesh, in the face of Jesus Christ. 2 Cor. 4:6. "No man hath seen God at any time;" but "the Only Begotten of the Father," who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath revealed him. John 1:18.

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